LaSalle County Jail Inmate Lookup

LaSalle County Jail Overview

The LaSalle County Jail is operated by the LaSalle County Sheriff's Office at the Etna Road Complex in Ottawa. The sheriff describes it as a medium-security facility used to confine people for short periods while they await trial or processing, and the county jail page adds that it also houses minimum and maximum security inmates. Running the jail is one of the sheriff's core duties, alongside patrol of the unincorporated county, court security, and service of legal documents. Sheriff Adam Diss leads the office.

The building dates to 2002 and was not renovated as of the 2024 state inspection. That inspection recorded an unusual housing layout: two sixteen-bed dorms, two twenty-four-bed dorms, twenty-four single detention rooms, ninety-seven double detention rooms, and one eight-bed dorm. Full-time jail-duty staff numbered 42 men and 12 women. County pages have listed different jail superintendent names over time, including Jason Edgcomb, Jackie Underhill, and Mark Larson, so the county staff directory is the place to confirm the current superintendent.

LaSalle County Jail Capacity and Population

The 2024 Illinois Department of Corrections inspection, dated July 9, 2024, is the clearest sourced snapshot. It lists a rated capacity of 306 beds, split as 266 male and 40 female, and recorded 64 people in custody that day, made up of 58 men and 6 women, with no juveniles. The county jail page rounds the bed count to 305, so the two official sources differ by one bed.

On that date the jail ran near 21 percent of capacity, with more than 240 open beds. That is a point-in-time figure, not a yearly average, since the research did not locate a published multi-year average daily population. The archive of jail inspection reports gives a sense of how often the facility is reviewed.

The county keeps prior inspection reports on file, which is useful background on the jail. The jail inspection archive lists reports from several years.

These reports are the most granular public source for the building's capacity, staffing, and standards, which is why the page leans on them rather than on any third-party estimate.

How to Look Up an Inmate at the LaSalle County Jail

Current custody at the jail is searched through the sheriff's iSOMS portal, not the state prison locator. The portal links a current Jail roster, a 24-hour intake and release list, and a 72-hour intake and release list, each behind a Google reCAPTCHA human check.

1. Open the iSOMS portal and choose Jail for current custody.
2. Complete the human check if prompted, since the roster will not load until it clears.
3. For a recent arrest, check the 24-hour and 72-hour intake and release lists first.
4. If the person is not listed, call the jail at 815-434-8383 for current custody and release status.

Once a person is sentenced and transferred to state prison, the lookup moves off this roster. The LaSalle County jail inmate records page walks through the same roster in more detail, and sentenced individuals are searched through the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Recent Bookings and the iSOMS Human Check

A brand-new arrest does not always show on the main roster right away. The iSOMS portal carries a 24-hour intake and release list and a 72-hour intake and release list for exactly this reason, since booking and intake processing must finish before a full record posts. For a person picked up overnight, those two lists are often the fastest way to confirm a booking.

The roster also sits behind a Google reCAPTCHA human check. When the Jail page redirects to a prompt that asks you to prove you are human, that is the official site, not a third-party block. Complete the check and the list loads. A reader who gives up at that screen may wrongly conclude the county has no roster, when the list is simply one step away. When timing is urgent, the jail phone line answers faster than any online list.

LaSalle County Jail Address and Contact

The jail and the sheriff's office share the Etna Road Complex. For bonds, visitation, inmate calling, mail, accounts, or commissary questions, the county directs people to the jail's main number.

Visiting Someone at the LaSalle County Jail

All visits at the jail are video. The county sets a daily window, caps each visit at 30 minutes, and requires scheduling 24 hours ahead. In-facility video visits must be booked at least the day before, and visitors must present photo identification. The dress code is strict and bans dresses, sleeveless, tank, midriff, and see-through tops, and a violation ends the visit.

The official rules also ban phones, cameras, and recording devices, and require personal property other than car keys to stay in the vehicle. The county publishes the full policy and dress code online.

Reviewing the rules before a visit prevents a wasted trip. The jail visitation rules page lists the conduct and dress requirements in full.

Because all visiting is video, even an in-facility visit happens on a screen, so plan for the scheduling and ID steps rather than a traditional face-to-face visit.

Mail, Phone, and Money at the LaSalle County Jail

Mail goes to the inmate's name, LaSalle County Jail, 707 E Etna Road, Ottawa, IL 61350. Since early 2021 the jail scans letters, cards, and photos into the inmate kiosks and destroys the paper after processing, so never mail originals or anything you want back. No more than 10 pictures are accepted at one time, and items with adhesives, glitter, perfume, or lewd or gang content are rejected. Newspaper and magazine subscriptions must come straight from the publisher and are limited to one daily, one weekly, and one monthly. Money for an inmate account goes through JailATM online or the lobby kiosk, which takes cash or cards but no checks, and money mailed in is returned.

Account deposits are not the same as a release payment. Adding funds to a person's account does not post bond or free anyone, since release is a court matter after Illinois ended monetary bail. For older booking records or details not shown online, a jail Freedom of Information Act request is the official route, and it can be dropped off, emailed, faxed, or mailed to the jail FOIA officer at the same Etna Road address.

Booking and Intake at the LaSalle County Jail

An arrest leads to transport to the jail for receiving. The 2024 inspection documents the standards the intake is measured against: identity and legality-of-confinement checks, a pat-down search, fingerprints and photographs, a property inventory, medical and mental-health screening, phone access, classification, and a housing decision. A person who was just arrested may not appear on the roster right away, since these steps must finish first.

Illinois abolished monetary bail for ordinary pretrial release, so a family normally does not post a cash bond at the jail. The court decides release or detention through a pretrial process, and the jail's main line is still the contact for custody and release status.

About the LaSalle County Jail

One feature sets this jail apart on the county's own page: a Medication-Assisted Recovery program. The county describes it as an evidence-based approach to opioid and alcohol use disorders that pairs FDA-approved medications with counseling, delivered by a team that includes medical providers, recovery specialists, officers, and people with lived experience. The 2024 inspection also confirms the jail's health and mental-health screening duties, from suicide-risk screening to medication verification at intake. The same inspection records that a release plan for mentally ill detainees can include a list of community mental-health resources and a short supply of prescribed medication, which is part of how the jail handles reentry without a separately named program.