The Detention Center
Rock Island County Correctional Center (Rock Island County Jail)
- Operated byRock Island County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address1317 Third Avenue, County Justice Center, Rock Island, IL 61201
- Capacity (county page)Jail and Justice Center total 325; average daily number of inmates 260
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)325 (267 male, 58 female)
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)169 (148 male, 21 female)
- Year built (IDOC 2025)1986
- FY2026 budget, Sheriff department total$16,073,187.03
- Prisoners from other agencies (FY2026 budget revenue lines)Fed IA prisoner room & board $191,625; Fed IL prisoner room & board $191,625; Scott County prisoner room & board $300,000
- Jail AdministratorCaptain Eric Holton — IDOC 2025 inspection report as jail administrator
Source: Rock Island County Sheriff's Office page · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓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 — 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 built1986 (IDOC 2025 report)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds325 (county Inmate Services page; also IDOC 2025 rated capacity)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Darren Hart
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is warden of the county jail
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term (county page shows current term 2022-2026)
- Non-emergency line309-794-1230
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Rock Island County Sheriff's Office page · 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.
Rock Island 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 boardRock Island County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's page names the Rock Island County Correctional Center at the County Justice Center, 1317 Third Avenue.
- Inmate Services page: capacity of Jail and Justice Center totals 325, average daily number of inmates 260; visits are thirty minutes; commissary via iCare; bond payable at the jail or online through GovPayNet. No dollar rates for phone, video visits, commissary or booking published.
- Sheriff's page links an 'Inmate Listings' portal (rockisland-911-il.zuercherportal.com) that could not be opened, so the roster check is not counted.
- FY2026 budget: Sheriff department $16,073,187.03; revenue lines include 'Pay telephone jail fees' $125,000 and room & board for federal (IA and IL) and Scott County prisoners — 'Scott County' here appears alongside Iowa federal prisoners and is likely Scott County, Iowa (not confirmed); the underlying contracts were not found posted.
- Inmate mail is scanned to tablets via ViaPath Technologies / Text Behind since 1 July 2024 (Inmate Mail page).
- No PREA, deaths-in-custody or inspection documents found on county pages opened.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 11 April 2025: rated capacity 325, population 169 that day; noncompliances: none recorded.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Rock Island 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