The Kankakee County Inmate Population
The Kankakee County inmate population covers everyone held by the Kankakee County Sheriff's Office Corrections Division at any one time. Most are pretrial detainees who have been booked and are waiting for a court decision. A smaller group is serving a county sentence. The county also holds people for federal authorities under a U.S. Marshals Service agreement, and a small secure mental-health unit at the main jail holds detainees from other counties who are waiting for a state psychiatric placement. The Sheriff's Office, not the state, runs the local count and reports jail population numbers to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
The size of the population rises and falls with arrests, charging decisions, and the speed of the courts. Illinois ended cash bail in September 2023, so a judge now decides release or detention rather than a dollar amount. Sentencing also moves people out of the county count and into the state prison system. A live roster query on June 10, 2026 showed 273 people in current custody, well below the jail's combined rated capacity, but a single-day roster count is not the same as a yearly average.
The Corrections Division overview names Chad Kolitwenzew as Chief of Corrections and lists a staff of 117 full-time corrections officers along with physician assistants, registered nurses, and dental staff who care for the population.
The Sheriff's Office publishes a Corrections Division page that explains how the two detention buildings are staffed and operated. That page is the starting point for understanding who runs the count.
A look at the official Corrections Division overview sets out the facility history, capacities, and staffing behind the population.
That overview lists construction dates, bed counts, and the Chief of Corrections, which is why it anchors the population figures used throughout this page.
Kankakee County Inmate Population Statistics
The headline numbers come from three kinds of sources, and they should not be mixed. The Illinois Department of Corrections measures rated capacity during its annual jail inspection. The Vera Institute publishes a county-level jail population dataset year by year. The Sheriff's live roster shows a moment-in-time count. The 2024 IDOC inspection, dated August 21, 2024, lists the main jail at 488 beds and the older detention center at 244 beds, a combined rated capacity of 732. The Vera Institute recorded a total jail population of 617 for Kankakee County in 2023.
The table below keeps each figure tied to its source and year so readers can see where a number comes from. The Vera jail population rate of 915 per 100,000 residents age 15 to 64 helps compare Kankakee to other counties.
| Measure | Figure | Source / Year |
|---|---|---|
| Total jail population | 617 | Vera Institute, 2023 |
| Combined rated capacity | 732 | IDOC jail inspection, 2024 |
| Jail population rate (per 100k, age 15-64) | 915 | Vera Institute, 2023 |
| Current roster count | 273 | Tyler roster query, June 10, 2026 |
| County population (estimate) | 106,410 | U.S. Census QuickFacts, 2024 |
Two figures are not available in official Kankakee sources. No public county page reports annual bookings, and none reports the average length of stay. Those gaps are left blank here rather than filled with a guess.
Kankakee County Inmate Population Trends
The local population story is one of a sharp dip and a rebound. The Sheriff's facility history records an average daily census of 696 inmates across the old and new jails in February 2013. The Vera dataset then shows the count falling to 260 in 2021, during the pandemic, before climbing back to 520 in 2022 and 617 in 2023. The 2024 IDOC inspection set the combined rated capacity at 732. A live roster query in June 2026 returned 273 names, a single-day figure rather than a yearly average.
| Year | Population / Capacity | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 696 | Sheriff-reported average daily census, old and new jail |
| 2021 | 260 | Vera total jail population |
| 2022 | 520 | Vera total jail population |
| 2023 | 617 | Vera total jail population |
| 2026 | 273 | Live roster count, June 10, point in time |
Note: a live roster count reflects one moment and can swing day to day, so it should not be read as the jail's average daily population.
Who Makes Up the Kankakee County Inmate Population
The Vera dataset breaks the 2023 population down by custody status and demographics. The picture is one of a jail that mostly holds people who have not been convicted, plus a large block held for federal authorities. The 2024 IDOC inspection adds that the two buildings can be adjusted to hold both men and women across all security levels as the population requires.
- Pretrial vs sentenced: Vera reported 599 people in pretrial custody and 18 in sentenced custody in 2023.
- Male vs female: Vera recorded 583 men and 34 women in the 2023 count.
- Race: Vera listed 392 Black, 125 White, 91 Latinx, and small numbers in other groups for 2023.
- Held for other agencies: Vera showed 214 people held for federal authorities through the U.S. Marshals Service and 0 for ICE in 2023.
The capacity sheet lists 0 female beds for each building, but the inspection narrative says women are held as needed, so the bed line should not be read as proof that no women are in custody.
