Marshall County Jail Custody Lookup

Marshall County Jail Overview

The Marshall County Jail is operated by the Marshall County Sheriff's Department at 520 Sixth Street in Lacon. The sheriff's office houses and maintains the jail and keeps jail officers on duty around the clock for custody, control, booking, and processing. The same office runs patrol, courthouse security, prisoner transport, and the 911 Communications Center, so the jail is a small detention function embedded in the wider sheriff's operation rather than a stand-alone regional center.

The jail holds adult men and women. The county states that juveniles are not housed here and must be transported to a juvenile detention facility, and the 2023 IDOC inspection says the facility does not house detainees for other jurisdictions. IDOC lists a rated capacity of 16 beds, made up of 8 double cells with no single cells. The 2023 inspection describes the physical plant as four blocks, Lower East, Lower West, Upper East, and Upper West, each with two double-occupancy cells over two floors. For the county-wide picture of where local, state, and federal inmates are held, the Marshall County inmate population overview ties the facilities together.

The official sheriff page is the source for the jail's capacity, FOIA direction, and visitation rules. A look at the Marshall County Sheriff page shows the jail, contact, and visitation details in one place.

Because the jail is small and sheriff-run, it does not operate a separate public roster desk. That single fact drives most of the lookup guidance on this page.

Marshall County Jail Capacity and Population

Capacity figures for the jail are well documented, even though a live daily population is not published. IDOC and the Sheriff's Department put the rated capacity at 16 beds, split as 12 male and 4 female in the 2024 inspection, across 8 double cells. Inspection-date counts from 2020 through 2024 ranged from 7 down to 0, so the jail ran under capacity on every inspection date reviewed.

The jail serves a county of roughly 14,000 people, which fits a 16-bed facility. Because the 2023 inspection says it does not house detainees for other jurisdictions, the population is local people in local custody, not federal, out-of-county, or contract holds that fill larger regional jails.

Note: The yearly inspection counts are single-day snapshots, so they show occupancy on the inspection date and are not an average daily population.

How to Look Up an Inmate at the Marshall County Jail

There is no public online roster for the Marshall County Jail, so a lookup uses the sheriff's office directly. The jail is small and staffed at all hours, which makes the phone the most reliable real-time channel. The steps below run from a current custody check to the records and locator fallbacks.

1. Call the jail at 309-246-2115 and ask whether the person is in booking, in custody, released, or transferred.
2. Have the full legal name, a date of birth or age, and the arrest date ready, since a birth date clears common-name confusion.
3. If a case was filed, search the circuit clerk's Judici court records for charges and the next court date.
4. File a written FOIA request with the sheriff for a booking record or arrest report, or check IDOC, BOP, or ICE if the person has moved past the county jail.

The full set of access channels, including VINELink notifications and the state and federal locators, is laid out on the jail inmate records page.

Marshall County Jail Address and Contact

Use the address for in-person custody questions during office hours and for written FOIA requests, and the phone line for a same-day custody answer. After hours, the building doors are secured and visitors ring the buzzer at the north entrance for assistance.

Visiting Someone at the Marshall County Jail

Visitation is narrow and rules-bound. The sheriff page sets in-person visits on Sundays and Wednesdays from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., for immediate family only. The 2023 IDOC inspection notes a single visitation station for visits through glass using a phone receiver, so visits are non-contact. The county also states that no one with a felony conviction or a pending court case may visit, including family members.

Special requests outside the immediate-family rule may be made to the sheriff or chief deputy for approval. No posted dress code, child rule, or ID requirement was located, so it is worth calling ahead before a first visit.

Mail, Phone, and Money at the Marshall County Jail

The county does not publish a detailed mail or commissary schedule, so confirm the current rules by phone before sending anything. IDOC inspection comments name Securus for telephone and tablet service, and an in-house commissary rather than an online deposit vendor. The table summarizes what the official sources establish.

Do not send cash unless the jail confirms it is accepted, and do not use deposit instructions from same-named counties in other states, which rely on vendors this jail has not confirmed.

Booking and Intake at the Marshall County Jail

Jail officers book and process people brought to the jail after a local arrest. Under Illinois jail standards, intake covers the legal authority to confine the person, identity verification, a search, fingerprints and a photograph as required by law, a property inventory, phone access as soon as practical, and the creation of a booking record. Classification then assigns housing within the four-block plant.

From booking, the court side begins with a first appearance that addresses counsel and pretrial release or detention. The prosecutor reviews the reports and files formal charges in the circuit court. Because there is no online roster, no official source states how quickly a booking becomes searchable, so a same-day custody question goes to the jail phone line.

Court and Prosecutor Contacts for Jail Cases

A jail booking is only the start of a case, so the courthouse side matters once charges are filed. Everything sits within a short walk in Lacon. The Marshall County Courthouse is at 122 North Prairie Street, within the Tenth Judicial Circuit, and the Illinois Courts directory notes a single courtroom that handles all case types. The Circuit Clerk keeps the court records and links the public to Marshall County Online Court Records through Judici.

The State's Attorney is the charging authority after an arrest. The office of Patrick J. Murphy is reached at 122 North Prairie Street, Lacon, phone 309-246-2028. The Circuit Clerk can be reached at the same courthouse address, phone 309-246-6435, for docket questions and certified copies. A custody question goes to the jail, while a charge or court-date question goes to the clerk and prosecutor.

About the Marshall County Jail

IDOC lists the jail's construction date as 1905, which makes it an unusually old small jail compared with modern detention centers. The annual IDOC inspections document steady upkeep rather than expansion. The 2020 report noted repainting and booking-room updates, the 2022 report added HVAC in booking and visiting rooms, cell-check monitoring, new mattresses, and laundry equipment, the 2023 report listed new cell-block windows, a new parking lot, and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and the 2024 report noted new detainee uniforms.

Services are handled by named local providers. Medical care comes from OSF in Henry, and mental-health services were provided by North Central Behavioral Health and the Arukah Institute of Healing. The 2022 inspection flagged inadequate staffing that year, with the jail at times run by a single officer, a finding tied to 2022 that later reports should be checked against. The 2023 inspection described the facility as clean and well organized, with detainees voicing no complaints when asked.

These inspection records are public. The IDOC county jail inspection archive holds the annual reports that document the jail's capacity, population, and improvements.