The Detention Center
Warren County Jail
- Operated byWarren County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address121 North A Street, Monmouth, IL 61462
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)22 (all male)
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)11
- Year built (IDOC 2025)1915
- New jailCounty site has a 'New Warren County Jail' updates page with preliminary site plans (March 2026); no beds, cost or funding stated
Source: IDOC 2025 jail inspection report · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗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 built1915 (IDOC 2025 report)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds22 rated (IDOC 2025 report)
Since then
- New jail planned: preliminary site plans posted on county site (March 2026); details not published on that page
The Sheriff
Sheriff Martin E. Edwards
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is warden of the county jail; IDOC 2025 report lists him as jail administrator too
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Office address121 North A Street, Monmouth, IL 61462
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Warren County Sheriff's Office page · 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.
Warren 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).
- Note16 members in 4 districts; chairman listed as Mike Pearson. Agendas at https://warrencountyil.gov/government/meeting-agendas/.
- The boardWarren County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- County site has a page for 'The New Warren County Jail' showing two preliminary site plans; no capacity, cost, funding or timeline given there.
- Treasurer page links Final FY25 and FY26 budgets, but the PDFs could not be opened in this session, so budget is marked no.
- Sheriff page has no roster, bond guidance, fees, PREA, deaths, contracts or inspection reports.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 15 October 2025: rated capacity 22, population 11 that day; noncompliances: staffing ("jail must utilize one jail officer to staff the jail during overnight hours"), supervision (checks "appeared to comply approximately 96% of the time"), commissary audit ("jail officials could not produce documentation indicating the completion of an audit"), sanitation ("cell blocks had nonfunctional hot and cold-water faucets, in the detainee living areas").
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Warren 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