The Moultrie County Inmate Population
Moultrie County is one of the smaller jail counties in Illinois, and its inmate population reflects that. The county seat is Sullivan, home of about 14,424 residents countywide as of the 2024 U.S. Census Bureau estimate carried by the Federal Reserve Economic Data series. The lone adult lockup is the Moultrie County Jail, operated by the Moultrie County Sheriff's Office. On the three most recent state inspection dates, the jail held between 5 and 15 people against 58 rated beds, so the local inmate count usually runs well under a quarter of capacity.
Who is counted matters. The county jail population is mostly pre-trial: people held after an arrest while their case moves through court, along with a smaller share serving short county sentences or waiting on a transfer. Once a person is convicted of a felony and committed to prison, they leave the county count and join the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) population, which is reported separately. Arrests, bond decisions under Illinois pretrial rules, sentencing, and transfers to state custody are the levers that push the daily number up or down.
The Moultrie County Sheriff's Office is the office of record for current custody. The sheriff publishes contact details, jail-service pages, and state inspection reports, but not a live roster. A look at the sheriff's office page shows the address, the 24-hour jail note, and the service contacts used for most custody questions.
The Sheriff's Office contact page is published at the Moultrie County Sheriff's Office site, which lists Sheriff Gary Carroll, the Hagerman Street address, and the around-the-clock jail status.
That single office handles the jail, civil process, and the records fallback that stands in for a public inmate-population feed, so it is the first stop when you need a current count or a custody check.
Moultrie County Inmate Population Statistics
The hardest local numbers come from the Illinois Department of Corrections jail inspections. State law requires IDOC to inspect each county jail every year, and those reports give a rated capacity and an inspection-day head count for the Moultrie County Jail. The county does not publish an annual average daily population, an annual booking total, or an incarceration rate, so those figures are left out here rather than guessed.
The table below pulls the sourced figures for the Moultrie County inmate population. Each row carries the report and year it came from.
| Measure | Figure | Source / Year |
|---|---|---|
| Rated bed capacity | 58 total (48 male, 10 female, 0 juvenile) | 2025 IDOC jail inspection, April 29, 2025 |
| Inspection-day population | 5 (4 male, 1 female) | 2025 IDOC jail inspection, April 29, 2025 |
| Inspection-day occupancy | 8.6% of rated capacity | Computed from 2025 IDOC inspection |
| Physical layout | 24 two-person rooms, one 10-bed dorm, one segregation room | IDOC inspection checklist |
| County population | 14,424 | U.S. Census Bureau via FRED, 2024 estimate |
These are point-in-time inspection counts, not a daily average. They show a jail that runs lightly populated, but the head count on any given day can be higher or lower than the inspection snapshot.
Moultrie County Inmate Population Trends
Three years of IDOC inspections give a short trend line, and it points down. The inspection-day population fell from 15 in 2023 to 9 in 2024 and 5 in 2025, while the rated capacity held steady at 58 beds. No state report tied that drop to a single cause, and the county has not published the year-round averages that would confirm a lasting trend.
| Year | Inspection-Day Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 15 | Inspected October 10, 2023; 9 male, 6 female; jail noted clean and orderly. |
| 2024 | 9 | Inspected May 21, 2024; 8 male, 1 female. |
| 2025 | 5 | Inspected April 29, 2025; 4 male, 1 female; no noncompliance found. |
Illinois pretrial reform reshaped how courts decide who stays in jail before trial, which can hold down county counts statewide. The state did not publish a Moultrie-specific measure of that effect, so the inspection figures stand on their own as the local record.
Who Makes Up the Moultrie County Inmate Population
The inspection forms break the count down by sex but not by much else. The jail is built for adults only, with no beds approved for anyone under 18. On the 2025 inspection date the count was 4 men and 1 woman; in 2024 it was 8 men and 1 woman; in 2023 it was 9 men and 6 women. The county does not publish a pre-trial versus sentenced split, a felony versus misdemeanor breakdown, or any age and race data, so those details cannot be stated for Moultrie County.
- By sex - the rated design sets aside 48 male beds and 10 female beds; recent counts have skewed male.
- By age - the jail holds adults only and is not approved to hold juveniles, who are listed at zero capacity.
- Pre-trial vs sentenced - most county-jail inmates are pre-trial or serving short local terms; no published split exists.
- Held for other agencies - the jail also holds people on warrants, mittimus commitments, and transfers pending court or state custody.
