Illinois inmate search

Local custody across the state is handled by county systems. Illinois VINE connects with circuit courts and county jail booking systems through the Illinois Attorney General Victim Notification System. The Illinois Department of Corrections and the Illinois Department of Human Services are linked to it as well. At booking, jail staff record the arrest of a person; this is the intake step.

In Cook County, the Cook County Sheriff's Office operates the locator covering the Cook County Jail system. At Peoria County Jail, the Sheriff's Corrections division handles inmate visitation, bonding pages, and the jail facility. Each county manages its own records, so begin with the county where the arrest happened.

Rosters list the people currently held in a jail, and they're public. Records are kept separately by each county, so the place to check is that county's roster or the jail itself.

Online tools differ from county to county. Only the Cook County Jail system is searched by the Cook County Sheriff's Office Individual in Custody Locator; other counties aren't covered. You can use the Peoria County Jail portal in Peoria County, where visitation and bonding pages are also posted by the Sheriff's Corrections division. Illinois VINE also lets you search across county jail booking systems.

A new arrest in the last few hours won't show online right away, because the booking process takes time; call the jail directly.

Known as IDOC, the Illinois Department of Corrections operates state prisons. To check state prison custody, use the Illinois Department of Corrections Individual in Custody Search or the IDOC Offender Search site.

People convicted and serving state sentences are covered by this search; those in county jails after arrest are not. An arrest today means your family member is at a county jail, not an IDOC facility.

For state prison victim programs, call the IDOC Victim Services Unit at 877-776-0755. The Prisoner Review Board Victim Notification Unit runs a separate notification service at 800-801-9110.

The statewide victim notification system, Illinois VINE, lets you sign up for alerts and check custody status. It was the Illinois Attorney General's office that implemented this program. It isn't administered by the Illinois Department of Corrections, and its information cannot be accessed by the IDOC Victim Services Unit.

IDOC, the Illinois Department of Human Services, circuit courts, and county jail booking systems all supply the service with data. This helps when you don't know which facility is holding the person. You can also call the support line at 1-866-566-8439, which runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Cash bail no longer exists in Illinois. On 18 September 2023, the SAFE-T Act, including its Pretrial Fairness Act, took effect after passing as Public Act 101-652. 725 ILCS 5/110-1.5, part of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963, abolishes the posting of monetary bail. Arrests made for another state are the only exception, covered by the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act.

Getting someone released won't cost you any money. Article 110 rules guide the courts instead, including 725 ILCS 5/110-5, 725 ILCS 5/110-6.1, and 725 ILCS 5/110-5.2. A person who goes home while awaiting trial is on pretrial release. There are 4 outcomes the court can choose from:

• Conditional release before trial
• Supervised release
• Unsupervised release
• Refusal of pretrial release, an outcome that requires a State petition and a hearing first