Mason County Jail Inmate Lookup

Mason County Jail Overview

Mason County Jail sits at 102 West Market Street in Havana, operated by the Mason County Sheriff's Department. The 2024 state inspection names Sheriff Paul Gann as custodian and Dave Baker as jail superintendent. The jail holds adults in three broad groups: people awaiting court, people serving short local sentences, and detainees held for other jurisdictions. It reports no juvenile capacity, so minors are not housed here.

The building dates to 1989 and runs on a single detention floor. The inspection lists its housing as 14 double cells, 4 double detention rooms, and two six-bed dorms, which add up to 44 rated beds. That makes it a small county jail, not a regional or state facility. Sentenced felons do not stay here; once sentenced to prison they transfer into the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Mason County Jail Capacity and Population

The clearest capacity and population numbers come from the 2024 IDOC compliance report. The jail is rated for 44 total beds, with 40 male and 4 female. On the September 11, 2024 inspection date it held 27 people, made up of 25 men and 2 women, and no juveniles. That works out to roughly 61 percent of capacity on that date, so the jail was below its rated limit.

Older figures suggest the count has eased over time. The Vera Institute jail dataset lists a Mason County jail population near 38 in 2019 and about 47 back in 2013, both above the 27 recorded in 2024. Those come from a different source and method, so they read as a rough trend rather than an exact line.

Staffing on the books was 11 full-time jail-duty employees and 5 part-time jail officers. The inspection flagged that the jail sometimes used a single officer on a shift, while the standards unit expects at least two stationed in the detention area, and it noted the layout makes male and female sight-and-sound separation difficult.

How to Look Up an Inmate at Mason County Jail

Use the county jail channel for someone held here, since this is a local jail and not a state prison. There is no public online roster, so the lookup runs through the sheriff. A phone call confirms current custody, and a written request produces records. The steps below follow that path.

1. Call the Mason County Sheriff's Department at 309-543-2231 and ask the jail desk about current custody.
2. Give the full name, plus a date of birth or booking date if you have one.
3. Confirm whether the person is held here, released, transferred, or kept for another agency.
4. For written records or a booking photo, file a FOIA request with the sheriff's office.

If the person has been sentenced and sent to prison, switch to the state system. The full set of lookup channels, including IDOC, the federal locators, and VINELink, is laid out on the jail inmate records page.

Mason County Jail Address and Contact

The jail shares an address and phone with the sheriff's department in Havana. The sheriff is also the FOIA officer for booking records, so written requests go to the same office. Use the contact card below for visits, custody questions, and records.

The state Jail and Detention Standards Unit oversees this facility and collects its monthly population reports. The IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit page explains the inspections and the data it gathers from county jails.

That oversight is why detailed public facts about the jail, like its bed count and population, come from the state inspection rather than from a county roster.

Visiting Someone at Mason County Jail

The 2024 inspection confirms in-person visitation runs on Sundays and Thursdays, and that Combined Public Communications provides texting and kiosk video visitation. A full hour-by-hour schedule, the approved-visitor process, ID rules, and dress code were not published in official sources. The table reflects only the days the inspection confirmed, so call ahead to lock in times.

Because the published detail is limited, call 309-543-2231 before traveling. The jail can confirm the visit day, whether you are on the approved list, and what you may bring inside.

Mail, Phone, and Money at Mason County Jail

The jail supports mail, phone, and commissary, though the public detail is thin. The inspection confirms mail is reviewed under Illinois jail standards and that detainees may receive letters. No official postcard rule, scanning rule, or public mailing-address format was published, so verify the correct format before sending anything. Combined Public Communications is the named vendor for texting and kiosk video.

Deposit fees and money-deposit methods were not published for the county, so confirm those with the jail. Illinois standards require commissary to be offered regularly, at least weekly, and meals are prepared and delivered by Havanna Health Care.

Booking and Intake at Mason County Jail

Local arrests are brought here when detention is appropriate. The inspection checklist lays out the intake steps: officers verify the legality of the confinement and the person's identity, conduct a search under privacy rules, take fingerprints and a photo, and inventory property on a signed receipt. Intake also includes medical and mental-health screening and a reasonable number of completed phone calls as soon as practicable.

After intake, release or detention is a court decision. Illinois ended cash bail as the standard release tool, so the court decides under the Pretrial Fairness Act rather than a fixed bond at the jail. Medical and mental-health services at the jail run through Havana Medical Associates, with emergency dental care through the Cass County Health Department, per the inspection.

Medical Care, Programs, and Jail Conditions

The state inspection gives an unusually clear picture of services inside this small jail. Medical and mental-health care runs through Havana Medical Associates, including onsite and offsite telehealth and telepsych, while emergency dental care comes through the Cass County Health Department. At intake, staff screen for injuries, medical conditions, past mental-health treatment, suicide risk, medication, and pregnancy, and anyone showing psychiatric symptoms or suicidal thoughts is to receive appropriate evaluation and care.

Day-to-day conditions are measured against Illinois jail standards. Detainees are to receive bedding, a towel, necessary clothing, soap, and hygiene items, and the jail must meet space, plumbing, light, shower, and ventilation rules. Classification, which decides housing and supervision, is reviewed at least every 60 days, and the standards call for separating men from women, charged detainees from convicted ones, and people with serious mental-health needs as recommended. Commissary net profits are to go toward education, recreation, or other detainee-benefit uses under the checklist.

Note: the jail collects monthly population reports for the state and keeps booking, property, medical, visitor, and release records on each detainee under the standards.

About Mason County Jail

Mason County Jail serves a small rural county of roughly twelve thousand residents, which is why a 44-bed facility is enough. The 2024 inspection records useful upkeep details, including a fire-alarm inspection in February 2024, extinguisher service in late 2023, and fire drills in March 2024, along with new mattresses and cleaning supplies bought since the prior review. The two open compliance items, single-officer shifts and gender separation, are the facility's main standards concerns rather than crowding.

The standards behind those concerns are set statewide in the county jail code. The Illinois county jail standards, Title 20 Part 701 set the rules for staffing, supervision, and separation that the inspection measures against.

Those statewide standards explain what the jail is held to, from 24-hour supervision to the sight-and-sound separation of male and female detainees.