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

The Detention Center

Lawrence County Jail

Operated byLawrence County Sheriff's Office
Jail address1306 Lexington Ave, Lawrenceville, IL 62439 (IDOC 2025)
Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)21
Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)7
Year built (IDOC 2025)1973
Jail address (sheriff's site)1306 Lexington Ave., Lawrenceville, IL 62439; (618) 943-1693
VisitingTwo 20-minute non-contact visits a week, weekends, after 72 hours in custody; request the day before
Phone cardsCommissary phone cards: 20 minutes for $10, 40 minutes for $20
Jail AdministratorByron Middlecoat — Chief Deputy, named as jail administrator in IDOC 2025 report

Source: Lawrence County Sheriff's Department — Inmate Information · 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 — 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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Lawrence 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 built1973 (IDOC 2025 report)
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds21 rated (IDOC 2025)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Trent Masterson

Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is warden of the county jail (55 ILCS 5/3-15003)
How the office is filledElected, four-year term
Name sourceIDOC 2025 report; Illinois Sheriffs' Association lists 'Trenton Masterson (elected 2022)'. No county or sheriff site could be opened.
Named onthe sheriff's department's own website (checked 20 September 2026)

Still needed

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

Source: Lawrence County Sheriff's Department · 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.

Lawrence 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).
NoteCounty website not found; governing body not confirmed from a county page.
The boardNot found
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

Sheriff's own site (lawrencecsd.com) opened 20 September 2026: Inmate Information names the Corrections Department, explains how to post bond (cash, certified check to the Circuit Clerk, card; remote card payments) and lists phone-card prices.
A 'Current Inmates' page exists but showed no one in custody when read; the Corrections page is marked under construction.
No capacity, budget, PREA, deaths, inspection or contract documents were found on the sheriff's site.
State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 30 Jun 2025: rated capacity 21, population 7 that day. Noncompliances recorded: staff could not provide documentation of annual suicide-prevention and mental-health training; jail officer staffing — "Numerous times when only one officer is assigned to a shift"; supervision checks — 115 of 144 expected 30-minute checks completed timely (80%).

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Lawrence 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