The Detention Center
Iroquois County Jail
- Operated byIroquois County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address550 South 10th Street, Watseka, IL 60970
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)33 (27 male, 6 female)
- Beds (county 2022 food-service RFP)46 beds; average daily population approximately 18
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)16
- Year built (IDOC 2025)1965
- Jail AdministratorRyan Morefield — Jail administrator named in the IDOC 2025 inspection report; not named on the county site pages opened
Source: Iroquois County 2022 jail food service RFP · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗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 built1965 (IDOC 2025 report)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds33 rated (IDOC 2025); county 2022 RFP says 46 beds
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Clinton J. Perzee
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office runs the Iroquois 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: Iroquois County Sheriff page · 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.
Iroquois 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).
- NoteCounty Board meets the second Tuesday of the month; minutes posted 5-7 working days later.
- The boardIroquois County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff page names the jail and gives phone numbers; no roster, visitation, fee, bond or PREA information found.
- County posted a 2022 jail food-service request for proposals (46 beds, about 18 average daily population); an RFP is not a contract, so contracts is not counted.
- Bed figure in the county RFP (46) differs from the IDOC 2025 rated capacity (33).
- Minutes/agendas page carries no budget documents.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 30 Apr 2025: rated capacity 33, population 16 that day; noncompliances: none recorded.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Iroquois 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