Kankakee County Jail Capacity and Overcrowding
Capacity in Kankakee County is split between a modern main jail and an older building. The 2024 IDOC inspection lists the Jerome Combs Detention Center at 488 beds and the Kankakee County Detention Center at 244 beds. The Sheriff's page describes the main jail as designed for 312 inmates when it opened in 2005, with a 2007 phase adding room for 144 more, for a historical total of 456. The discrepancy between the sheriff history and the IDOC inspection is real, and the dated inspection figure is the most recent official capacity number.
Recent counts sit below the combined 732-bed capacity, so the current concern is staffing and conditions rather than raw overcrowding. The 2024 inspection flagged one ongoing problem: thirty-minute supervisory checks were completed on time 95.2 percent of the time at the older jail and 97 percent at the main jail, short of full compliance under the state jail standards.
Laws Governing the Kankakee County Inmate Population
A handful of Illinois laws make jail population data public and set the rules behind it. The Freedom of Information Act opens most jail records to a written request. A separate arrest-records statute requires basic booking information to be released quickly. State jail standards require the Sheriff to file monthly population reports, and a deaths-in-custody law requires the reporting of any death behind bars. Each law below carries a one-line plain-English meaning.
Key Statutes:
5 ILCS 140 - the Illinois Freedom of Information Act lets the public ask in writing for jail and booking records held by the Sheriff.
5 ILCS 140/2.15 - basic arrest information, including a booking photo when one is available, must be released within 72 hours.
20 Ill. Admin. Code 701.30 - county jails must send monthly population reports to the state and report unusual occurrences.
730 ILCS 210/3-5 - the Reporting of Deaths in Custody Act requires agencies to report qualifying custody deaths to the state.
Note: jail and prisoner records run through the Sheriff under FOIA, while court case files are obtained from the Circuit Clerk, not through a sheriff request.
Kankakee County and the State Prison Population
The county jail and the state prison system count different people. Once a Kankakee defendant is sentenced to prison, custody passes from the Sheriff to the Illinois Department of Corrections, and the person drops off the county roster. There is no active state prison inside Kankakee County in the current IDOC facility list, so sentenced residents are housed elsewhere in Illinois. The historical Kankakee Minimum Security Unit closed around 2011 and is not a current facility.
To follow a person after sentencing, switch from the county roster to the statewide locator. The IDOC Individual in Custody Search is the right tool once someone leaves county custody for state prison.
How to Search the Kankakee County Inmate Population
The public roster is hosted by Tyler Technologies and branded Inmate Inquiry. The Sheriff links to it from an inmate-search page, and it covers people in the custody of the Kankakee County Sheriff's Office. No login is needed. Before starting, it helps to have the person's last name, and a booking number if one is known.
The lead-in below shows the Sheriff's own search page, which explains what the roster can return.
The Sheriff's inmate-search page describes the roster and links out to the Tyler inquiry tool.
From that page the steps to search the Kankakee County inmate population are straightforward.
- Open the Tyler Inmate Inquiry at the link from the Sheriff's inmate-search page.
- Type the person's name, or a subject number or booking number if you have one.
- Check the In Custody box to see current inmates, or set a booking date range for a past booking.
- Click a name in the results to open the full profile with charges, bond status, and housing facility.
- If the person was sentenced and transferred, search the IDOC locator instead of the county roster.
Current Inmate Lookup in Kankakee County
The live roster accepts several search fields, and none of them is marked as required, so a single last name or a booking number can both work. A current-custody query on June 10, 2026 returned 273 records, and filtering to the main jail returned 271. The results open into a table, and each name links to a detail page.
The lead-in image shows a current in-custody results screen with the columns the roster returns.
A look at the current in-custody roster shows the live result table and record count.
Those columns map to the search fields below, which come from the live Tyler form.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Text | No | Accepts a full or partial name string |
| Subject Number | Text | No | Tyler person identifier used across bookings |
| Booking Number | Text | No | Year plus sequence, such as 2025-00002649 |
| In Custody | Checkbox | No | Returns only people in current custody |
| Booking Date Range | Date | No | From and To dates narrow a past booking |
| Housing Facility | Dropdown | No | Public list shows Jerome Combs Detention Center |
Past and Released Inmate Records
The Tyler system holds historical bookings, not just current ones. To find a person who is no longer in custody, clear the In Custody box and search by name or by a booking date range. The inspected roster showed no posted retention window, so older results may or may not appear. When the online roster comes up empty, a written FOIA request to the Sheriff is the fallback for jail and prisoner records. A request must put its full text in the body of the email, since the Sheriff will not open attachments or links.
