The Detention Center
Montgomery County Jail
- Operated byMontgomery County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address140 N. Main St., Hillsboro, IL 62049
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)42 (36 male, 6 female)
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)25
- Built (IDOC 2025)1990
- Jail AdministratorChris Watson — Jail Administrator (county sheriff page; also named in IDOC 2025 report)
Source: IDOC 2025 jail inspection report · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1990 (IDOC 2025)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds42 (IDOC 2025)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Tyson Holshouser
- Runs the jailYes — sheriff is warden of the county jail (55 ILCS 5/3-15003)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- County's description"administrator of the county jail"
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Montgomery 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.
Montgomery 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).
- The boardMontgomery County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- FY2026 county budget includes sheriff lines (jailer salaries, prisoner meals, prisoner medical care).
- Sheriff fee schedule lists a $40.00 booking fee.
- Sheriff page gives jail address, Tuesday visiting hours and InmateSales app for deposits.
- 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 17 June 2025: rated capacity 42, population 25 that day; noncompliances: staffing — "The jail utilizes one jail officer on the overnight shift and weekend shifts." The report also recommends a health department inspection of the kitchen.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Montgomery 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