The Detention Center
Jo Daviess County Jail
- Operated byJo Daviess County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address330 North Bench Street (Public Safety Building), Galena, IL 61036
- Capacity (county site)27 inmates
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)27 (23 male, 4 female)
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)8
- Year built (IDOC 2025)1975
- Phone / video / messaging vendorCidnet
- Commissary and bond depositsJailATM
- Published fees$25 bond fee with any bail posted; fingerprinting $26; credit-card bail carries additional administrative fees
- Sheriff's FY2026 General Fund operating budget (county FOIA posting)$5,012,223.88
Source: Jo Daviess County Jail/Inmate Information 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
- ✗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 built1975 (IDOC 2025 report)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds27
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Klaus Kretschmer
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office runs the Jo Daviess County Jail in the Public Safety Building
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- NoteThe IDOC 2025 report (31 Jul 2025) named Craig Ketelsen as sheriff and Klaus Kretschmer as chief deputy/jail administrator; the county's Sheriff page now names Klaus Kretschmer as Sheriff
- Staff (county FOIA posting 2026)37 full-time and 12 part-time employees
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Jo Daviess 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.
Jo Daviess 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; agendas and minutes on the county's CivicClerk portal; budgets FY2008-FY2026 in the county Archive Center.
- The boardJo Daviess County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff page names the jail and gives capacity of 27 inmates, matching IDOC 2025.
- Sheriff's 2026 FOIA posting on the county site gives the office's FY2026 General Fund operating budget of $5,012,223.88; the full FY2026 county budget PDF was too large to open.
- Jail page explains posting bail online through JailATM with a $25 bond fee and gives a $26 fingerprinting fee; it does not describe pretrial hearings.
- Video visitation and messaging via Cidnet; no call or video rates published.
- No roster, PREA, deaths, contracts or inspection copy found on county pages opened.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 31 Jul 2025: rated capacity 27, population 8 that day; noncompliances recorded: "Inadequate staffing" (officials "should ensure the jail is staffed with enough jail officers whose primary responsibility is the control and custody of detainees") and "Inadequate supervision of detainees" (30-minute personal observation checks "appeared to comply approximately 94% of the time").
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Jo Daviess 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