Livingston County Jail Inmate Lookup

Livingston County Jail Overview

The Livingston County Jail is operated by the Livingston County Sheriff's Office at the Public Safety Complex, 844 W. Lincoln Street in Pontiac. It is a county jail, which means it holds people before trial, those serving short local sentences, and people awaiting transfer to another agency. The sheriff, Ryan Bohm, oversees the jail, and Lisa Draper serves as Jail Superintendent.

The facility was built in 2005 on a single detention floor. Its rated capacity is 179 beds, split as 145 male and 34 female, with no juvenile beds. Housing runs across maximum, medium, and minimum units, and the layout includes six eight-person dorms, two twelve-person dorms, 17 single rooms, and 45 double rooms. The jail also says it houses and transports U.S. Marshal detainees under an intergovernmental agreement.

Who Is Held at the Livingston County Jail

The jail is a local custody facility, so its population looks different from a state prison. It holds people at the start of a case and through short local terms, not sentenced felons serving long prison time. Several groups pass through its doors.

• Pre-trial detainees - people held while a case moves through court.
• Sentenced misdemeanants - people serving short local terms.
• People awaiting transfer - those headed to court, another county, or state prison.
• Federal Marshal detainees - held and transported under an intergovernmental agreement.
• Detainees with medical or mental-health needs - served by a provider inside the jail medical group.

Because the mix shifts daily with arrests, releases, and transfers, the jail count is never fixed for long.

Livingston County Jail Capacity and Population

The strongest population figure comes from the state jail inspection on November 7, 2023, which recorded 168 detainees against the 179-bed capacity, about 94 percent full. The day's count split into 152 men and 16 women, so the male side ran slightly over its rated 145 beds while the female side stayed under its 34.

That inspection figure is a single-day count, not a yearly average, so it marks one point in time. The state collects monthly jail counts, but a clean multi-year trend for the county was not posted publicly. The same 2023 inspection listed 29 full-time jail-duty staff, 22 men and 7 women, which works out to roughly six detainees per officer on the inspection day before shifts are counted.

How to Look Up an Inmate at the Livingston County Jail

The Livingston County Jail has no public online roster, so a lookup starts with the phone. The general jail line confirms current custody, and a written records request produces the booking sheet and custody dates. For a sentenced prisoner, the search moves to the state locator.

1. Call the jail information line at 815-844-5774 to ask if the person is in custody.
2. If needed, call the Sheriff's Office at 815-844-2774 or jail administration at 815-842-8079.
3. File a written public-records request for the booking sheet, custody dates, or a releasable booking photo.
4. For a sentenced person, use the state inmate locator after transfer to prison.

The full record process, including the fallback channels, is covered on the jail inmate records page.

Livingston County Jail Address and Contact

The jail shares the Public Safety Complex with the Sheriff's Office and county dispatch. Use the general line for custody questions and the administration line for office matters during business hours.

Directions to the Livingston County Jail

The jail sits west of downtown Pontiac near W. Lincoln Street and West Street. The detainee handbook gives a simple route from the interstate. From I-55, take exit 197 and head east on Route 116 into Pontiac. Continue through three stoplights and one stop sign, cross the railroad tracks, then take the second right onto West Street, and the road ends at the jail.

No official visitor-parking rates or restrictions were published, so confirm where to park before you arrive. The county ended its ShowBus public-transportation contract, and no current official transit route to the jail was listed, which makes a private vehicle the practical way to reach the complex.

Visiting Someone at the Livingston County Jail

Visits at the jail are by video, not in person. The county page says online video through Visitel runs daily, while the detainee handbook lists scheduled video blocks on set days. Visitors need a photo ID with full name and date of birth, must dress appropriately, and can have a visit ended for rule breaks. Each scheduled visit runs about 30 minutes, with up to two video visits a week.

Legal and clergy visits are handled separately and are not counted against family visits. Visitors held at the jail within the past six months are not allowed to visit.

Mail, Phone, and Money at the Livingston County Jail

Regular mail is scanned by a service and shown to the detainee on a tablet, while legal mail goes straight to the jail. Calls are collect through a phone-account vendor, and money for a detainee goes through JailATM. The table sets out each channel.

Commissary orders are placed through the housing-unit phones, due by Sunday at 10:00 p.m. for Wednesday delivery. Prices can change without notice. The jail also runs an optional outside-food program as a behavior incentive, with orders due Thursdays by 10:00 a.m. and no refunds or changes once submitted. Prohibited mail items include glitter, tape, stickers, cash, and similar materials, so plain correspondence is the rule.

Booking and Intake at the Livingston County Jail

A person arrested in the county may be brought in by the sheriff, Pontiac, Dwight, or Fairbury police, the Illinois State Police, or another agency. At intake, officers confirm the legal basis for the hold, verify identity, search the person, log property on a receipt, and take fingerprints and a photo. Booking-area phones are collect, and the handbook says a detainee should get reasonable calls within about an hour to arrange release, a lawyer, or family contact.

Classification begins at intake. Staff weigh the charges, criminal history, and special needs, then assign housing. A medical and mental-health screening is part of admission, and the jail keeps a mental-health provider in its medical group. Classification is reviewed at least every 60 days, and a detainee may ask for a review every 30 days. The screenshot below shows the county's jail mail page.

It lays out the scanning address and the separate legal-mail address that the contact table above summarizes.

About the Livingston County Jail

The jail describes its job as holding people committed to custody in a secure and cost-effective way while it follows state jail standards. It has reintroduced rehabilitative groups, offers AA meetings, religious services, library and law-library access, and recreation, and uses detainee workers in the kitchen, laundry, and general maintenance. Grievances run through a kiosk process, with appeals to the Superintendent and then the state Jail and Detention Standards Unit.

The jail also operates under outside oversight. The state inspects each county jail at least once a year, and the 2023 inspection report is a public document that the county is asked to keep available for public review. The jail runs a zero-tolerance PREA program with several reporting lines, including an anonymous tip line, for any report of sexual abuse or harassment.

When a detainee is sentenced to prison, the jail handles the transfer and custody shifts to the state. From that point the search moves to the state system and, for the prison on the same street, to Pontiac Correctional Center. The two sit close together but answer to different governments.