Andrea Tack

The Winnebago County Jail is a 1,324-bed, direct-supervision facility, with more than 200 corrections officers and 385,000 square feet of space. The jail, as a whole, is designed to accommodate the anticipated growth in population and arrest trends for the next 15 to 20 years.

In addition to ensuring the safety and security of the facility, the staff and its inmates, a large part of the jail operations includes programming, with a total of eight classrooms are available throughout the third and fourth floors where classes such as GED, life skills, religious education and substance abuse education are conducted. Numerous community-based social service organizations participate in these programs which are funded annually by the one cent public safety sales tax.

Other functions of the Corrections Division include the Corrections Emergency Response Team, a K-9 Unit, food services, medical programs and court services.

About the Jail
The first floor of the jail houses such functions as pre-booking, booking, bond out  and the classification units. The second floor is comprised of all special-needs beds. Mental health, medical, maximum and segregation housing units are contained here and monitored in a modified direct supervision setting. The third and fourth floors of the jail are designed identically and hold the general housing unit population monitored under a direct supervision philosophy.

Visitation is done via video, where the public has access to a separate room on the first floor of the justice center that has 65 monitors. The inmate can remain in his housing unit and us monitors that are dedicated to those areas. Video visitation eliminates the need for inmate escorts, controls contraband and ensures visitors are able to have their visit. The bond -out area also is easily accessed by the public from the State Street Justice Center parking lot, eliminating the need for those persons to enter the justice center complex at all.

Each housing unit also contains its own medical exam room, which further reduces the need for inmate escorts. Fresh air recreation space is also provided in each unit and can be utilized by inmates as long as they are following the rules and regulations of the facility.