The Detention Center
Knox County Jail
- Operated byKnox County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address152 South Kellogg St., Galesburg, IL 61401
- Year built2002 (sheriff's jail page)
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)128
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)98
- Jail AdministratorLindsay May — Jail administrator named in IDOC 2025 report
Source: Knox County Sheriff — Jail · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗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
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗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 built2002
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds128 rated (IDOC 2025)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jack Harlan
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is warden of the county jail (55 ILCS 5/3-15003)
- 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: Knox 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.
Knox 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).
- The boardKnox County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's jail page names the jail, gives address and 2002 build year.
- Jail page says bond is accepted 24/7 with a $57.00 processing fee, online via CourtMoney; it does not describe Pretrial Fairness Act hearings.
- PREA reporting phone and email are published on the jail page.
- Inmate roster page says the roster is only in the sheriff's mobile app — not viewable on the web, so roster not counted.
- Phone, video and commissary go through Inmate Canteen; no rates published on the sheriff's page.
- County posts annual budgets FY2021-22 to FY2025-26, but every PDF tried was too large or blocked, so the sheriff/jail line could not be confirmed.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 27 Mar 2025: rated capacity 128, population 98 that day; noncompliances: none recorded.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Knox 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