Stephenson County, Illinois — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Stephenson County Jail

Operated byStephenson County Sheriff's Office
Jail address1680 E. Singer Dr., Freeport, IL 61032
Beds (sheriff site)216-bed corrections facility, fifteen cell blocks
Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)216 (180 male, 36 female)
Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)81
Year built (IDOC 2025)2000
Phone providerCombined Public Communications, $0.20/minute + taxes
Jail AdministratorNickolas Pontnack — Jail Director (sheriff's corrections page); IDOC 2025 report lists 'Nick Pontnack'

Source: Stephenson County Sheriff — Corrections · checked 2026-09-20

Transparency rating

5/10Partial

✓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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Stephenson County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-20. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year built2000 (IDOC 2025 report)
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds216 (sheriff site and IDOC 2025 report)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Steve Stovall

Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is warden of the county jail (55 ILCS 5/3-15003)
How the office is filledElected, four-year term
Background (sheriff site)Former Freeport Police Officer, 14+ years

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Stephenson County Sheriff's Office website · 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.

Stephenson County Circuit Court

Not found

Still needed

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 boardStephenson County Board →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

Sheriff's corrections page describes a '216 bed corrections facility' with fifteen cell blocks and names Jail Director Nickolas Pontnack.
Inmate search/bail lookup is linked at xjail.stephensoncountyjail.org, but that site could not be opened, so roster is marked no.
Bail/release page explains posting bail by card via jailatm.com with a $65.00 bond fee; it does not mention the Pretrial Fairness Act or detention hearings.
Telephone page publishes rates: $0.20/minute + taxes (local, in-state and out-of-state) via Combined Public Communications.
FY2026 county budget (county site, file host reached by redirect) has a Corrections department (401), e.g. 'REG SALARIES-COR' $2,382,391.
No PREA, deaths, contracts or inspection reports found on the sheriff's or county site.
State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 30 October 2025: rated capacity 216, population 81 that day; noncompliances: none recorded.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Stephenson 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