The Massac County Inmate Population
Massac County is a small county in the far south of Illinois, with the county seat at Metropolis. It has one local lockup, the Massac County Detention Center, also called the Massac County Jail in state reports. The Massac County Sheriff's Office runs it, and the people inside on any given day are the county inmate population. That group is a mix. Some are held before trial. Some are serving short local sentences. A few are held under contract for nearby Johnson and Pope counties, so not everyone in the building was arrested in Massac County.
The best public count of the Massac County inmate population comes from yearly jail inspections by the Illinois Department of Corrections, not from a live dashboard. The sheriff keeps current inmate information in a phone app instead of a public web roster. Numbers rise and fall with arrests, with how judges rule on pretrial release, with sentencing, and with transfers to state prison. Because the jail also holds contract detainees, a head count at the jail is not the same as a count of people charged in Massac County.
Massac County Inmate Population Statistics
The clearest figures come from the 2024 state jail inspection, dated June 18, 2024. On that day the jail held 22 people against a rated capacity of 42 beds, so it sat at about 52 percent of capacity. The same report listed 34 male beds and eight female beds. The Illinois Sheriffs' Association county page also lists 42 jail beds, which lines up with the state figure.
Some metrics that larger counties publish were not found for Massac County in official sources. There is no posted average daily population, no annual booking count, and no public daily roster total. The table below lists only figures that trace back to a named source and year.
| Measure | Figure | Source / Year |
|---|---|---|
| Rated bed capacity | 42 total (34 male, 8 female) | IDOC jail inspection, 2024 |
| Inspection-day population | 22 (20 male, 2 female) | IDOC jail inspection, June 18, 2024 |
| Share of capacity used | About 52 percent | Calculated from 2024 inspection |
| County jail beds | 42 | Illinois Sheriffs' Association |
| National jail rate (context) | 198 per 100,000 residents | BJS Jail Inmates in 2023 |
Massac County Inmate Population Trends
Two inspection snapshots, two years apart, tell the clearest trend story for the jail. In 2022 the jail was crowded. In 2024 it was about half full. The state did not explain what drove the drop, so it should be read as a change between two single days, not as a full daily time series.
On June 15, 2022, the jail held 46 people against a 40-bed capacity, and the inspection found the jail six beds over its total. By the 2024 visit, capacity had grown to 42 and the count had fallen to 22. The swing is large for a jail this size, and it shows the building has felt real pressure in recent years even though the latest day was calm.
| Inspection Date | Population | Capacity | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 15, 2022 | 46 | 40 | Six over capacity; 38 male, 8 female. |
| June 18, 2024 | 22 | 42 | About half full; 20 male, 2 female. |
Who Makes Up the Massac County Inmate Population
The one breakdown the state reports for the jail is by sex. The rest, such as race, age, and the split between people awaiting trial and people serving time, was not published for Massac County in the sources reviewed. So the honest picture is partial. What is on record is useful, and it is listed below.
- Sex split - The 2024 inspection counted 20 male and two female detainees; the 2022 inspection counted 38 male and eight female.
- Juveniles - No juveniles were held on either inspection day, and the jail is not run as a youth facility.
- Contract holds - The jail houses detainees for Johnson and Pope counties under contract, so part of the count comes from outside Massac County.
- Pretrial vs sentenced - No local split was published; statewide, most jail detainees in Illinois are held before trial.
Because the jail holds people from neighboring counties, the phrase Massac County inmate population really means the people inside the Massac County jail, not only people whose cases belong to Massac County. To learn whose case sits in which county, a reader has to check court records and the arresting agency, not just the head count.
Massac County Jail Capacity and Housing
The jail was built in 1990 and rated for 42 beds in the 2024 inspection. The housing mix gives the count more meaning than a single bed number. The state report lists 11 double cells with barred doors, two single isolation rooms, three double detention rooms with solid doors, and three four-bed dorms. Three holding rooms in the booking area and one safety cell are special-purpose spaces and do not count toward the bed total.
Capacity has not always held the line. The 2022 report flagged the jail as six over its limit on inspection day and noted the staff was waiting on approval to move two people to state prison and three to a state human-services bed. The 2024 report did not call the jail overcrowded, since it sat at 22 of 42. Taken together, the two years show a jail that can fill up quickly when transfers stall, then ease when the count falls.
