Look Up Kankakee County Jail Records

Kankakee County Jail Roster Overview

The Kankakee County Sheriff's Office runs the jail roster through a Tyler Technologies system branded Inmate Inquiry. It lists people in the custody of the Sheriff's Corrections Division, which operates a two-building jail. A current-custody query on June 10, 2026 returned 273 records, and the roster opens without a login. The inspected pages did not post a refresh schedule, so the roster should be treated as current but not promised as real-time.

The county roster does not cover every kind of custody. Once a person is sentenced to state prison, the record moves to the Illinois Department of Corrections. Federal inmates and immigration detainees are tracked through federal locators. The rest of this page covers how to read a county record and where to look when the person is not in the Sheriff's custody.

How to Use the Kankakee County Inmate Roster

The Sheriff links to the roster from an inmate-search page, which explains that the tool can confirm local custody and show booking date, projected release if any, bond status, the next court date, the current facility, and charge information. The steps below move from that page into a result.

1. Open the Sheriff's inmate-search page and click the Tyler Inmate Inquiry link.
2. Type the person's last name, or a subject number or booking number if you have one.
3. Check the In Custody box for current inmates, or set a booking date range to find a past booking.
4. Click the name in the results to open the full profile with charges, bond status, and housing facility.

If the search returns nothing, remove the filters and try the name again, then move to the phone, records-request, and locator fallbacks further down this page.

Kankakee County Roster Search Fields

The Tyler form accepts several fields, and none is marked as required, so a single last name or a booking number can both return a result. The image shows the live search form, followed by the field table.

The Tyler Inmate Inquiry search form exposes the name, number, custody, date, and facility fields.

Each field on that form maps to a row in the table below.

What a Kankakee County Inmate Profile Shows

A profile is built from demographic fields plus booking, bond, court, and charge tables. Two sample profiles inspected on June 10, 2026 showed full booking detail but no mugshot image in the page code. The table lists the fields a searcher should expect.

Booking Origin names the arresting or booking agency, such as the Kankakee Police Department or the Sheriff's Office, which helps trace where an incident report would be requested. Classification values like Maximum Low describe the housing assessment, not the severity of a conviction.

Note: roster charges are accusations recorded at booking, so the formal charge and outcome must be confirmed in the court case rather than read off the jail profile.

Kankakee County Roster Terms Explained

Roster profiles use jail and court vocabulary that can trip up a first-time searcher. A few short definitions make a record easier to read, and they explain why a field can look alarming when it is routine.

Remanded

Held in custody by court order rather than released.

Subject Number

The Tyler person identifier that stays with someone across separate bookings.

Booking Number

The number for a single booking event, written as a year plus a sequence.

Classification

The jail's housing and security assessment, shown with values such as Maximum Low.

Detained

A bond-status label meaning the person is held, not that a cash amount will release them.

Detainer

A hold or request from another agency to keep a person in custody.

Finding County, State, and Federal Inmates

Custody status decides which system to search. Pretrial detainees and people serving short county sentences sit in the county jail and appear on the Tyler roster. Sentenced felons move to the Illinois Department of Corrections and appear in the statewide locator. Federal inmates and immigration detainees use the Bureau of Prisons and ICE locators. Because Kankakee houses people for the U.S. Marshals Service, a federal pretrial detainee can show on the county roster while held locally.

For custody and case-status alerts across these systems, Illinois VINE sends notifications by email, text, phone, and app. The Sheriff's mobile app exists on the Apple and Google stores, but its listings only confirm news, tips, and crime reporting, not an inmate or warrant lookup.

Requesting Kankakee County Jail Records

When the online roster does not show a record, a written FOIA request to the Sheriff is the next step for jail and prisoner records, arrest reports, and warrants that are not posted. The Sheriff's FOIA page lists these among the records the office keeps, so a clear, specific request can reach them.

Email requests go to foiakcso@kankakeecountyil.gov, and the full request must sit inside the body of the email, because the Sheriff will not open attachments or links. Mailed and in-person requests go to the Sheriff's Office at 3000 S Justice Way, Kankakee, IL 60901. The first 50 black-and-white pages are free, with a small per-page fee after that.

• Case and incident reports
• Jail and prisoner records
• Criminal and civil warrants
• Arrest and booking records

A complete statewide criminal-history report is a separate product, handled by the Illinois State Police Bureau of Identification in Joliet rather than by the Sheriff.

Kankakee County Jail Facilities

The Sheriff's Corrections Division runs two detention buildings. The Jerome Combs Detention Center is the modern main jail and the public-facing facility for roster and visitation. The Kankakee County Detention Center is the older 1973 building. The cards below give the address and phone for each, along with the Sheriff's main line.

Booking Process in Kankakee County

A booking starts after an arrest or a court remand by the Sheriff, the Kankakee Police Department, another municipal agency, or a court order. At the main jail, detainees enter through a secure booking sallyport. Staff confirm the legal authority to hold the person, search property, and begin the jail record. The 2024 IDOC inspection notes that detainees are x-rayed, fingerprinted, and retina scanned, and that valuable property is shrink-wrapped and stored. Booking origin, date, classification, and charges then populate the Tyler profile.

After booking comes the court side. Illinois law requires a person arrested for a detention-eligible offense to be brought before a judge without unnecessary delay, within 48 hours, with charges filed. Since Illinois ended cash bail in September 2023, a judge sets release conditions or orders detention rather than a money amount. The court records after a jail arrest page follows that path in detail.

Visitation Hours and Rules

All visits at the county jail are by video monitor and by appointment. An inmate must first fill out a visitation list, and each inmate gets one on-site visit per week. Appointments must be made 24 hours ahead, and the visitor who booked the slot must arrive at least 15 minutes early with a valid photo ID. The schedule below comes from the Sheriff's visitation page.

The visitation schedule page lists the daily windows, appointment times, and visitor rules.

The daily hours apply to both detention buildings.

Each weekday closes for a midday break, and only three visitors, including children, may attend an appointment. Anyone under 18 must come with a parent or legal guardian who is also on the list.

How to Contact a Kankakee County Inmate

Mail goes to 3050 South Justice Way, Kankakee, IL 60901, and must include the detainee's jail ID number and a full return address. All mail is searched. Hard-cover books and calendars are not allowed, and new books may arrive only from a bookstore, warehouse, or publisher. Photos are capped at five, no larger than 4 by 6 inches. There is no mail drop-off at the facility.

Phone and messaging run through Securus. Collect telephones sit in every housing unit with daily access, Securus eMessaging handles email-style messages, and the jail has reached a one-to-one ratio of SecureView tablets for calls, the law library, and programming. The Sheriff does not publish Securus rate tables, so account pricing should be checked with the vendor.

Commissary and Inmate Funds

Money for an inmate's commissary account goes through JailATM, either online or at the lobby kiosk at the main jail. Money orders and cashier's checks have not been accepted since August 1, 2015. A deposit needs the inmate's date of birth and ID number. The Sheriff's page does not publish JailATM or kiosk fees, so those should be confirmed at the point of deposit.

The commissary deposit page shows the JailATM link and the lobby-kiosk instructions.

The commissary contractor named in the 2024 IDOC inspection is Stellar Services, LLC.