The Detention Center
Macoupin County Jail
- Operated byMacoupin County Sheriff's Department
- Jail address (IDOC 2025)215 S. East St, Carlinville, IL 62626
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)93 (81 male, 12 female)
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)54 (50 male, 4 female)
- Year built (IDOC 2025)1989
- Jail appropriation FY2024-25$1,113,427 (Jail 215); Sheriff 211: $2,675,071
- Jail AdministratorQuinn Reiher — Chief Deputy, named as jail administrator in the IDOC 2025 inspection report
Source: IDOC 2025 jail inspection report · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗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
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
- Beds93 rated (IDOC 2025 report)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Shawn Kahl
- Runs the jailYes — county page describes the sheriff as "the administrator of the County Jail"
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Office address215 South East St, Carlinville, IL 62626
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Macoupin County — County Sheriff 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.
Macoupin County Circuit Court
- Circuit Judge: Tom Denby
- Circuit Judge: April Troemper
- Associate Judge: Joshua Meyer
- 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 Board chair Larry Schmidt (transparency page). Minutes and agendas on the County Clerk's iqm2 portal.
- The boardMacoupin County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- County sheriff page refers only to "the County Jail"; the phrase "Macoupin County Jail" did not appear, so named not credited.
- Sheriff page lists jail mail, medical, visitation, phone, property and FAQ items, but their contents could not be opened (guessed URL returned 404).
- FY2024-25 appropriations ordinance (Resolution 2024-18) on the county site shows Sheriff 211 $2,675,071 and Jail 215 $1,113,427.
- Transparency page points to a contracts area on data.macoupincountyil.gov; no jail-related contracts were visible.
- What was tried: macoupinbudget.com (fetch not permitted); ova_sev/jail-faq/ (404).
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 16 October 2025: rated capacity 93, population 54 that day; noncompliance noted under 701.250(c) Commissary: "Prices charged detainees shall not exceed those for the same articles if sold in local community stores..." — the report notes pricing inconsistencies with local stores.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Macoupin 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