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

The Detention Center

Macon County Jail (Macon County Sheriff's Office Corrections Division)

Operated byMacon County Sheriff's Office
Jail address333 S. Franklin Street, Decatur, IL 62523
Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)402 (343 male, 56 female)
Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)208 (184 male, 24 female)
Year built (IDOC 2025)1989
Video visitationHomeWAV, per sheriff's visitors page (no fee stated)
Jail AdministratorJamie Belcher — Jail administrator named in the IDOC 2025 inspection report

Source: IDOC 2025 jail inspection report · checked 2026-09-20

Transparency rating

1/10Closed

✓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 — not published
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Macon 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 (IDOC 2025 report)
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds402 rated (IDOC 2025 report)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Jim Root

Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Department has a Corrections division (one of Patrol, Corrections, Court Security, Records)
How the office is filledElected, four-year term
Name in IDOC 2025 reportJames Root

Still needed

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

Source: Macon County — Sheriff's Department 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.

Macon 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 Chairman Kevin Greenfield; Vice Chairman Linda Little (county board page). Meets 6 p.m., 2nd Thursday monthly. The minutes/agendas page showed no document listings when opened.
The boardMacon County Board →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

County site maconcounty.illinois.gov; sheriff site sheriff-macon-il.us names the Corrections Division at 333 S. Franklin St.
Sheriff site links 'Current Inmate Information' to http://50.77.170.147/NewWorld.InmateInquiry/IL0580000/ — the link could not be opened (timeout), so roster not credited.
Auditor page links budgets via the downloads page, but no budget document listing could be seen; budget not credited.
Visitors and send-money pages state no phone, video-visit or commissary rates.
No PREA, deaths-in-custody, inspection, contract or pretrial-release pages found on either site.
What was tried: maconcountyil.gov (does not resolve); co.macon.il.us (redirect target, not fetched).
State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 23 April 2025: rated capacity 402, population 208 that day; noncompliance noted under 701.70 Classification and Separation b(5): "Jail administration should develop a policy and practice to ensure separation of charged and convicted detainees."

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Macon 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