The Detention Center
Jersey County Jail
- Operated byJersey County Sheriff's Department
- Jail address114 N. Washington St., Jerseyville, IL 62052
- Capacity (county site)"a regional medium security jail with a capacity of around 58 inmates"
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)43 (31 male, 12 female)
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)10
- Year built (IDOC 2025)1985
- Commissary depositsJPay
- Jail AdministratorChief Deputy Kevin Klaas — Jail administrator named in the IDOC 2025 inspection report; not named on the county page opened
Source: Jersey County Sheriff Department page · 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 built1985 (IDOC 2025 report)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsAround 58 (county site); 43 rated (IDOC 2025)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Nick Manns
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Department runs the Jersey County Jail at 114 N. Washington St.
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Name in IDOC 2025 reportNicholas Manns
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Jersey County Sheriff Department 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.
Jersey 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 chaired by Mark Wagner (county site); agendas posted on the board page, minutes via the county's code library.
- The boardJersey County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff page describes the jail as a regional medium-security jail with capacity around 58; IDOC 2025 gives rated capacity 43.
- Sheriff page mentions an online inmate search but links only to IDOC and VINE, not a county roster, so roster is not counted.
- Commissary deposits through JPay; no phone, video or commissary rates published.
- County Board page links an FY2026 budget and levy PDF, but it has no readable text, so a sheriff/jail line could not be confirmed.
- No bond/pretrial, PREA, deaths, contracts or inspection information found.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 2 Sep 2025: rated capacity 43, population 10 that day; noncompliances: none recorded.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Jersey 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