For booking photos and records on a current inmate, the jail inmate records page walks through the roster in more detail.
What a Kankakee County Inmate Record Shows
A Tyler detail page is built from demographic fields plus several tables. Two sample profiles inspected on June 10, 2026 showed booking and charge data but no mugshot image in the page code. The fields below appear on a typical profile.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Subject / Booking Number | A person identifier and a booking-event number, such as 2025-00002649 |
| Booking Date | Date and time the person was booked into the jail |
| Prisoner Type / Classification | Custody category such as Remanded, plus a security level like Maximum Low |
| Charges | Booking or arrest charges, which can differ from the prosecutor's filed charges |
| Total Bond / Bail | Legacy money fields that may read $0.00 with a status like Detained |
| Housing Facility | Facility assignment, usually Jerome Combs Detention Center |
The bond fields keep old labels even though Illinois no longer uses cash bail, so a Detained status means the person is held, not that a cash amount will release them.
County Jail vs. State Prison: Where to Look
The biggest mistake searchers make is using the wrong system. The county roster covers people in local custody, mostly pretrial. Sentenced felons move to the Illinois Department of Corrections and appear in a separate state locator. The table sorts out which system holds which part of the population.
| County Jail | State Prison (DOC) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who Is Held | Pretrial and short county sentences | Sentenced felons |
| Run By | Kankakee County Sheriff | Illinois Department of Corrections |
| Where to Look | Tyler county jail roster | IDOC Individual in Custody Search |
| Stays Listed | While in local custody | Through the state sentence |
State and Federal Inmate Search
Beyond the county roster, three national or state tools cover the rest of the population. The state locator handles sentenced Illinois prisoners. The federal Bureau of Prisons locator covers sentenced federal inmates from 1982 forward. The ICE locator covers immigration detainees. Because Kankakee holds people for the U.S. Marshals Service, a federal pretrial detainee may show on the county roster while housed locally even though the federal case runs through other channels.
- IDOC Individual in Custody Search for sentenced Illinois state prisoners.
- Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator for sentenced federal inmates.
- ICE Online Detainee Locator System for immigration detainees.
- Illinois VINE for custody and case-status notifications.
Kankakee County Detention Facilities
The county runs two detention buildings, both under the Sheriff's Corrections Division. The main jail is the public-facing facility for roster, visitation, and mail. The older building still houses detainees as the Sheriff assigns. Each facility has its own page with addresses, capacity, and lookup steps.
- Jerome Combs Detention Center - the main county jail for pretrial detainees, county prisoners, federal contract detainees, and a small secure mental-health unit.
- Kankakee County Detention Center - the older 1973 jail building that holds county detainees as the Corrections Division assigns.
Kankakee County Inmate Population FAQ
How big is the Kankakee County inmate population?
The Vera Institute recorded a total jail population of 617 for Kankakee County in 2023. A live roster query on June 10, 2026 showed 273 people in current custody. The two numbers measure different things, since the Vera figure is an annual dataset value and the roster count is a single-day snapshot. The county's combined rated capacity is 732 beds per the 2024 IDOC inspection.
How do I search the Kankakee County inmate population?
Use the Tyler Inmate Inquiry linked from the Sheriff's inmate-search page. Enter a last name, check the In Custody box for current inmates, and click a name to open the full profile. The roster covers people in the custody of the Kankakee County Sheriff's Office and needs no login.
Can I look up a released or past inmate?
Yes. Clear the In Custody box and search by name or a booking date range to reach historical bookings. If the roster does not show the record, file a written FOIA request with the Sheriff for jail and prisoner records, keeping the full request inside the email body.
Where do sentenced inmates go?
People sentenced to prison leave county custody for the Illinois Department of Corrections and drop off the county roster. Track them through the IDOC Individual in Custody Search. There is no active state prison inside Kankakee County.
Does the roster show bond amounts?
The profile keeps Total Bond and Total Bail fields, but Illinois ended cash bail in September 2023. A status such as Detained means the person is held by court order, not that paying a posted amount will free them. Check the court case for the current release decision.
Are federal detainees in the county population?
Sometimes. Kankakee houses people for the U.S. Marshals Service under an agreement, so a federal pretrial detainee can appear on the county roster while held locally. Sentenced federal inmates are found through the Bureau of Prisons locator, and immigration detainees through the ICE locator.