The Detention Center
Lee County Jail
- Operated byLee County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address240 East Progress Drive, Dixon, IL 61021
- Year built (IDOC 2025)2020
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)94
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)36
- Housed on county jail list dated 19 Sep 202647
- Jail AdministratorRyan Pettenger — Jail administrator named in IDOC 2025 report; not listed in the county directory
Source: Lee County — Lee County Jail · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓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
- ✓Phone, video and commissary rates
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built2020 (IDOC 2025 report)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds94 rated (IDOC 2025)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Clay Whelan
- 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: Lee County — Sheriff's Office directory · 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.
Lee 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 boardLee County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- County jail page links a jail list (PDF) dated 19 Sep 2026 showing 'Total Housed Inmates: 47' — counts as roster and daily population.
- Jail page explains bond payment (cash, certified check, or credit card via AllPaid with a 7% non-refundable fee); it does not describe Pretrial Fairness Act hearings.
- Fees published: $2 kiosk deposit fee; 7% card fee on bond. No phone or video per-minute rates.
- County posts approved budgets FY2020-FY2026; the FY2026 PDF had no machine-readable text, so the sheriff/jail line could not be confirmed.
- County directory lists the sheriff but no separate jail administrator; IDOC 2025 names one.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 12 Aug 2025: rated capacity 94, population 36 that day; noncompliance recorded: "Lack of commissary fund audit" — jail officials could not produce documentation of the annual commissary audit (section 701.250(f)).
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Lee 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