Laws Governing the Massac County Inmate Population
The numbers above exist because Illinois law requires them. State rules set how the jail keeps records, how often it is inspected, what counts as a public record, and how a death in custody is reported. The short list below ties each statute to what it means in plain terms, so a reader knows where the public data comes from.
Key Statutes:
Illinois 730 ILCS 5/3-15-2 and 5/3-15-3 - Set up the state Jail and Detention Standards Unit and require it to inspect county jails every year for compliance.
Illinois 20 Admin. Code 701.30 - County jails must keep booking and personal records and forward monthly population reports to the state standards unit.
Illinois 5 ILCS 140 - The Freedom of Information Act opens jail and booking records to the public unless a listed exemption applies.
Illinois 730 ILCS 210 - The Reporting of Deaths in Custody Act requires agencies to report deaths in custody to the state, which posts the information.
These rules explain why the inspection reports are public even when no live dashboard exists. The monthly population report goes to the state by law, so the count is tracked even though it is not posted online each day. Note: a record being public under state law does not mean every part of it is released, since privacy, juvenile, and active-case exemptions can apply.
Massac County and the State Prison Population
The county jail is only one part of the custody picture. People convicted of a felony and sentenced to prison leave the jail and join the Illinois Department of Corrections system, which is counted and searched on its own. No state prison sits inside Massac County, so a sentenced person from the county serves time elsewhere in the state and shows up in the state locator rather than the county jail.
The state corrections facilities page explains that prisons are listed apart from county jails and that federal lockups do not fall under state control. For a reader tracking one person, the rule of thumb is simple. Check the county jail while the case is local and pending. Switch to the state locator once a prison sentence begins. The two counts should never be added together as if they were one Massac County inmate population.
How to Search the Massac County Inmate Population
Massac County is an app-first county for current inmate information. The sheriff's official inmate listing page does not show a normal search box. Instead it tells the public to download the Massac County Sheriff app, which the sheriff says carries jail information and current inmate information. That changes the usual steps, so the walkthrough below follows the official channel rather than a web roster that does not exist.
The sheriff's home page shows the app announcement and the money and bond links for the jail. The official starting point is the Massac County Sheriff's Office home page, which points to both the app and the jail pages. Use it to confirm you are on the real county channel before downloading anything.
The sheriff's home page links the app and the JailATM money and bond tool side by side, as the screenshot shows, which is why people often find the inmate feature and the deposit feature in the same place.
- Open the sheriff's inmate listing page and download the Massac County Sheriff app from the Apple App Store or Google Play.
- Open the app's jail or current inmate information feature and search by the person's name.
- If the app is missing the person or looks out of date, call the jail at 618-524-2912 to confirm.
- If the person was sentenced to prison, check the state inmate locator instead of the county app.
Note: the app's exact search fields and how fast it updates were not published by the sheriff, so a phone call is the better route right after an arrest.
Current Inmate Lookup in Massac County
Because the county does not expose a public web roster, the smart move is to gather a few details before you search the app or call the jail. The more you can confirm, the faster the staff can find the right person, especially when the jail holds contract detainees from other counties. The short table below lists the details worth having ready.
| Detail | Type | Helpful? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full legal name | Text | Yes | Have the correct spelling and any middle name. |
| Date of birth or age | Date | Strongly | Separates people who share a common name. |
| Arrest date or time | Date | Helpful | Useful when a booking is only hours old. |
| Arresting agency | Text | Helpful | Sheriff, Metropolis police, or state police. |
A current-inmate question that the app cannot answer should go to the jail line at 618-524-2912. That covers a brand-new booking, a possible release, or a person who may be held for Johnson or Pope counties. For the full roster how-to and the access-channel chain, the jail inmate records page goes step by step.
What a Massac County Inmate Record Shows
A jail booking record is built at intake and updated as a case moves. The sheriff's public web pages do not show a sample profile, so the fields below describe what a booking record commonly holds rather than a confirmed app screen. State jail standards require the jail to keep booking and personal records, and the 2024 inspection noted the jail had added a live-scan fingerprint machine and a modern jail management system, which supports a full internal record even when the public view is limited.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Booking Number | The case number the jail assigns at intake. |
| Booking Date | When the person was logged into custody. |
| Charges | The arrest charges, which can differ from later court charges. |
| Bond or Hold | Any release condition, payment, or hold from another agency. |
| Housing Unit | The cell, dorm, or detention room assignment. |
| Custody Status | Whether the person is still held, released, or transferred. |
Some terms on a record confuse readers, so a few are defined here.
