Find Inmates at the Alton Police Department Jail

Alton Police Department Jail Overview

The Alton Police Department Jail, also called the Alton City Jail, is operated by the City of Alton Police Department at 1700 E. Broadway in Alton. The official jail page describes it as very unique because it is a municipal facility that houses both state and federal prisoners, and it says it is the only municipal jail in Illinois that does both. Federal inmates are held under contractual guidelines between the City of Alton and the United States Marshals Office. That mix sets it apart from the county jail in Edwardsville, which holds local arrests and county cases.

The facility has 27 adult cells, 2 juvenile cells, and 4 holding cells. All but the 2 juvenile cells and 2 adult cells are double-bunked, which lifts capacity to 53 inmates. The holding cells can take several people at once and are used before booking and cell placement, and at times for combative, suicide-risk, or health-risk inmates. The chief of police listed on the city site is Jarrett Ford, and the jail administrator is Lieutenant Mike O'Neill.

Alton Police Department Jail Capacity

The city publishes the facility's size rather than a daily count. The jail page gives a 53-inmate capacity built from its cell layout. No official daily population for the Alton jail was found on the city site, so the capacity figures below are the sourced numbers to rely on. The cell mix shows a small facility built for short municipal holds plus the contracted federal block.

How to Look Up an Inmate at the Alton Police Department Jail

There is no online roster for the Alton jail, so the channel depends on who holds the person. For a city or state hold, call the Alton Police Department and ask for the jail administrator. For a federal inmate, the federal Bureau of Prisons locator applies once the person is committed to the Bureau, while federal pre-trial detainees are controlled by the U.S. Marshals and may not appear in the Bureau locator yet. Immigration custody is searched through the ICE detainee locator.

1. Work out whether the hold is city, state, or federal, since each uses a different system.
2. For city or state custody, call the Alton Police Department at 618-463-3505 and ask for the jail.
3. For a committed federal inmate, search the Bureau of Prisons locator by name or register number.
4. For a federal pre-trial detainee, contact the U.S. Marshals Southern District of Illinois.

Federal Custody and the U.S. Marshals

The federal side of the Alton jail is what makes it unusual, and it follows its own rules. Madison County sits in the U.S. Marshals Southern District of Illinois. The district headquarters is the St. Louis office at 750 Missouri Avenue in East St. Louis, reachable at 618-482-9336, with another office in Benton. Federal courts in the district sit in East St. Louis, Alton, Benton, and Cairo. Federal inmates at the Alton jail are held under a contract between the City of Alton and the Marshals.

That arrangement shapes how to find a federal detainee. A person in federal pre-trial custody may not appear in the Bureau of Prisons locator yet, because the Bureau lists people committed to its custody from 1982 forward, not everyone the Marshals are holding. For a federal pre-trial detainee, the attorney, the court, or the Marshals are the right contacts. Once a person is sentenced and committed to the Bureau of Prisons, the federal locator becomes the place to search. No federal mugshots are published through these locators, which show identity and custody fields instead.

Alton Police Department Jail Address and Contact

The jail shares the police department building on East Broadway. The jail administrator handles facility questions during office hours, and the main police number reaches the department.

Visiting Someone at the Alton Police Department Jail

Visitation at the Alton jail splits by population. State inmates have set in-person hours on weekday evenings. Federal inmate visits run as video sessions scheduled through Securus, and can be onsite or remote. That is a different model from the Madison County Jail, which offers no onsite family visits at all. Confirm the rules for the specific population before traveling, since a state hold and a federal hold are handled separately.

Phone, Mail, and Money at the Alton Police Department Jail

The Alton Police Department links inmate phone and tablet services through Securus and inmate commissary through Access Securepak from its homepage. Those vendors handle calls and deposits for the facility. Because the city page does not lay out a full mail address format or fee schedule the way the county jail does, confirm the current mailing and deposit steps with the jail administrator before sending anything.

Booking and Holding at the Alton Police Department Jail

New arrivals pass through the holding cells before booking and cell placement. Those holding cells can hold several people and are also used for combative, suicide-risk, or health-risk individuals while staff sort out housing. From there a city or state detainee follows the local court process, while a federal detainee is handled under the U.S. Marshals contract. Sentenced state felons do not stay here; they move into the Illinois Department of Corrections, the same as people sentenced out of the county jail.

The cell layout reflects this mixed role. With 27 adult cells, 2 juvenile cells, and 4 holding cells, most cells double-bunked, the facility is built to keep different populations apart while staying small. That separation matters because a city arrest, a state hold, and a federal detainee each carry different rules for housing, visitation, and release. Anyone trying to reach a person here should first pin down which of those three categories applies, since the answer points to a different office and a different process. For a local arrest that routes to the county system instead of Alton, the county jail handles intake in Edwardsville.

About the Alton Police Department Jail

The Alton jail carries an inspection load that matches its mixed population. Both the Illinois Department of Corrections and the U.S. Marshals Office inspect it each year. The federal cell block falls under the Illinois County Jail Standards, while the rest of the facility falls under the Illinois Municipal Jail Standards, and the Marshals separately inspect the whole jail. Alton's place in custody history runs deep as well, since the city was home to the Alton Military Prison, originally the state's first penitentiary in 1833 and later a Civil War military prison. For local arrests that route to the county system instead, the Madison County Jail page covers that process.

Because three different authorities touch this one small jail, the city, the state, and the federal government, the details that matter to a visitor can vary by population and can change over time. A visitation window for a state inmate is not the same as the video setup for a federal detainee, and the contract terms for the federal block are set between the city and the Marshals rather than posted publicly. That is the practical reason to call ahead and confirm the current rules for the exact person you are trying to reach before making the trip to Alton.