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countySummary.csvCounty summary102 rows · 13 columns
One row per county: population, classification, inspections, failures, incidents, incident rate and deaths.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
countyName | County name. Every source file spells counties differently, so each row is matched to this one list before use |
capacity | Rated capacity of the county jail. Taken from state inspection records |
jailCityName | City or town where the jail is located. Taken from state inspection records |
fips_population | U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2024 county population estimate |
usda_rucc | USDA Economic Research Service Rural-Urban Continuum Code, 2023 |
usda_classification | USDA Economic Research Service Rural-Urban Continuum Code wording, 2023 |
peer_group | Metropolitan, non-metro with a small urban centre, or rural, grouped from usda_rucc |
has_jail | Whether the county operates a jail |
incidents | Count of incident reports filed by the county jail, 2019–2025. Derived from jailIncidents.csv in this package |
incidents_per_10k | Incident reports divided by population, times 10,000. Comparing raw counts would rank counties by size rather than by conditions |
deaths | Count of deaths in custody attributed to the county. Derived from inCustodyDeaths.csv in this package |
deaths_counted_by_state | Of those, the number the state counted. Derived from counted in inCustodyDeaths.csv |
deaths_never_counted | Of those, the number it never counted. Derived from counted in inCustodyDeaths.csv |
jailInspections.csvJail inspections821 rows · 36 columns
One row per inspection: county, year, result and the standards cited.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
year | Year of the inspection |
file | IDOC’s own filename for the report PDF. Joined on year + filename to link each year to the report on idoc.illinois.gov |
county | County name as printed on the report. Normalised to a canonical county before use |
inspector | Name of the IDOC inspector who signed the report |
status | Finding of COMPLIANT or NONCOMPLIANT |
noncompliant | Binary value for status |
violations | Free-text list of the standards cited |
701.10 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.10 — Administration. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.20 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.20 — Personnel. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.30 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.30 — Records. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.40 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.40 — Admission Procedures. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.50 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.50 — Orientation. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.60 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.60 — Release Procedures. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.70 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.70 — Classification and Separation. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.80 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.80 — Housing. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.90 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.90 — Medical and Mental Health Care. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.100 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.100 — Clothing, Personal Hygiene, Grooming. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.110 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.110 — Food Services. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.120 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.120 — Sanitation. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.130 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.130 — Supervision. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.140 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.140 — Security. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.150 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.150 — Safety. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.160 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.160 — Discipline. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.170 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.170 — Employment of Detainees. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.180 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.180 — Mail Procedures. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.190 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.190 — Telephone. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.200 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.200 — Visiting. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.210 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.210 — Social Service Programs. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.220 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.220 — Education. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.230 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.230 — Library. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.240 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.240 — Religious Services. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.250 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.250 — Commissary. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.260 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.260 — Recreation and Leisure Time. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.270 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.270 — Juvenile Detention. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.280 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.280 — Temporary Detention Standards. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
701.290 | Cited under Part 701 section 701.290 — Standards for Detention of Youths Prosecuted Under the Criminal Code of 1961. 1 when the inspection cited this standard |
jailIncidents.csvExtraordinary or unusual occurrence reports28,963 rows · 32 columns
One row per extraordinary or unusual incident report: county, year and categories.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
county | Verified county or municipality. This is the county field of record. |
date | Verified incident date |
year | Verified year of the incident |
Verified Occurances Clean | Cleaned free-text description of occurences |
suicide_flag | Incident involved a suicide. |
suicide_text | Supporting text for the suicide flag |
suicideAttempt_flag | Incident involved a suicide attempt. |
suicideAttempt_text | Supporting text for the suicide-attempt flag |
homicide_flag | Incident involved a homicide. |
homicideAttempt_flag | Incident involved an attempted homicide. |
escape_flag | Incident involved an escape. |
escapeAttempt_flag | Incident involved an attempted escape. |
fire_flag | Incident involved a fire. |
seriousInj_flag | Incident involved a serious injury. |
batt_flag | Incident involved a battery. |
riot_flag | Incident involved a riot or rebellion. |
sexOffense_flag | Incident report had the sex offense checkbox marked, see sexOffense_OR_prea below |
assaultStaff_flag | Incident involved an assault on staff. |
assaultDet_flag | Incident involved an assault on a detainee. |
fight_flag | Incident involved a fight among detainees. |
restraintsStrict_flag | Incident report had the restraints checkbox marked, see other_restraint_OR_chair below |
OCSprayStrict_flag | Incident involved OC spray. |
other_flag | Incident fell outside the coded categories. Not read |
other_text | Free text for an uncoded incident. Not published |
other_pepperball | Incident involved a pepperball round. |
other_forcedMed | Incident involved forced medication. |
other_hospital | Incident involved a hospitalisation. |
other_taser | Incident involved a Taser. |
other_prea | Prison Rape Elimination Act was cited in the other text. See sexOffense_OR_prea below |
sexOffense_OR_prea | Sex offence or PREA report |
other_chair_rough | Restraint chairs were cited in the other text. See other_restraint_OR_chair below |
other_restraint_OR_chair | Restraints OR restraint chair were cited |
inCustodyDeaths.csvDeaths in custody238 rows · 5 columns
One row per death in county custody.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
death_date | Date of death |
year | Year of death |
age | Age at death |
county | County whose jail held the person or who had custody of them at the time of death |
counted | 1 if the state counted the death, 0 if it not |
Note on data quality
Before using this data, please familiarize yourself with how we collected and cleaned it.
It’s important to remember that any claims based on jailIncidents.csv, will represent a floor estimate, meaning that the actual number of reported incidents may be higher and the actual number of reportable incidents is likely higher.
We based our data on what was provided to us by the Illinois Department of Corrections based on legally filed and apparently compliant Freedom of Information Act requests, but some months are missing for some counties from the data, including all of calendar years 2019 and 2020 for Cook County.
The data in inCustodyDeaths.csv is similarly a conservative estimate as it was built using a variety of reporting methods. We continued to find additional deaths not reported by the state more than a year into our reporting process and we expect there could be more.
Recommended citation
Illinois Answers Project, “Inside Illinois Jails,” 2026-09-15.
Contact us
If you have questions about the data, find something interesting and want to share or if you use this data in your own project, we would love to hear from you!
Please reach out to Illinois Answers’ data and interactives journalist Andrew Adams.