- Booking
- The intake event after arrest, when identity, charges, fingerprints, and a photo are recorded.
- Detainer
- A hold placed by another county, the state, federal authorities, or immigration that can block release.
- Classification
- The jail's review that decides a person's housing and security level.
- Pretrial release
- Release before trial under court-ordered conditions, used in Illinois in place of money bail for new cases.
Past and Released Inmate Records
Finding someone who is no longer in the jail takes a different path. The sheriff app is built for current inmate information, and how long a released person stays visible was not published. So for an older booking, the better routes are the court file and a records request. Court records show the charges and case status, while a written request can pull a past booking record from the sheriff.
For a formal copy of an older booking sheet, arrest report, or booking photo, a Freedom of Information Act request to the sheriff under 5 ILCS 140 is the tool. Name the person, the booking date, and the exact record sought, and ask for an electronic copy. Some parts can be withheld, such as juvenile, medical, or active-case details, so a request does not guarantee every page.
County Jail vs. State Prison: Where to Look
The single most common mistake is searching the wrong system. The county jail and the state prison system hold different people and use different lookups. A person waiting on a local case sits in the county jail. A person serving a felony sentence sits in state prison and is found through the state locator. The table below sorts the two so a search starts in the right place.
| County Jail | State Prison (DOC) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who Is Held | Pretrial and short local sentences | Sentenced felons |
| Run By | Massac County Sheriff's Office | Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) |
| Where to Look | Massac County Sheriff app and jail phone line | State inmate locator |
| Stays Listed | While in current custody (app-based) | Through the prison term |
State and Federal Inmate Search
Once a person leaves the county jail, three other systems may carry the record. The state locator covers sentenced prisoners, the federal locator covers people in federal prison, and the immigration locator covers people held by immigration authorities. Each one searches a different slice of custody, so the right tool depends on which system holds the person.
Sentenced prisoners from Massac County appear in the IDOC Individual in Custody Search, which takes a last name, birthdate, or state ID number. People in federal prison appear in the Federal Bureau of Prisons locator, and immigration detainees appear in the ICE Online Detainee Locator. Families who want alerts on a release or a transfer can also register with Illinois VINE for notifications.
The state corrections facilities list spells out that prisons are separate from county jails and that federal sites are outside state control.
The IDOC facilities page shown above is the place to confirm where a sentenced person is held once the case leaves the county.
Massac County Detention Facilities
Massac County's detention map is short. Official sources name one local jail that holds part of the county inmate population, and other custody systems serve the county from outside its borders. The facility below has its own page with full contact, visitation, and lookup detail.
- Massac County Detention Center - The county jail in Metropolis, holding pretrial and short-sentence detainees plus contract holds for Johnson and Pope counties.
People from the county who move into other systems are found through the state, federal, and immigration locators named above rather than through a second local jail.
Massac County Inmate Population FAQ
How big is the Massac County inmate population?
The latest public count is from the 2024 state jail inspection, which found 22 people held on June 18, 2024, against a rated capacity of 42 beds. Two years earlier the same inspection found 46 people. There is no posted daily total, so the inspection snapshots are the most reliable public figures, and they can differ a lot from one year to the next.
How do I search the Massac County inmate population?
Start with the Massac County Sheriff app, which the sheriff names as the channel for current inmate information, since the website has no public roster. If the app is missing the person or seems out of date, call the jail at 618-524-2912. For a sentenced prisoner, use the state inmate locator instead of the county app.
Does the jail hold people from other counties?
Yes. The 2024 inspection states the jail houses detainees for Johnson and Pope counties under contract. That means a count at the jail can include people whose cases belong to a neighboring county, so the head count is not the same as the number of people charged in Massac County.
Can I look up a released or past inmate?
The app focuses on current custody, and the sheriff did not publish how long a released person stays listed. For an older booking, check the court case through Judici or the circuit clerk, and request the booking record from the sheriff under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act if you need an official copy.