The Detention Center
Jackson County Jail
- Operated byJackson County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address1001 Mulberry Street, Murphysboro, IL 62966
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)192
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)116 (102 male, 14 female)
- Year built (IDOC 2025)1990
- Phone / video / mail vendorSmart Communications
- Commissary depositsJailATM online, money order/cashier's check by mail, or lobby kiosk
- Jail AdministratorCaptain Lee Kersten — Jail administrator named in the IDOC 2025 inspection report; not named on the county pages opened
Source: Jackson County Sheriff's Office page · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓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
- ✓Independent inspection
- ✗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
- Beds192 rated (IDOC 2025)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Robert Burns
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office runs the county jail at 1001 Mulberry Street
- 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: Jackson County Sheriff's Office 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.
Jackson 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 of fourteen members elected from seven districts; budgets and audits posted in the county Archive Center.
- The boardJackson County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff posts its own copies of IDOC annual inspection reports for 2020-2025 on the county Archive Center (Jail Audits & Reports page); the 2025 copy shows rated capacity 192.
- PREA page states a zero-tolerance policy with reporting channels; PREA audits (2016, 2019, 2023) and PREA annual reports are archived on the county site.
- Commissary & Bond page says bond may be paid in cash, cashier's check or money order, or by credit card via the Court Money website with handling fees; it does not describe pretrial hearings.
- Visitation: one free on-site video visit per week; paid home visits through Smart Communications, but no rates are published.
- County Budgets archive lists FY2013-14 to FY2025-26 budgets, but the budget PDFs were too large to open, so the sheriff/jail line could not be confirmed and budget is not counted.
- No in-custody roster found on county pages opened; Offender Watch link is a sex-offender registry, not a roster.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 24 Apr 2025: rated capacity 192, population 116 that day; noncompliances: none recorded.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Jackson 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