Search the Pulaski County Inmate Population

The Pulaski County Inmate Population

Pulaski County runs one jail. The Pulaski County Detention Center in Ullin is a 240-bed facility, and the official county detention page says it houses people for three different authorities: Pulaski County, neighboring Alexander County, and the United States Marshals Service. That mix matters. A person counted in the Pulaski County inmate population may be a local pretrial defendant, an Alexander County case held under contract, or a federal detainee waiting on a federal court. Sheriff Randy Kern leads the office tied to the jail, with Chief Deputy Daric Smith.

Because the jail serves more than one county and a federal agency, the raw count is best read as a facility population, not as a tally of Pulaski County residents in jail. The county itself is tiny. The size of the population rises and falls with new arrests, court release and detention rulings, sentencing, and transfers to the Illinois Department of Corrections or to federal custody. The sourced figures below come from the county, the Illinois Sheriffs' Association, and the Vera Institute's county jail dataset.

The county posts its detention details on an official page that lists the bed count, visitation, commissary, and records links. A look at that page shows how the county frames the facility.

The official Pulaski County Detention Center page is published at pulaskicountyil.net, and it confirms the 240-bed figure used throughout this page.

The screenshot shows the same county page that lists the JailATM deposit link, the PREA reports, and the FOIA notice, which are the channels readers use when there is no public roster.

Pulaski County Inmate Population Statistics

The clearest sourced numbers for the Pulaski County inmate population are the rated capacity and the Vera Institute jail counts. The county and the Illinois Sheriffs' Association both list 240 beds. Vera's Incarceration Trends file records a total jail population of 214 for 2019, against a rated capacity of 240 that year. A current daily count was not published on the county site, the state jail standards page, or national jail data sources when this page was prepared, so it is shown as not published rather than guessed.

The table sets the key measures next to their source and year so each figure can be traced.

Note: the high jail rate per 100,000 residents that some datasets report is inflated by contract and federal detainees, not by mass jailing of local residents.

Pulaski County Inmate Population Trends

Vera's county file is the best multi-year view of the Pulaski County inmate population. Across the available years the count sits below the rated capacity, and a large part of it came from a federal immigration contract that the county later ended. The pretrial share stays high because the jail held many people for outside authorities. Admissions swing sharply from year to year, which fits a contract facility that moves federal and out-of-county detainees in and out.

These are Vera figures from the county-level dataset. The county has not posted a public dashboard that updates the population for 2024 to 2026, so newer numbers are not shown.

Who Makes Up the Pulaski County Inmate Population

The most detailed breakdown comes from Vera's 2019 record. It shows a population shaped by the federal contract more than by local crime. The pretrial group is far larger than the sentenced group, men far outnumber women, and the single largest race category reflects the immigration detainees held that year. Read these as 2019 facility figures, not as a current snapshot.

• Pretrial vs sentenced - about 168 people in pretrial custody and 46 in sentenced custody in 2019.
• Men vs women - roughly 158 men and 15 women recorded in the 2019 file.
• Race - the 2019 record lists 163 Latinx, 6 Black, and 4 White, a profile driven by the immigration contract.
• Held for other authorities - a large immigration-detention component plus Alexander County and U.S. Marshals Service detainees.

Note: because the county is small and the jail held large contract populations, demographic counts describe who was in the building, not the makeup of one county's residents.

Pulaski County Jail Capacity and the Contract Population

The rated capacity is 240 beds. In the years Vera covers, the jail ran below that line. The 2019 population of 214 worked out to about 89 percent of capacity, and earlier years ranged from roughly 68 to 93 percent. No current overcrowding order, consent decree, or new-construction plan was found in official sources, so this page does not claim one.

The bigger story is the contract footprint. A 240-bed jail is very large for a county that the county website pegged at 6,161 residents in the 2010 Census and that more recent estimates place near 4,900. The jail filled those beds by holding people for other authorities, including a federal immigration contract that ran into 2021. Federal oversight from that period exists in the public record and is described in the recent-oversight notes further down.

Laws Governing the Pulaski County Inmate Population

Several Illinois laws decide what is public about the jail and how the population is tracked. The Freedom of Information Act makes most jail and arrest records open unless an exemption applies, which is why a written request to the jail is the fallback when nothing is posted online. The County Jail Act makes the county keep a jail and names the sheriff as its keeper. A state unit inspects county jails and gathers jail population numbers every month, which is the official pipeline where current figures live even when the county does not post them. A separate act requires that deaths in custody be reported and made public.

The state jail standards unit is the office that quietly holds the monthly count. Its public page explains the inspection and data role.

The Illinois Department of Corrections describes that work on its Jail and Detention Standards Unit page, which is the official route behind population reporting.

That page is why a current Pulaski County count can exist in a state database even when the local site shows nothing.

Pulaski County and the State Prison Population

Sentenced state prisoners are not part of the county jail count. When a Pulaski County case ends in a prison sentence, the person leaves the local jail and enters the Illinois Department of Corrections. The state all-facilities list shows no IDOC prison inside Pulaski County, so a sentenced person is housed elsewhere in the state. To find someone after sentencing, the search moves from the jail to the IDOC Individual in Custody Search. The state locator is covered in the state and federal section below, where the search fields are laid out.

