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Madison County Jail Overview

The Madison County Jail sits at 405 Randle Street in Edwardsville and is operated by the Madison County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff is the jail's administrator, responsible for managing everyone confined there and for delivering prisoners to court. The people held are adults. Many are pre-trial, meaning arrested and waiting for a hearing rather than convicted. Others are serving short county sentences or waiting to be transferred. The jail follows the Illinois County Jail Standards, which the county FAQ stresses are different from the rules that govern state prisons.

Day to day, the jail leans on a tablet and kiosk model. Detainees reach a handbook, rules, video visits, scheduled phone calls, and education tools through jail-issued tablets. A small jail division of sworn deputies handles transports to court, medical appointments, and the state corrections system. The jail does not publish a public web roster, so custody questions go through the inmate information line.

Madison County Jail Capacity and Population

The Madison County Sheriff's 2024 Annual Report puts the average daily population at 192, with 3,992 detainees booked across the year and an average stay of 12 days. Local 2023 reporting said the jail is certified for 312 prisoners, a figure the 2024 report did not restate, so it is sourced to the news coverage rather than the report. The population has fallen for three straight years, down from a 2022 average of 278.

The booking mix gives a fuller picture of who passes through. Across 2024 the jail recorded 2,631 felony admissions and 1,308 misdemeanor admissions, with smaller counts for traffic, civil, and other classifications. Most bookings were men, at 73 percent, and 18 detainees were held for murder during the year. Those figures count everyone booked across the year, so a one-night hold and a months-long stay each count once.

How to Look Up an Inmate at the Madison County Jail

The county jail roster is a phone channel, not a website. The official instruction on the Jail Division page is to call 618-692-1064 for inmate information, and the FAQ says an automated system returns charge and bond. Sentenced felons are not here; they are found through the Illinois Department of Corrections locator. Federal and immigration custody use the federal and ICE locators instead.

1. Confirm the person was arrested locally or has a pending Madison County case.
2. Call the inmate information line at 618-692-1064.
3. Give the full legal name with a spelling, plus a date of birth and arrest date.
4. Use the automated prompts for charge and bond, or hold for staff if the name does not match.

For the full access-channel chain, including records requests for older bookings, see the jail inmate records page.

Madison County Jail Address and Contact

The jail and the Sheriff's Office share the Randle Street address. The inmate information line is the practical 24-hour channel for custody questions, while administration handles other matters during business hours.

The screenshot below shows the Sheriff's Administration page listing the command staff, including the jail administrator and jail superintendent.

Visiting Someone at the Madison County Jail

The Madison County Jail offers no contact visits and no onsite family or friend visitation. Family and friends visit by video through IC Solutions. A visit is scheduled at least 24 hours and up to a week ahead, lasts 30 minutes, and is monitored and recorded. Offsite visits run from a home computer or phone with a camera. Arriving more than 15 minutes late marks the visit missed. Only an attorney or a court-assigned visitor gets a contact visit, by appointment and after a search.

Mail, Phone, and Money at the Madison County Jail

Mail rules changed in late 2021. The jail no longer accepts non-privileged personal mail at the building. Letters and drawings reach detainees digitally through a free tablet messaging app, and personal mail sent to the jail is returned. Items that are allowed run through a digital mail address in Phoenix, Maryland, marked with the inmate name and Sheriff ID number. Legal mail still goes to the jail, marked privileged. Money goes on a detainee account at the lobby kiosk or online through Access Corrections, capped at 1,500 dollars, with commissary supplied by Keefe.

The screenshot below shows the detainee property and money page with the commissary and deposit rules.

Booking and Intake at the Madison County Jail

Booking begins when a deputy or local officer brings an arrested person to the jail. Holding-area phones let a new detainee make three free calls within the first three hours under a 2022 rule. Intake covers identity, charges, property, a search, and medical and mental-health screening before classification into a housing unit. The county documented work on its intake area, booking office, and holding cells in the 2024 inspection, along with an electronic medical records system and added behavioral-health staffing.

From booking the case heads to court. The sheriff transports detainees to hearings, and the charges a prosecutor files open the court record. Because Illinois pre-trial law shapes the timing, the jail does not promise a fixed window for a first appearance.

Programs, Medical, and Mental Health

The jail runs medical and mental-health care through a contracted provider, Advanced Correctional Health. Detainees ask for care by tablet unless it is an emergency, in which case they are told to notify a corrections officer right away. A nurse request costs 10 dollars and a doctor request 20 dollars, taken from the detainee account, and only emergency dental, vision, and specialty care is offered. Prescribed medication must be taken when scheduled and in front of staff, since keeping it in a cell can bring discipline.

Education and reentry options round out daily life. A GED program runs through Lewis and Clark Community College, with a written request and a waiting list, and Khan Academy is free on the tablets. Non-denominational church services are held on Saturdays and Sundays by written request. The 2024 inspection also documented addiction treatment with a dedicated withdrawal cell block, weekly group therapy, and a Centerstone mental-health professional on site 40 hours a week, alongside the long-running Sheriff's Work Alternative Program.

About the Madison County Jail

The jail's recent story is one of a falling population and a push to improve care, set against real oversight scrutiny. The 2024 inspection by the Illinois Department of Corrections recorded building work and added safety equipment, but it also flagged one problem, timely supervision checks done on time only 60 percent of the time in a sample. A 2025 investigative report raised concerns about restraint-chair use involving detainees in mental-health or withdrawal crises. Edwardsville's older jail history runs deep too. An 1867 jail and sheriff's home once stood at 210 North Main Street, now the site of the Madison County Transit Station, and the present courthouse nearby was built between 1913 and 1915. Taken together, the falling count, the documented care improvements, and the open inspection findings give a fuller and more honest picture of the jail than a single roster lookup ever could.