The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byNot found
- IDOC 2025 inspection reportNone found at the standard URL (404); 2024 URL also 404
- Where prisoners are heldNot found
Source: Hamilton County Sheriff's Office (county site) · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
0/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✗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 — not published
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Tracy Lakin
- Runs the jailBy law the sheriff is warden of any county jail (55 ILCS 5/3-15003); no jail is described on the county site
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Office address100 S. Jackson Street, McLeansboro, IL 62859
- Phone618-643-2511
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Hamilton County Sheriff's Office (county site) · 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.
Hamilton 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).
- NoteFive-member board; chairman Kelly Woodrow, vice chairman John Mead (county board page). The page lists an FY2026 County Budget PDF (88 pages, updated 24 Nov 2025), but its link could not be resolved and it was not opened.
- The boardHamilton County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- No IDOC 2025 (or 2024) jail inspection report exists at the standard URL for Hamilton County, and neither the county home page nor the sheriff's page mentions a jail — the county may not run one, but no page opened says where its prisoners are held.
- The sheriff's page gives only contact details and links to Facebook and Nixle alerts: no roster, bond, PREA, visitation or fee information.
- The county board page lists an FY2026 County Budget PDF, but it could not be opened, so the budget check was not credited.
- Board agendas are posted at /meetings; the agenda pages themselves show only a PDF link.
- State inspection/oversight: No IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit report found for Hamilton County at the 2025 or 2024 report URLs (both returned 404).
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Hamilton 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