Morgan County Arrest Records: Who Makes Arrests, Where People Are Booked and How to Get the Report

Who Makes Arrests in Morgan County

The Morgan County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Morgan County. It reported 56 arrests for 2025.

Arrests inside five of the county's cities are reported to the FBI by an agency of the city's own, listed here with the Census population and what each reported:

• Jacksonville, 17,801 residents: 500 arrests reported for 2025.
• South Jacksonville, 3,197 residents: 50 arrests reported for 2025.
• Waverly, 1,147 residents: 0 arrests reported for 2019.
• Meredosia, 794 residents: 1,152 arrests reported for 2025.
• Murrayville, 546 residents: 1,152 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.

How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in Morgan 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.

• Meredosia: 1,152 for 2025, 1,152 for 2024, 1,146 for 2023, 1,132 for 2022, 919 for 2021 and 1,146 for 2020.
• Murrayville: 1,152 for 2025, 1,152 for 2024, 1,146 for 2023, 1,132 for 2022, 919 for 2021 and 1,146 for 2020.
• Jacksonville: 500 for 2025, 761 for 2024, 583 for 2023 and 596 for 2022.
• Morgan County Sheriff's Office: 56 for 2025, 34 for 2024, 46 for 2023, 48 for 2022, 16 for 2021 and 0 for 2020.
• South Jacksonville: 50 for 2025, 73 for 2024 and 73 for 2023.
• Waverly: 0 for 2019.

Together, the five agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,910 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,910 in 2025 against 3,172 in 2024, down 8.3 percent.

Through September 2026, the five agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,797 arrests, against 2,197 in the same months of 2025.

Booking: Where People Arrested in Morgan County Are Held

A person kept in custody after an arrest in Morgan County is held at the county jail, whichever agency made the arrest, apart from the short stay some city departments' own holding cells allow; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked at all. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and the court file takes over from there.

On an average day in 2019 the jail held about 55 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 55 beds, and it ran at 100 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.

SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the Morgan County Sheriff's Office at ilsheriff.org/county/morgan (page title: Morgan County | Illinois Sheriffs' Association), phone (217) 753-2372, 300 West Court, Jacksonville, IL 62650, a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.

A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the Illinois Department of Corrections lists its inmates at idoc.illinois.gov/offender/inmatesearch.html.

How to Find Out About an Arrest in Morgan County

Whether someone was arrested in Morgan County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the case index of the Circuit Court of Morgan County, kept by the Circuit Clerk, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date; the State's Attorney, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at morgancounty-il.com/wp/departments/states-attorney, phone (217) 243-5469).

The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at illinoiscourts.gov/courts-directory/36/Morgan-County-Courthouse/court (page title: Morgan County Courthouse | State of Illinois Office of the Illinois Courts), phone (217) 243-5419, belongs to a lower court, not to the Circuit Court of Morgan County.

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 Morgan 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 Morgan County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (217) 753-2372.
• An arrest in Jacksonville, South Jacksonville, Waverly, Meredosia or Murrayville: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
• A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the State's Attorney, (217) 243-5469, handles discovery for pending cases.
• The court file of a case that was filed: in the Circuit Court of Morgan County it is kept by the Circuit Clerk. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at illinoiscourts.gov, phone (217) 243-5419, is a lower court's.
• Any county record that is not posted: the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at morgancounty-il.com (page title: Public Records | FOIA | Morgan County, IL).
• Your own statewide record: a name-based or fingerprint-based request to the Illinois State Police.

Cities in Morgan County: Who Reports the Arrests

The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for five of the ten cities in Morgan County: Jacksonville, South Jacksonville, Waverly, Meredosia and Murrayville. Franklin, Woodson, Chapin, Concord and Lynnville 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 Morgan County.

SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Morgan County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:

• Jacksonville (17,801)

Frequently Asked Questions

How many arrests are made in Morgan County each year?

Meredosia reported 1,152 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the five agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 2,910 between them.

Where are people arrested in Morgan County booked?

Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Morgan County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.

Are arrest records public in Morgan 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 Morgan County?

From the agency that made the arrest: the Morgan 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; the county records request page SearchSystems verified is at morgancounty-il.com.

Is this the official Morgan 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.