Lake County, Illinois — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Lake County Sheriff's Adult Corrections Facility

Operated byLake County Sheriff's Office
State confirmedLake County, Illinois (Waukegan) — not Lake County, Indiana
Jail address29 S Martin Luther King Jr Ave, Waukegan, IL 60085 (county page); IDOC 2025 lists 25 S. Martin Luther King Drive
Capacity740 (county page; IDOC 2025 rated capacity 740)
Opened10 March 1989 (county page); IDOC 2025 lists 1988
Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)626
AccreditationACA (fourth consecutive, Oct 2016) and NCCHC (Dec 2016), per county page
Jail AdministratorR. Clouse — Chief of Corrections (IDOC 2025 report; first initial only)

Source: Lake County, IL — About the Jail · 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 — not published
✓Independent inspection
✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
✓How to post bond
✓Phone, video and commissary rates

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Lake County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-20. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year built1989 (opened 10 March 1989, county page)
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds740

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff John D. Idleburg

Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is warden of the county jail (55 ILCS 5/3-15003)
How the office is filledElected, four-year term

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Lake County, IL — Sheriff's Office · 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.

Lake County Circuit Court

Not found

Still needed

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).
NoteBoard agenda/minutes page not opened; the county home page confirms the Lake County Board.
The boardLake County Board
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

Confirmed Lake County, ILLINOIS (Waukegan); Lake County, Indiana results ignored.
County 'About the Jail' page posts IDOC inspection reports for 2015, 2016 and 2017 (2017 opened: inspected 27 June 2017, one food-service noncompliance, 'prepped food was not properly covered'). No recent reports posted there.
Phone rates published: local $0.07 a minute, international $0.65 a minute (GTL/ConnectNetwork).
Post-bond page explains how to post bond 24/7 at jail reception (cash or certified cashier's check to the Clerk of the Circuit Court); it does not mention Pretrial Fairness Act hearings.
About the Jail page says the facility 'complies with' PREA, but no PREA policy, audit or reporting page was found; not counted.
Locate-an-Inmate page links a county inmate search (apps03.lakecountyil.gov), which returned 404 when opened; not counted.
Sheriff page links a jail daily population dashboard (Power BI) — not opened.
Budget and board minutes pages could not be reached within the search cap.
State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 23 Sep 2025: rated capacity 740, population 626 that day (report lists 529 male, 55 female); noncompliances: none recorded.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Lake 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