The Detention Center
Sangamon County Jail
- Operated bySangamon County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address1 Sheriff's Plaza, Springfield, IL 62701
- Capacity (sheriff's page)Capable of housing a maximum of 314 inmates
- OpenedOctober 1991
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)295 (270 male, 25 female)
- VisitsOn-site video visits free (20 minutes, up to 3 a week); off-site video visits fee-based through HomeWAV; three free phone calls a week
- Jail AdministratorLarry L. Beck Jr. — Jail Superintendent (over 10 years in the role, per the sheriff's Corrections page)
Source: Sangamon County Sheriff's Office — Corrections · 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 — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✓Independent inspection
- ✗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 builtOpened October 1991 (sheriff's Corrections page)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds314 (sheriff's Corrections page; IDOC 2025 rated capacity 314)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Paula Crouch
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is warden of the county jail; day-to-day the jail is run by a Jail Superintendent
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term (Illinois Sheriffs' Association lists her as appointed in 2024)
- Name sourceIDOC 2025 inspection report (Dec 2025); the county and sheriff pages opened did not print the sheriff's name
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: IDOC 2025 jail inspection report · 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.
Sangamon 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 boardSangamon County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's Corrections page names the Sangamon County Jail, its 314-inmate maximum, its October 1991 opening, the Jail Superintendent, and visitation/mail/commissary-deposit methods (Access Corrections, HomeWAV, TextBehind) — but no dollar rates.
- Sheriff's Jail Reports page posts the IDOC jail inspection reports for 2016 through 2025 (2025 copy opened on the sheriff's domain).
- PREA page gives a zero-tolerance policy, reporting lines, PREA audit reports (2018, 2021, 2023) and annual reports (2016-2023).
- County 'Inmate Roster' page on sangamonil.gov showed no roster data when opened (content likely loads by script), so the roster check is not counted.
- No bond/pretrial release guidance on the Corrections page despite the sheriff's home page labelling it 'Bond Information'.
- County auditor's appropriations pages were opened but no budget document with a sheriff/jail line could be reached; the treasurer's budget archive page could not be opened.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 11 December 2025: rated capacity 314, population 295 that day; noncompliances: one, Section 701.130 Supervision — personal observation 'at least once every 30 minutes'; officials could not produce documentation of cell checks due to software issues (software being updated).
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Sangamon 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