The Detention Center
Tazewell County Justice Center
- Operated byTazewell County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address101 S Capitol St., Pekin, IL 61554
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)236 (178 male, 58 female)
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)84
- Year built (IDOC 2025)2003
- Designed capacity / average daily population (PREA audit posted by sheriff)225 / 105
- Phone, video visits, messagingCidnet
- Jail AdministratorMike Harper — Jail Administrator, named in the IDOC 2025 compliance review posted on the sheriff's site
Source: Tazewell County Sheriff — Jail Information · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
7/10Open- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓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
- ✓Phone, video and commissary rates
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built2003 (IDOC 2025 report)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds236 rated (IDOC 2025 report)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jeffrey Lower
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is warden of the county jail (55 ILCS 5/3-15003)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Tazewell 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.
Tazewell 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).
- NoteCounty website (tazewell-il.gov) could not be opened in this session; board name not confirmed from a county page.
- The boardNot confirmed
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site posts the IDOC 2025 Jail and Detention Standards Unit compliance review and checklist (inspection 8 July 2025).
- Public in-custody list on the sheriff's site shows booking date, charge and arresting agency.
- PREA page posts the 2024 PREA Coordinator's Annual Report and an audit report: designed capacity 225, average daily population 105; 3 sexual abuse and 4 sexual harassment allegations in the 12-month period.
- Bonding page: post bond at the Justice Center 24/7 or by phone via Court Money; $35 jail bonding fee per case, $75 state failure-to-appear fee on certain warrants, 8% card processing fee. It does not describe pretrial detention hearings.
- Phone/video rates not published (Cidnet account required).
- County budget not checked: the county website could not be opened (fetch not permitted). No deaths-in-custody information or contracts found on the sheriff's site.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 8 July 2025: rated capacity 236, population 84 that day; noncompliances: none recorded.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Tazewell 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