The Detention Center
Winnebago County Jail
- Operated byWinnebago County Sheriff's Office (Corrections Division)
- Jail address650 W. State Street, Rockford, IL 61102
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)1,324
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)749
- Year built (IDOC 2025)2007
- Superintendent (IDOC 2025)Kevin Ogden
- FY24 actual corrections spending$19,681,451, 100% from Public Safety Sales Tax
- FY26 budget, PSST-funded County Jail$15,909,273 personnel + $5,954,134 supplies/services
- Phone vendorGTL / Legacy Communications per sheriff pages
- Phone rates$0.275/min intrastate; $0.21/min interstate
Source: Winnebago County Sheriff — Jail page · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built2007 (IDOC 2025 report)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found (operations funded from Public Safety Sales Tax per county FY24 spending breakdown)
- Beds1,324 rated capacity (IDOC 2025 report)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Gary Caruana
- 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 sourceNamed in the IDOC 2025 inspection report; the sheriff's own pages opened did not state the sheriff's name
- 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.
Winnebago 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).
- NoteWinnebago County Board; agendas and minutes on the county site.
- The boardWinnebago County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's inmate inquiry (inmates.winnebagosheriff.com) searches people in custody by name.
- PREA page gives policy, reporting routes, annual reports (to 2025) and audit reports (2018, 2021).
- Commissary/phone page publishes phone per-minute rates, deposit limits, and medical ($5/$10) and haircut fees.
- County FY24 public safety breakdown: corrections actual spending $19,681,451 from Public Safety Sales Tax; FY26 budget book has a PSST-funded County Jail line.
- Inmate-release page only says bonded/released people are picked up at the Bond Out office; no pretrial release guidance, so bond_info is no.
- No capacity/population, deaths, contracts or inspection reports found on county or sheriff pages opened.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 22 Jul 2025: rated capacity 1,324, population 749 that day; noncompliances: none recorded.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Winnebago 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