The Detention Center
Monroe County Jail
- Operated byMonroe County Sheriff's Department (Correctional Division)
- Jail address225 East 3rd Street, Waterloo, IL 62298
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)42
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)36
- Built (IDOC 2025)1986; no renovations listed
- Medical provider (sheriff's site)Advanced Correctional Healthcare
- Jail AdministratorChad Mueller — Captain — Jail Operations, Courthouse Security and Dispatch (sheriff's site; also named in IDOC 2025 report)
Source: Monroe County Sheriff — Jail Property · 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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1986 (IDOC 2025)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds42 (IDOC 2025)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Neal Rohlfing
- Runs the jailYes — 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: Monroe County IL Sheriff Department · 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.
Monroe 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).
- NoteThree-member Board of Commissioners.
- The boardMonroe County Board of Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's inmate-medical page publishes medical co-pays: $15 medical call, $5 monthly prescription, $45 dental or specialty (not phone/video/commissary/booking rates).
- Video visits scheduled through inmatesales.com; no visit, phone or commissary rates published.
- County budgets page lists 2017-2026 budgets, but links showed as placeholders and could not be opened.
- No roster, capacity, bond/pretrial guidance, PREA, death-in-custody, inspection-copy or contract information found.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 4 September 2025: rated capacity 42, population 36 that day; noncompliances: supervision (701.130) — personal observation every 30 minutes documented for 1,744 of 1,820 expected checks (96%); recommendation: "Ensure these checks are being completed according to the Illinois County Jail Standards."
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Monroe 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