Morgan County Jail Overview
The Morgan County Jail is operated by the Morgan County Sheriff's Department at 300 West Court Street in Jacksonville. It is a county jail, not a prison, so it holds adults arrested in the county before trial, people serving short local sentences, and some detainees held for other jurisdictions. The current sheriff is Mike Carmody, and the 2024 state inspection names Weston Crews as the jail administrator. Because the jail takes people for other agencies, not everyone inside has a Morgan County case.
The jail was built on January 1, 1984. The 2024 inspection lists its layout as 5 single detention rooms, 26 double detention rooms, and one 8-bed dormitory, with 65 rated beds split as 55 male and 10 female. The report records no juvenile beds and no juveniles held, which fits Illinois rules that keep juvenile matters separate and confidential.
The sheriff and the jail are county offices, and the county elected-officials page names the sheriff who oversees them. You can see that page, which lists Sheriff Mike Carmody, in the Morgan County elected officials listing below.
The page confirms the elected sheriff and the prosecutor, the two offices most tied to who ends up in the jail and what happens next.
Morgan County Jail Capacity and Population
The clearest figures for the jail come from the 2024 state inspection, dated November 26, 2024. The jail is rated for 65 beds and held 28 people that day, 23 men and 5 women, which is about 43 percent of capacity. That count is a single-day snapshot, not an average, so it should not be read as the jail's everyday population.
Staffing in the 2024 report included 9 employees assigned full-time to jail duties, plus part-time officers and some non-jail staff performing jail tasks. The inspection found the jail under capacity that day, with 37 beds open.
How to Look Up an Inmate at the Morgan County Jail
The Morgan County Jail does not have a public online roster, so the lookup is a phone-and-records process rather than a website search. Use the jail and sheriff line at (217) 243-6123 first, then move to records or court channels depending on the stage of the case. The steps below mirror that chain.
- Call (217) 243-6123 and ask whether the person is currently held at the Morgan County Jail.
- Have the full name, a date of birth or rough age, and the arrest date ready to narrow common names.
- If the detail is not available by phone, ask about a records request to the Sheriff's Department records officer.
- Once charges are filed, check the case through the Circuit Clerk's Judici link, and use the statewide locator if the person was sentenced to prison.
The full set of channels, including the records request and the statewide and federal options, is laid out on the jail inmate records page.
Morgan County Jail Address and Contact
The jail and the Sheriff's Office share an address and a phone line in downtown Jacksonville. The public office keeps weekday hours, though secure jail operations continue around the clock. Confirm any visit or records question by phone first.
Morgan County Jail
300 West Court Street
Jacksonville, IL 62650
(217) 243-6123
Office hours Mon-Fri 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Getting to the Morgan County Jail
The jail sits in downtown Jacksonville near the county courthouse and the government complex along West State Street. Drivers coming in on Interstate 72 generally enter from the south or east and head toward the downtown government area, while those on U.S. 67 or Illinois Route 104 use the local street grid into downtown. Official sources did not publish a visitor parking rate, a lot name, or transit routes, so leave time for downtown parking and screening, and confirm parking at the facility before you arrive. Anyone who needs an accessibility accommodation should call ahead at (217) 243-6123, since no jail-specific entrance instructions were posted.
Visiting Someone at the Morgan County Jail
The 2024 inspection confirms the jail uses both in-person and video visitation. What it does not provide is a public schedule, a dress code, or a video-visit vendor link, so the table below states what is documented and points you to call for the rest. Listing specific days and hours would mean inventing them, which this page will not do.
| Visit Type | Schedule | Source / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| In-person visits | Not published in official sources | Inspection confirms in-person visits; call (217) 243-6123 |
| Video visits | Not published in official sources | Inspection confirms video visits; vendor link not located |
| Attorney or clergy visits | Not published in official sources | Call the jail for professional visitation steps |
| Holiday or lockdown rules | Not published in official sources | Confirm directly before traveling |
Mail, Phone, and Money at the Morgan County Jail
Inmate phone service runs through Combined Public Communications, named as the phone vendor in the 2024 inspection. Commissary is handled in-house by county staff rather than a named online vendor. Mail goes to the jail address, but the exact inmate-addressing format was not published, so call before sending anything. The inspection does not post a public fee schedule for calls, commissary, or deposits, so confirm those with the jail.
| Service | Provider / Detail |
|---|---|
| Mail Address | Morgan County Jail, 300 West Court Street, Jacksonville, IL 62650 (confirm format first) |
| Phone | Combined Public Communications |
| Commissary | In-house, run by county staff |
| Money Deposit | No official online vendor located; confirm with the jail |
Booking and Intake at the Morgan County Jail
A booking begins when an officer brings an arrested person to 300 West Court Street and turns them over for intake. Staff verify identity, check for warrants and holds, search the person, inventory property, take fingerprints and a booking photo, and run medical and mental-health screening before classifying the person for housing. The 2024 inspection confirms admitting, screening, classification, and detainee records are all standard inspection areas at the jail.
After booking, the case enters the Illinois pretrial system that replaced cash bail in September 2023. A judge decides release conditions or, on a prosecutor's petition, detention. Medical and mental-health care at the jail in 2024 was provided through a county-employed nurse working 40 hours a week on site, with practitioner hours, around-the-clock on-call coverage, and weekly qualified mental-health professional time for screenings and referrals.
About the Morgan County Jail
Beyond the numbers, the 2024 inspection paints a detailed local picture. Weekday meals are prepared with Passavant Area Hospital, and jail kitchen staff handle weekend meals, with food portioned and served by jail staff. The food-prep area passed a Morgan County Health Department inspection in November 2024 with no violations. Pest control runs monthly, and fire suppression systems were serviced in November 2024 after an emergency drill in October.
The report also lists recent improvements: a new generator, emergency buttons, toilets added to two holding cells, a bed added to a holding cell, new blankets and towels, and a detainee handbook uploaded to the housing kiosks. Its two noncompliance findings were about missing documentation of annual suicide-prevention and mental-health training and a supervision sample where 15 of 179 checks ran past the 30-minute requirement. The inspector notes also list the facility's control devices as tasers, OC spray, and restraint chairs, and confirm that the jail houses detainees for other jurisdictions, which is why not everyone inside has a Morgan County case. The jail-administrator role changed before the 2024 inspection, with Weston Crews named administrator after serving as assistant under Tim Megginson in the 2023 report. Once a person held here is convicted and sentenced to prison, custody transfers out of the county to a state facility such as Jacksonville Correctional Center, searched through the statewide locator.
Note: Confirm custody status and any visitation rules with the Morgan County Jail by phone before traveling, since details can change without public notice.