Search Jerome Combs Detention Center Inmates

Jerome Combs Detention Center Overview

The Jerome Combs Detention Center sits on the county public-safety campus at 3050 S Justice Way in Kankakee. It is operated by the Kankakee County Sheriff's Office Corrections Division, led by Chief of Corrections Chad Kolitwenzew. The jail holds adult men and women across all security levels as the population requires. Most detainees are pretrial, held while a case moves through court, while others serve short county sentences. Under a U.S. Marshals Service agreement, the facility may also house federal detainees, and a juvenile holding cell is used only for court appearances before transfer.

The facility opened February 11, 2005, and a second phase opened in 2007, both built for direct supervision. The 2024 IDOC inspection records a capacity of 488 beds, laid out as three 48-bed dorms, one 64-bed dorm, one 20-bed dorm, 102 double detention rooms, and 46 single rooms. A distinctive current feature is a secure mental-health unit for up to 16 detainees from other counties who are unfit to stand trial or found not guilty by reason of insanity while they wait for a state hospital bed.

The official Corrections Division overview sets out the construction dates, capacities, and staffing for the facility.

That overview is the source for the facility history and bed counts used on this page.

Jerome Combs Detention Center Capacity and Population

The 2024 IDOC inspection, dated August 21, 2024, lists the rated capacity at 488 beds. A live roster query filtered to the facility on June 10, 2026 returned 271 records, a single-day count rather than an average. The Sheriff's own history describes the building as designed for 312 inmates at opening, with the 2007 phase adding room for 144 more, a historical total of 456. The gap between the sheriff history and the inspection number is real, and the dated inspection figure of 488 is the most recent official capacity number. Across both county buildings, the 2024 inspection puts the combined rated capacity at 732 beds, so this facility holds the larger share of the county jail system.

How to Look Up an Inmate at Jerome Combs Detention Center

People held here appear on the county jail roster, the Tyler Inmate Inquiry linked from the Sheriff's inmate-search page. The roster is free and needs no login. For a person who has been sentenced to state prison and transferred out, the Illinois Department of Corrections locator is the right tool instead.

1. Open the Tyler Inmate Inquiry from the Sheriff's inmate-search page.
2. Search by last name, or by a subject or booking number if known.
3. Confirm the housing facility shows Jerome Combs Detention Center.
4. Open the profile for charges, bond status, classification, and booking detail.

Because the facility houses people for the U.S. Marshals Service, a federal pretrial detainee may appear on the county roster while held here, even though the federal case runs through other channels. A sentenced federal inmate is found through the Bureau of Prisons locator, and an immigration detainee through the ICE detainee locator, rather than the county jail roster. Matching the system to the kind of custody is what makes the search work.

The jail inmate records page breaks down the search fields and the profile layout in more detail.

Jerome Combs Detention Center Address and Contact

The facility uses one address for custody, mail, and visitation questions. The visitation line is separate from the main jail number, so use the right one for each purpose.

The Sheriff's Office is next door at 3000 S Justice Way, with a main line of 815-802-7100 and an after-hours dispatch line of 815-933-3324.

Visiting Someone at Jerome Combs Detention Center

All visits are by video monitor and by appointment. An inmate must first build a visitation list, and each inmate gets one on-site visit per week. Appointments are made 24 hours ahead, and the visitor who booked the slot must arrive at least 15 minutes early with a valid photo ID. Only three visitors, including children, may attend, and anyone under 18 must be with a parent or guardian on the list. The daily windows are below.

No phones, cameras, weapons, purses, bags, food, or drinks are allowed in the visitation area, and one bottle may be brought for an infant.

Mail, Phone, and Money at Jerome Combs Detention Center

Mail must carry the detainee's jail ID number and a full return address, and all mail is searched. Hard-cover books are not allowed, and new books may come only from a bookstore, warehouse, or publisher. Photos are capped at five, no larger than 4 by 6 inches. Phone and messaging run through Securus, and the facility has reached a one-to-one ratio of SecureView tablets. Money goes through JailATM online or at the lobby kiosk, with no money orders or cashier's checks accepted.

The SecureView tablet page describes the tablet features used for calls, the law library, and programming.

The table summarizes how each channel reaches a detainee here.

Booking and Intake at Jerome Combs Detention Center

Detainees enter through a secure booking sallyport. Belongings are searched at once, and the 2024 IDOC inspection records that detainees are x-rayed, fingerprinted, and retina scanned during intake. Valuable property is shrink-wrapped and stored, and may be shipped on written instruction. Property left more than thirty days may be used to clothe detainees for court, donated, or discarded. New detainees shower and receive undergarments, a uniform, bedding, towels, and orientation. Booking origin, date, classification, and charges then populate the roster profile, and required physical exams are provided within 14 days by Kankakee County healthcare staff.

Programs and Medical Care at Jerome Combs Detention Center

Care and programming are staffed on site. The Sheriff lists physician assistants, eight full-time registered nurses, two part-time nurses, a dentist, and a dental hygienist within the corrections division. New detainees receive a required physical exam within 14 days, and intake includes medical and mental-health screening. Detainees can reach education and GED support, a law library, music, and religious content through the SecureView tablets, which the inspection says are allowed liberally for calls and virtual visits.

A distinctive service is the secure mental-health unit. It holds up to 16 detainees from other counties who are unfit to stand trial or found not guilty by reason of insanity, keeping them while they wait for a bed at a state psychiatric hospital. The 2024 IDOC inspection put the average wait for that placement at more than 65 days, which is why the unit matters to the wider state hospital system and not just to Kankakee.

About Jerome Combs Detention Center

The 2024 IDOC inspection lists several recent changes at the facility. The jail reached a one-to-one tablet ratio that lets detainees use headphones for dayroom programming, which lowers noise. It completed a video court system, sponsored by the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, that lets detainees appear at hearings from inside the jail and cuts transport costs. Room 147 was turned into a physical-therapy space. The inspection also flagged thirty-minute supervisory checks completed on time about 97 percent of the time, short of full compliance. Once sentenced to prison, detainees transfer from here to the Illinois Department of Corrections, and the older Kankakee County Detention Center handles other county detainees.