The Detention Center
Fayette County Jail
- Operated byFayette County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address221 S. 7th St., Vandalia, IL 62471
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)60
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)43
- Year built (IDOC 2025)1968
- Beds (Illinois Sheriffs' Association listing)76
- Name on county site'Fayette County Sheriff's Office & Jail'; the inmate info sheet says 'The Fayette County Jail'
- VisitingPhone and video visitation through HomeWAV; four 15-minute visits a week; no contact visits (county inmate info sheet)
- MailPhysical mail goes to a TextBehind address in Phoenix, MD, is photocopied, and is uploaded to the HomeWAV kiosk
- CommissaryWeekly, ordered by kiosk (Stellar Services); deposits via JailATM, which charges a fee
- Federal prisonersFY24 budget shows revenue line 'SHER-BOARDING FED INMATES $200,000'
- Jail AdministratorLt. Matt McConkey — Jail administrator named in IDOC 2025 inspection report
Source: Fayette County — County Sheriff · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1968 (IDOC 2025 report)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds60 rated (IDOC 2025 report)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Ronnie Stevens
- Runs the jailYes — sheriff is warden of the Fayette County Jail (55 ILCS 5/3-15003)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term; county site lists him as Republican, term 2022–2026
- Office and jail address221 S. 7th St., Vandalia, IL 62471
- Phone618-283-2141
- Name sourceFayette County sheriff page (also IDOC 2025 report)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Fayette County — 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.
Fayette 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).
- NoteFayette County Board: 14 members in 7 districts; chairman Jacob Harris (county board page). Minutes are posted as .docx files, which could not be read.
- The boardFayette County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- County site fayettecountyillinois.gov opened on 20 Sep 2026: sheriff page, inmate info PDF, FY24 draft budget, county board page, agendas-minutes page.
- Named: the sheriff page calls it 'Fayette County Sheriff's Office & Jail' at 221 S. 7th St., Vandalia.
- Budget: FY24 budget (1 Dec 2023–30 Nov 2024) shows Sheriff expenses $2,951,088, including 'MEDICAL FOR INMATES $126,000' and 'FOOD-INMATES MEALS $95,400'.
- Federal prisoners: the FY24 budget books 'SHER-BOARDING FED INMATES $200,000' in revenue, down from $550,000 in earlier years. No contract itself is posted, so contracts = no.
- Bond: the inmate info sheet says 'There is a $40.00 processing fee added to the bond amount'; cash is taken at the jail, and credit/debit through CourtMoney.com carries 'an 8% charge'. It does not explain pretrial release under the Pretrial Fairness Act.
- Fees: the $40 bond processing fee and 8% card charge are published; HomeWAV phone/video rates and the JailATM fee amount are not.
- PREA: the sheriff page's mission statement promises 'zero tolerance of sexual abuse', but no PREA policy, audit or reporting route is posted, so prea = no.
- The sheriff page shows the Guardian RFID logo (inmate-tracking vendor) with no description.
- No roster, no capacity/population figure, no death-in-custody information and no inspection report on the county site.
- Board minutes are .docx files that the fetch tool could not read, so board actions on the jail were not checked.
- Illinois Sheriffs' Association lists 76 beds, which differs from IDOC's rated capacity of 60.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 31 Mar 2025: rated capacity 60, population 43 that day; noncompliances: 701.80 housing — sink/toilet units "non-functioning and without hot water"; 701.130 supervision — observation checks at "26% compliance"; and detainees could not be locked in their cells at night because of the plumbing failures.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Fayette 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