The Detention Center
Peoria County Jail
- Operated byPeoria County Sheriff's Office (Corrections Division)
- Jail address301 N. Maxwell Road, Peoria, IL 61604
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)492 (415 male, 77 female)
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)304 (12 Sep 2025)
- Average daily inmates (county 2026 Budget in Brief)287; 7,791 bookings a year
- Present facilityBuilt 1985 (IDOC report; county history lists present facility after 1913 jail)
- Expansion (county site)1999: 144 beds added, new sallyport and crime lab
- Jail Master Plan (FY2026 Budget in Brief)$3.5 million initial investment in FY26 for design and engineering (kitchen, laundry, mechanical, inmate mental health)
- Staffing (county Corrections page)10 jail techs, 53 officers, 6 sergeants, 4 deputy correctional superintendents, 1 assistant correctional superintendent, 1 classification director
- Size (county site)Described as the 8th largest jail in Illinois
- Jail AdministratorCarmisha Turner — Named as jail administrator in the IDOC 2025 inspection report; the county's Corrections page lists an Assistant Correctional Superintendent but gives no name
Source: Peoria County — Jail & Inmate Information · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
6/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✓Independent inspection
- ✗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 built1985 (IDOC 2025 report)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds492 rated (IDOC 2025 report)
Since then
- 1999: 144 beds, new sallyport and crime lab (county site)
- FY2026: $3.5 million for Jail Master Plan design and engineering (county Budget in Brief)
The Sheriff
Sheriff Chris Watkins
- Runs the jailYes — the Corrections Division is the largest division of the Sheriff's Office
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Background (county site)18-year veteran of the department; former U.S. Air Force
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Peoria County Sheriff's Office — About Us · 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.
Peoria 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 boardPeoria County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- County site posts its own copies of the 2025 IDOC inspection, notification and report on a Jail Inspection Reports page.
- Jail page links 'Search Jailing Records' to a Tyler Technologies portal (portal-ilpeoria.tylertech.cloud); the portal could not be opened (redirect loop), so roster is not counted.
- Bonding page: bond posted in person or by phone via Court Money; $60 jail bonding fee per case; $75 state failure-to-appear fee on some warrants; 7% card processing fee. It does not explain pretrial release hearings.
- Deposit fees published: $4 flat at kiosk, $4.95-$11.95 online; phones through GTL, moving to ICS on 13 May 2026; video visit rates are left to the vendor (JailATM).
- 2026 Budget in Brief: Public Safety & Corrections $51.1 million of $174.3 million; 287 average daily inmates. The full adopted budget PDF was too large to open.
- No PREA page, deaths-in-custody record or jail contracts found on the county site.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 12 September 2025: rated capacity 492, population 304 that day; noncompliances: "Inadequate supervision of detainees. Documentation of 30-minute personal observation checks performed by staff appeared to comply approximately 90% of the time."
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Peoria 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