The Detention Center
Effingham County Jail
- Operated byEffingham County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address101 North Fourth Street, Suite 101, Effingham, IL 62401
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)58
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)35
- Year built (IDOC 2025)1990
- VisitationVideo visits via in-cell CIDNET kiosks; free local kiosk visits Tue and Sat
- Vendors namedCommissary: Stellar Services; phones: Combined Public Communications; bond by card: GovPayNet
- Jail AdministratorArnold Rexroad — Jail administrator named in IDOC 2025 inspection report
Source: Effingham County — Jail Information · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✓How to post bond
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1990 (IDOC 2025 report)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds58 rated (IDOC 2025 report)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Paul F. Kuhns
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office operates the Effingham County Jail
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Effingham County Sheriff · checked 2026-09-20
The Judges
Illinois circuit judges are elected on a partisan ballot and then stand for retention every six years (60% yes needed); associate judges are appointed by the circuit judges. They are state judicial officers, not county officials. Since 18 September 2023 Illinois has no cash bail — judges decide pretrial release or detention at a hearing.
Effingham County Circuit Court
- Not found
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-20
The County Board
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and is the warden of the jail by state law (55 ILCS 5/3-15003).
- NoteNine-member County Board, one member per district; meets monthly on the third Monday. Agendas and minutes are on the county events calendar.
- The boardEffingham County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Jail page names the jail, explains video visitation, deposits, medications and property, and names commissary, phone and bond-payment vendors.
- Bond guidance: bond accepted in cash or by credit card through GovPayNet, which adds a 7% charge; the page does not mention the Pretrial Fairness Act.
- No per-minute phone, video-visit or commissary price list published; inmate lookup points to VINELink, not a county roster.
- No budget document found on the county board or treasurer pages; no PREA, deaths-in-custody, contract or inspection postings found.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 13 Aug 2025: rated capacity 58, population 35 that day; noncompliances: none recorded.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Effingham County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).
How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?
Your VOTE is POWERFUL.
The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the county board members who pay for it.
Names verified 2026-09-20 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered