The Detention Center
Vermilion County Jail
- Operated byVermilion County Sheriff's Department
- Jail address2 East South Street, Danville, IL 61832
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)390 (352 male, 38 female)
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)217
- Year built (IDOC 2025)1976
- MailPhysical mail is scanned and delivered digitally to terminals/tablets (county sheriff page, since 25 Oct 2023)
- Jail AdministratorCaptain Harold Heaton — Named as jail administrator in the IDOC 2025 inspection report
Source: IDOC 2025 jail inspection report · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
0/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗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 — not published
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1976 (IDOC 2025 report)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds390 rated (IDOC 2025 report)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Patrick Hartshorn
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is warden of the county jail (55 ILCS 5/3-15003)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Name sourceIDOC 2025 inspection report; the county's sheriff page opened does not name the sheriff
- 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.
Vermilion 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 site board pages could not be opened; name from Wikipedia.
- The boardVermilion County Board
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Only two county pages could be opened: the sheriff page (vercounty.org/sheriff/) and inmate mail page (vercounty.org/sheriff/inmate-mail/). Neither names the jail, the sheriff, a roster, fees, bond guidance or PREA.
- The county home page, board page and other sheriff subpages could not be fetched in this session, so these 'no' results reflect only the two pages opened.
- Inmate mail page: physical mail 'will be scanned and distributed digitally on the incarcerated individual terminal and tablet'.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 31 July 2025: rated capacity 390, population 217 that day; noncompliances: supervision — "11 personal observations exceeded the 30-minute check requirement, indicating an on-time percentage of 91%".
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Vermilion 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