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 2, 2026.
Wabash County, Illinois, has about 11,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Wabash County Sheriff's Office and one city agency. 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 Wabash 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: Wabash County public records, Illinois arrest records, Illinois inmate search and Illinois criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Wabash County
The Wabash County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Wabash County. It reported 16 arrests for 2023, its latest complete year.
The FBI lists one city in Wabash County with a reporting agency of its own:
- Mount Carmel, 6,771 residents: 110 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 Mount Carmel Reports
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.
- Mount Carmel: 110 for 2025, 150 for 2024, 198 for 2023 and 120 for 2022.
- Wabash County Sheriff's Office: 16 for 2023, 0 for 2020 and 0 for 2019; 2021 and 2022 are missing months.
Mount Carmel's 110 arrests in 2025 were down 27 percent from 150 in 2024.
Through August 2026, Mount Carmel reported 95 arrests, against 69 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Wabash County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Wabash 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 2021 the jail held about 7 people, down from about 10 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2019, the last year with a capacity figure, was 21 beds, and it ran at 48 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the custody page of the Wabash County Sheriff's Office at wabashcountysheriff.com/pages/jail/inmate-roster (page title: Inmate Roster | Wabash County, IL Sheriff's Office), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
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 Wabash County
Whether someone was arrested in Wabash County, and what came of it, shows up in two places: the custody page of the Wabash County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail; the case index of the Circuit Court of Wabash County, kept by the Circuit Clerk, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at illinoiscourts.gov/courts-directory/50/Wabash-County-Courthouse/court (page title: Wabash County Courthouse | State of Illinois Office of the Illinois Courts), phone (618) 262-5362, belongs to a lower court, not to the Circuit Court of Wabash 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 Wabash County
The report of an arrest is released by the agency that made it; the jail and the court hold their own records of the same event, but not the report. 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 Wabash County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Mount Carmel: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- The court file of a case that was filed: in the Circuit Court of Wabash County it is kept by the Circuit Clerk. The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county, at illinoiscourts.gov, phone (618) 262-5362, is a lower court's.
- Your own statewide record: a name-based or fingerprint-based request to the Illinois State Police.
Cities in Wabash County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for one of the four cities in Wabash County: Mount Carmel. Allendale, Bellmont and Keensburg 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 Wabash County.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Wabash County each year?
Mount Carmel reported 110 arrests to the FBI for 2025, its latest full year.
Where are people arrested in Wabash County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Wabash County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Wabash 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 Wabash County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Wabash 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 Wabash 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.