How to Search the Pulaski County Inmate Population

Pulaski County did not publish a confirmed public jail roster on its official site when this page was prepared. There is no last-name search box for the local jail. A non-government page that claims to show the roster actually links to a Kentucky jail system, so Illinois readers should not trust it. The correct search starts with the jail itself and then branches by where the person is in the system.

Before calling, gather the full legal name, any aliases, an approximate arrest date, and the arresting agency if known. Then work the channels in order.

1. Call the Pulaski County Detention Center at 618-845-3512 and ask whether the person is in custody and which authority holds them.
2. For records the jail will not give by phone, send a written FOIA request to the jail's FOIA officer.
3. Search the court case on Judici once charges are filed, completing any browser verification step.
4. If the person was sentenced to state prison, switch to the IDOC Individual in Custody Search.
5. For federal or immigration custody, use the BOP locator or the ICE detainee locator instead.
6. To track release or transfer as a victim or family member, register with Illinois VINE.

Note: a person can drop off local custody without being free, because a transfer to state prison, federal custody, or another county moves them into a different system.

Current Inmate Lookup in Pulaski County

With no online roster, the current-inmate lookup runs through the jail phone line and a written records request. The jail's FOIA process is not a fillable form. It is an instruction sheet that tells you what to send and where. The county accepts requests by mail, email, hand delivery, or fax to the FOIA officer at the detention center. The table shows what a complete request should include so staff can find the record.

The county says charges may be assessed for the information requested, but no per-page fee schedule was published.

Past and Released Inmate Records

Older bookings and releases are not on a public web page for Pulaski County. Because there is no roster, there is also no stated window for how long a release stays visible. A past booking record is requested in writing from the detention center's FOIA officer. Ask for the booking date, the arresting agency, the charges or holds shown at intake, the booking photo if it is releasable, and the release or transfer date. For a person who was later sentenced to state prison, the trail continues in the IDOC locator rather than in any county file.

What a Pulaski County Inmate Record Shows

Because the county does not expose a roster profile, this is a guide to what a requester can ask for, not a list of fields that appear online. The honest description is that the jail holds these details and may release them under Illinois FOIA, subject to redaction. Court charges, by contrast, show up in the Judici case file after the prosecutor acts.

Note: do not expect a public mugshot, bond amount, or housing-unit field for this county, because no such online profile was confirmed.

County Jail vs. State Prison: Where to Look

Readers confuse jail custody with prison custody constantly, and the two use different systems. The county jail holds people before trial and on short terms, while sentenced felons go to the Illinois Department of Corrections. A few plain terms help when reading either record.

Pretrial release

The court lets a person out before the case ends, usually with conditions.

Pretrial detention

The court orders a person held after the State asks and the law's tests are met.

Hold

Another authority's instruction that the jail not release the person on the local case alone.

Detainer

A notice from another county, the state, ICE, or a federal agency asking to keep custody.

State and Federal Inmate Search

When the person is not a current local detainee, the search moves to a statewide or federal locator. The Illinois Department of Corrections runs the Individual in Custody Search for sentenced state prisoners. The federal Bureau of Prisons locator covers federal inmates from 1982 forward, and the ICE detainee locator handles immigration custody. Victims and families can also register with Illinois VINE for custody and case notices. Each system covers a different slice of the population, so the right tool depends on who holds the person.

The IDOC locator accepts a few simple search paths, shown below.

The IDOC search page itself shows these fields and example formats.

The state search lives at the IDOC Individual in Custody Search, which returns the facility where a sentenced person is housed.

Once a person is sentenced out of the Pulaski County jail, this locator, not the county, is where the record continues.

Pulaski County Detention Facilities

Pulaski County has one confirmed detention facility, and it carries the entire local jail population plus the contract detainees it holds for others. State prisons, federal prisons, and any active ICE facility sit outside the county, so a sentenced or federal search leads to a different system.

• Pulaski County Detention Center - the 240-bed county jail in Ullin, holding Pulaski County, Alexander County, and U.S. Marshals Service detainees.

Pulaski County Inmate Population FAQ

How big is the Pulaski County inmate population?

The jail is rated for 240 beds. Vera's data shows a 2019 jail population of 214, which ran under capacity. A current daily count was not published by the county, the state jail standards unit, or national jail data sources when this page was prepared, so a 2026 number is not given here.

How do I search the Pulaski County inmate population?

There is no confirmed public roster for this county. Start by calling the detention center at 618-845-3512 to confirm custody, then file a written FOIA request for records the jail will not release by phone. Use Judici for court charges, and IDOC, BOP, or ICE for sentenced and federal cases.

Can I look up a released or past inmate?

Past bookings are not posted online for Pulaski County. Request a historical booking record in writing from the detention center's FOIA officer, naming the person, the approximate date, and the record you want. If the person was sentenced to prison, follow the trail into the IDOC locator instead.

Why does the jail hold people for other counties and the federal government?

The county's official page says the 240-bed jail houses detainees for Pulaski County, Alexander County, and the U.S. Marshals Service. For years it also held immigration detainees under a federal contract that ended around 2021. That is why the population count is larger than a small county's arrests would explain.