Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones each agency reported to the FBI, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026. The jail figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site between September 23, 2026 and October 1, 2026.
Marion County, Illinois, has about 36,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Marion County Sheriff's Office and six city agencies. An arrest leaves the same records whoever makes it: the arresting agency's report, the record of anyone held at the county jail, and, if the State's Attorney files charges, a case in the Circuit Court of Marion County. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts each agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies, cities and common questions.
Related guides: Marion County public records, Illinois arrest records, Illinois inmate search and Illinois criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Marion County
The Marion County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Marion County. It reported 126 arrests for 2025.
The FBI lists six cities in Marion County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population and what each reported:
- Centralia, 11,787 residents: 860 arrests reported for 2025.
- Salem, 7,016 residents: 173 arrests reported for 2025.
- Sandoval, 1,125 residents: 15 arrests reported for 2023.
- Central City, 1,067 residents: 1,152 arrests reported for 2025.
- Patoka, 508 residents: 2 arrests reported for 2025.
- Iuka, 490 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2025.
A city on that list is reported separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
The Wamac Police Department is listed by the FBI across three counties including Marion County, so its arrests are not broken out for Marion County here.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Marion County
Each agency reports its arrests to the FBI by month, and the FBI publishes them on the Crime Data Explorer. These are the full-year totals, all offenses, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026; a year with months missing or not reported is left out.
- Central City: 1,152 for 2025, 1,152 for 2024, 1,146 for 2023, 1,132 for 2022, 919 for 2021 and 1,146 for 2020.
- Centralia: 860 for 2025 and 288 for 2023; 2024 is missing months.
- Salem: 173 for 2025, 164 for 2024, 105 for 2023, 113 for 2022 and 89 for 2021.
- Marion County Sheriff's Office: 126 for 2025, 86 for 2023 and 125 for 2022; 2024 is missing months.
- Patoka: 2 for 2025 and 2 for 2024.
- Iuka: 0 for 2025.
- Sandoval: 15 for 2023, 0 for 2020 and 0 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
Together, the six agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,313 arrests that year. The three of them with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 1,327 in 2025 against 1,318 in 2024, up 0.7 percent.
Through July 2026, the five agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,274 arrests, against 1,382 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Marion County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Marion County and kept in custody ends up, whichever agency made the arrest, though a city department may hold someone in its own cells first and a person cited and released at the scene is never booked. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and once the person is released or sentenced the record continues in the court file.
On an average day in 2019 the jail held about 120 people. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the custody page of the Marion County Sheriff's Office at inmateinfo.indy.gov/IML (page title: Inmate Lookup Tool), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 1, 2026.
That page is the place to look for someone who was booked recently; a person cited and released at the scene, or held only a few hours by a city department, will not be on it.
A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Illinois Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at idoc.illinois.gov/offender/inmatesearch.html.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Marion County
Whether someone was arrested in Marion County, and what came of it, shows up in three places: the custody page of the Marion County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Circuit Court of Marion County, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at marioncountyil.gov/circuit-clerk/links-resources); the State's Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at marioncountyil.gov/states-attorney, phone (618) 548-3860).
Illinois is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: conviction information is public under the Uniform Conviction Information Act, through the Illinois State Police. That record shows what agencies reported to the state, which is wider than one county's court index but can lag it.
Getting a Copy of an Arrest Record in Marion County
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act the agency must answer within 5 business days, with one 5-day extension, and it may charge copying only after the first 50 pages.
- An arrest by the Marion County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Centralia, Salem, Sandoval, Central City, Patoka or Iuka: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the State's Attorney, (618) 548-3860, handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Circuit Court of Marion County, through the court records page at marioncountyil.gov.
- Your own statewide record: a name-based or fingerprint-based request to the Illinois State Police.
Cities in Marion County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for six of the 13 cities in Marion County: Centralia, Salem, Sandoval, Central City, Patoka and Iuka. Odin, Kinmundy, Junction City, Alma, Kell, Vernon and Walnut Hill have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Circuit Court of Marion County.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Marion County each year?
Central City reported 1,152 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the six agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 2,313 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Marion County?
Look on the custody page of the Marion County Sheriff's Office at inmateinfo.indy.gov/IML. It covers people booked into the county jail.
Where are people arrested in Marion County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Marion County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Marion County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Illinois State Police: conviction information is public under the Uniform Conviction Information Act. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Marion County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Marion County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act the answer is due within 5 business days, with one 5-day extension.
Is this the official Marion County website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.