The Detention Center
Mercer County Jail
- Operated byMercer County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address906 SW 3rd Street, Aledo, IL 61231
- Capacity (sheriff's site)Total inmate capacity 102 (original 30 beds plus 72-bed addition)
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)102 (90 male, 12 female)
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)39
- Built (IDOC 2025)1989; last renovation 2011
- Jail AdministratorJustin Hartman — Chief of Corrections (sheriff's jail page; also named in IDOC 2025 report)
Source: Mercer County Sheriff — Jail Info · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗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 built1989 (IDOC 2025)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds102
Since then
- 72-bed addition to original 30 beds (sheriff's site; year not stated)
- Last renovation 2011 (IDOC 2025)
The Sheriff
Sheriff Dustin Terrill
- Runs the jailYes — sheriff is warden of the county jail (55 ILCS 5/3-15003)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- First elected2018 (Illinois Sheriffs' Association)
- Name in IDOC 2025 reportDusty Terrill
- Sheriff's own siteDoes not display the sheriff's name on pages opened
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Illinois Sheriffs' Association — Mercer County · 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.
Mercer 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).
- Note10 members, two from each of five districts.
- The boardMercer County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's jail page: "Jail ATM.com handles the bail process"; payments online or in person; "Bonding fee is $42.00".
- Visitation and remote video visits scheduled via inmatesales.com; deposits via JailATM or lobby kiosk; no phone/video rates published.
- PREA page gives zero-tolerance policy and a reporting phone number; no PREA audits posted.
- County posts 2023-2026 budget PDFs, but they had no machine-readable text, so a sheriff/jail line could not be confirmed.
- No in-custody roster found on sheriff or county site.
- No death-in-custody, inspection-copy or contract information found.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 5 March 2025: rated capacity 102, population 39 that day; noncompliances: supervision — "Documentation of 30-minute personal observation checks performed by staff appeared to comply approximately 97% of the time."
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Mercer 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