The Detention Center
White County Jail
- Operated byWhite County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address108 N. Main Cross St., Carmi, IL 62821
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)78
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)43
- Year built (IDOC 2025)1975
- Jail administrator (IDOC 2025)Sergeant Lance Clevenger
- FY26 draft budget, County Jail dept 065$2,327,300.00 (incl. medical $275,000; prisoner meals $98,000)
- FY26 draft budget, Sheriff dept 054$979,360.80
Source: White County Sheriff's Office site · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1975 (IDOC 2025 report)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds78 rated capacity (IDOC 2025 report)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jordan Weiss
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is warden of the county jail (55 ILCS 5/3-15003)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term; sheriff's site says elected in 2022
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: White County Sheriff's Office site · 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.
White 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).
- NoteWhite County Board, five members; chair Cassie (Hughes) Pigg. Agendas and minutes posted on separate pages.
- The boardWhite County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site (whitecountysheriff.org redirects to whitecountysheriff.com) names the White County Jail and links a separate jail site, whitecountyjail.com, which could not be opened (fetch refused).
- County budget page (https://www.whitecounty-il.gov/white-county-budget) links FY26 draft budget with a County Jail department line ($2,327,300.00); the adopted FY26 ordinance PDF had no machine-readable text.
- No roster, bond/pretrial, PREA, fee-rate or inspection pages found on the pages opened.
- Not scored: The dedicated jail site (whitecountyjail.com) was refused, so the key jail material was not read. Marking the rest 'not published' would claim more than was checked. Found published on the pages that did open: named, budget.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 16 Jul 2025: rated capacity 78, population 43 that day; noncompliances: 701.130(a)(2) personal observation 'at least every 30 minutes' — 163 of 172 expected checks timely.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in White 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