Moultrie County Jail Capacity and Overcrowding
Overcrowding is not the story here. With 58 rated beds and inspection-day counts of 15, 9, and 5 over the last three years, the Moultrie County Jail has run at 25.9%, 15.5%, and 8.6% of capacity on those dates. The 2025 inspection found no noncompliance with the Illinois County Jail Standards, and no consent decree, emergency release order, or population lawsuit turned up in the official record.
The building opened in 2007 and was described as very clean and orderly in the 2023 inspection narrative. Recent upgrades noted in the 2025 report include fresh exterior paint, a new boiler, a new heat-exchange unit, and a handheld translator bought to help staff communicate across language barriers.
Laws Governing the Moultrie County Inmate Population
A handful of Illinois statutes shape both the jail and the public's access to its data. The Freedom of Information Act makes most jail records open for inspection, the County Jail Act sets up the jail itself, and the Unified Code of Corrections gives IDOC the job of inspecting jails and collecting population data. Arrest-report law adds a fast 72-hour window for specific booking facts. Each statute below is paired with a plain-English note.
Key Statutes:
Illinois FOIA, 5 ILCS 140/3 - public bodies must release records for inspection or copying unless an exemption applies, generally within five business days.
Illinois arrest-report law, 5 ILCS 140/2.15 - core arrest facts, including charges and custody times, must be furnished no later than 72 hours after an arrest.
Illinois County Jail Act, 730 ILCS 125 - requires each county to run a jail and makes the sheriff the warden with custody of those committed.
Unified Code of Corrections, 730 ILCS 5/3-15-2 - establishes the IDOC unit that inspects county jails yearly and collects detainee population statistics.
Together these laws explain why the inspection numbers exist and why the sheriff, not a private database, is the office that confirms who is in custody.
Moultrie County and the State Prison Population
No state prison sits inside Moultrie County, but the state count still touches local cases. A person booked into the Sullivan jail who is later convicted of a felony and sentenced to prison leaves the county population and joins the roughly statewide count tracked by the Illinois Department of Corrections. After that transfer, the jail phone line no longer tracks them; the IDOC locator does.
The nearest state facility of note is Decatur Correctional Center in Macon County, a minimum-security women's prison. It is not a Moultrie County facility, but it is one of the regional prisons where sentenced people from the area may end up. The dividing line is simple: the county jail holds people before and just after a local case, while the state system holds them after a felony sentence.
How to Search the Moultrie County Inmate Population
Moultrie County does not post a searchable jail roster on its official pages, so the search is a short chain of direct channels rather than a web form. The most reliable route is the jail phone line, backed by an in-person visit, a public-records request, the court index, and the state and federal locators when custody has moved.
Before you start, gather the person's full legal name, a date of birth if you have it, and an approximate arrest or booking date. That is enough for staff to check current status.
- Call the Moultrie County Jail at 217-728-4386; the jail answers around the clock and can confirm whether someone is held and on what charges.
- If a call is not enough, visit or contact the Sheriff's Office at 1505 W. Hagerman St. in Sullivan during business hours.
- File a county FOIA request for booking records that staff cannot share informally.
- Check Moultrie County court records on Judici once a case opens, and register with Illinois VINE for custody alerts.
- If the person was sentenced or moved, switch to the IDOC, federal BOP, or ICE locator instead of the jail.
The county jail landing page gathers the inmate-service links a family is most likely to need.
Those service links live on the Moultrie County Jail page, which routes to mail, visitation, funds, phone, and inspection information.
None of those links is a live roster, which is why a phone call remains the fastest way to confirm a current booking.
Current Inmate Lookup in Moultrie County
Because there is no public county roster, the current-inmate lookup is a set of access channels. The table below lays out the working routes and what each one needs. The phone line is the practical front door; the others fill gaps when a call cannot be made or when a written record is required.
| Channel | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jail phone inquiry | Phone call | Identifying details | Call 217-728-4386 with full name, date of birth if known, and arrest date. |
| In-person contact | Counter visit | Photo ID | Sheriff's Office, 1505 W. Hagerman St., Sullivan; business hours for office matters. |
| FOIA request | PDF form | Written request | Use the county FOIA form; describe the booking record and date. |
| VINE notification | Free alert service | Registration | Sign up by phone or web for custody and court-event alerts. |
Staff can answer questions about a person's incarceration status and charges, but they will not pass messages to an inmate. For sentenced state prisoners, the lookup shifts to the IDOC search instead.
