The Detention Center
Schuyler County Jail
- Operated bySchuyler County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address (IDOC 2025)216 West Lafayette Street, Rushville, IL 62681
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)21 (17 male, 4 female)
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)10 (8 male, 2 female)
- Year built (IDOC 2025)1987
- Jail AdministratorMatt Hawkins — IDOC 2025 inspection report as jail administrator
Source: IDOC 2025 jail inspection report · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1987 (IDOC 2025 report)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds21 rated (IDOC 2025 report)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Bill Redshaw
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is warden of the county jail
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Sheriff websiteThe county site links the sheriff's own site, schuylersheriffredshaw.godaddysites.com, which could not be opened
- Name sourceIDOC 2025 inspection report; the sheriff's site address (linked from the county site) also carries his 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.
Schuyler 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).
- NoteSchuyler County Board: chairman Chet Esther, vice-chairman Chris Billingsley, seven members; meets the 2nd Monday of each month at 7 pm in the courthouse courtroom, 102 S. Congress St., Rushville. The agendas-and-minutes page lists only 2026 meeting dates; no minutes, budget or audit are posted.
- The boardSchuyler County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- County site schuylercounty.org opened on 20 Sep 2026 (home, county board, board members, agendas-and-minutes). It confirms Rushville as county seat, carries no jail page, and posts no minutes, budget or audit.
- The sheriff has his own site, https://schuylersheriffredshaw.godaddysites.com/ (linked from the county site), but the fetch was refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED). Because the sheriff's site, where jail information would be, could not be examined, the ten checks are left empty rather than marked no.
- Illinois Sheriffs' Association lists sheriff Bill Redshaw and 34 jail beds (not a county source; IDOC 2025 rated capacity is 21).
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 20 May 2025: rated capacity 21, population 10 that day; noncompliances: none recorded.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Schuyler 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