The Detention Center
Menard County Detention Facility
- Operated byMenard County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address315 South Sixth Street, Petersburg, IL 62675
- Also calledMenard County Jail (IDOC report)
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)26 (24 male, 2 female)
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)3
- Built (IDOC 2025)1985
- Jail AdministratorMorgan Gum — Jail administrator, as named in the IDOC 2025 inspection report
Source: Menard County — Sheriff · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗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 — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1985 (IDOC 2025)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds26
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Mark Oller
- Runs the jailYes — sheriff is warden of the county jail (55 ILCS 5/3-15003)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Chief DeputyBen Hollis (county sheriff page)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Menard County — Sheriff · 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.
Menard 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).
- NoteFive-member board elected from single-member districts; the agendas page labels it Board of Commissioners.
- The boardMenard County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff page links a current jail roster on the county's Zuercher public portal; the portal itself could not be opened.
- Sheriff page says cash and credit card payments, including bonds, are accepted at the lobby kiosk or online via jailatm.com.
- Visitation: one 20-minute non-contact visit per visiting day, Sundays and Wednesdays.
- Commissary by Stellar Services and phones by NCIC; no rates published.
- Board agendas/minutes 2011-2026 posted; no budget document found.
- No PREA, death-in-custody, inspection-copy or contract information found.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 1 April 2025: rated capacity 26, population 3 that day; noncompliances: staffing ("The jail only utilizes one officer during the 11-7 shift"); individual cell doors "inoperable and always left open"; 182 of 189 supervision checks completed timely; "Jail officials could not produce documentation indicating the completion of an audit of the detainee commissary system."
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Menard 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