Past and Released Inmate Records
Finding someone no longer in the jail works differently. There is no online archive of past Moultrie County bookings, so released-inmate records come through a FOIA request to the office that holds them. A request can ask for an arrest report, a booking record, or a release record by full name and approximate date. Under Illinois law the county generally answers a non-commercial request within five business days.
If the person was convicted and sent to prison, the state locator keeps their record after the jail's role ends. For custody changes such as release, transfer, or escape, the Illinois VINE service can notify you by call, text, or email rather than making you check by hand.
You can register through Illinois VINELink, the state victim and custody notification service that also covers court events.
VINE will not hand you a booking photo or a full record, but it is the simplest way to learn the moment a person's custody status changes.
What a Moultrie County Inmate Record Shows
No public county profile is posted online, so the fields below describe what the jail keeps internally under the state admission checklist rather than a web page you can open. These are the record categories a FOIA request or a phone check may draw on.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Booking and personal record | Identity and intake details kept for each detainee. |
| Fingerprints and photograph | Taken at admission in accordance with current law. |
| Legality of confinement | The legal basis officers confirm before holding a person. |
| Property receipt | A signed list of property and medication taken at intake. |
| Medical screening | Notes on injuries, medical history, and self-harm risk. |
| Release record | The date, time, and authority for each release or transfer. |
A jail booking record reflects the arrest-stage charges. The formal charges a prosecutor files can differ, and those live in the court file rather than the jail record. For booking photos and the law around them, the jail roster mugshots page covers what is and is not public in Moultrie County.
County Jail vs. State Prison: Where to Look
Readers mix these up constantly, so the split is worth stating plainly. The county jail holds pre-trial detainees and people serving short local sentences, and the sheriff is the office to ask. Sentenced felons move to a state prison run by IDOC, which uses its own locator. Looking in the wrong system is the most common reason a search comes up empty.
| County Jail | State Prison (DOC) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who Is Held | Pre-trial and short sentences | Sentenced felons |
| Run By | Moultrie County Sheriff | Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) |
| Where to Look | Jail phone line and FOIA | IDOC online locator |
| How to Confirm | Call 217-728-4386 | Search by name, birthdate, or IDOC number |
State and Federal Inmate Search
Three outside locators cover the people the county jail does not. The Illinois Department of Corrections runs the statewide search for sentenced prisoners, the Federal Bureau of Prisons covers federal inmates, and ICE runs the online locator for immigration detainees. Each takes a different slice of the wider inmate population.
The IDOC Individual in Custody Search accepts a last name, a birthdate, or an IDOC number; the general public can also call IDOC at 217-558-2200 for help.
You can run a state search at the IDOC Individual in Custody Search, which is the correct tool once someone has been sentenced to an Illinois prison.
For federal custody, the Federal Bureau of Prisons locator covers inmates held since 1982, and the ICE Online Detainee Locator System handles immigration holds.
Moultrie County Detention Facilities
The county's detention map is short. One adult jail in Sullivan holds the local inmate population, and no state, federal, or immigration facility operates inside the county. The facility page below covers contact details, lookup steps, and visitation for the jail.
- Moultrie County Jail - the sole adult lockup, holding pre-trial detainees and people serving short county sentences.
Moultrie County Inmate Population FAQ
How big is the Moultrie County inmate population?
On the last three state inspection dates, the Moultrie County Jail held 15 people in 2023, 9 in 2024, and 5 in 2025, against 58 rated beds. Those are point-in-time counts from the IDOC jail inspections. The county does not publish a year-round average daily population, so the inspection numbers are the best official snapshot of the inmate population.
How do I search the Moultrie County inmate population?
There is no public online jail roster. Call the Moultrie County Jail at 217-728-4386 with the person's full name, date of birth, and arrest date. You can also visit the Sheriff's Office in Sullivan, file a county FOIA request for booking records, check the court index on Judici, and register with Illinois VINE for custody alerts.
Can I look up a released or past inmate?
Yes, but not through a website. Records for released inmates come from a FOIA request to the office that holds them, usually the sheriff for booking records. If the person was sentenced to prison, the Illinois Department of Corrections locator keeps their record after they leave the county jail.
Where do sentenced inmates go after the Moultrie County Jail?
Once convicted of a felony and committed, a person transfers from the Sullivan jail into the Illinois Department of Corrections. From that point the jail no longer tracks them, and the IDOC Individual in Custody Search becomes the right lookup. The jail still handles pre-trial detainees and people serving short local sentences.