Arrest Records in Crawford County
An arrest produces several records. The Crawford County Sheriff, a city police department, or Illinois State Police creates the incident and arrest report. Crawford County Jail creates intake, fingerprint, photograph, charge, custody, and release data. The State's Attorney and Circuit Clerk create a court file only when a charge is filed. ISP's Bureau of Identification receives a fingerprint transaction for qualifying adult bookings and later tries to match the court disposition.
Each source answers a different question. A booking proves that an intake occurred. It does not prove guilt. A police report states the agency's account and probable-cause basis. A court file shows which charges were actually prosecuted. ISP records depend on what contributing agencies submitted and matched. Delays or rejected transactions can leave gaps between those systems.
| Record | Creator | Best question answered |
|---|---|---|
| Arrest report | Arresting agency | Why and how did the arrest occur? |
| Booking entry | Crawford County Jail | Was the person admitted or released? |
| Court file | Circuit Clerk | What counts were filed and how did they end? |
| State history | ISP Bureau of Identification | What Illinois data was matched and disseminated? |
Crawford's Working Legacy Jail Roster
The redesigned county jail page displays “County Jail Roster - Need Link.” That unfinished label can make it look as if no online search exists. A working official legacy system remains available, including an alphabetical roster and an exact-search page. Use it for current or recent county custody, then call the jail because releases and transfers can occur after a page loads.
The official jail page captures the access problem.
The gap on the new page is a routing flaw, not proof that Crawford County stopped publishing custody data.
The exact inmate search accepts first name, last name, intake-from and intake-through dates, and release-from and release-through dates. The live interface shows how to narrow a query.
Those date fields help find a past booking that has rolled off the current A-to-Z view.
Crawford County Arrest Lookups
Start with the channel closest to the event. The jail roster is quickest for custody. The arresting agency owns its report. The Circuit Clerk can confirm whether prosecution followed, and ISP offers distinct statewide products for public conviction information and review of one's own fingerprint record.
- Search the live roster alphabetically or by exact name and intake or release date range.
- Call 618-546-1515 to confirm custody, release, or transfer status.
- Identify the arresting agency and request its incident or arrest report. Use sheriff FOIA only for sheriff or jail records.
- Ask the Circuit Clerk at 618-544-3512 whether a case was filed and compare each filed count with the intake charge.
- Use ISP Access and Review for your own statewide transcript, or the authorized UCIA channel for public Illinois conviction information.
When the arrest involved a Robinson, Palestine, or Oblong officer, send the report request to that city department. Crawford County Jail still controls the booking sheet. A state-trooper crash report can follow the ISP crash-report request channel.
The state screen shows the separate crash-record route.
It reinforces why a jail lookup cannot replace the report held by the agency that investigated the event.
Crawford Booking Sheets by FOIA
Crawford County has no separately named sheriff's records division. Send requests to the Crawford County Sheriff's Office at 203 S. Jefferson Street, Robinson, IL 62454. Its 2024 FOIA form covers sheriff reports and jail booking material that the roster does not show.
Crawford County Sheriff
203 S. Jefferson Street
Robinson, IL 62454
618-546-1515
Fax: 618-546-0141
sheriff@crawfordcountyil.org
Name the incident or case number, date and approximate time, location, agency, exact record, and desired format. The form also asks whether copies are needed, whether the request has a commercial purpose, and whether a fee waiver is sought. Illinois FOIA generally provides five business days for an initial noncommercial response, subject to a written five-business-day extension.
The county document library is the official path to the sheriff request entry.
The library supplies the form; it is not itself a searchable arrest database.
The official sheriff page also provides the office contact and jail route.
Use that office as the fallback for sheriff-created records, not for reports owned by a city police department.
Crawford Arrest Reports by Agency
The sheriff is not the custodian for every local arrest report. Robinson Police handles city incidents through its own FOIA officers and accepts oral, in-person, written, mailed, faxed, or emailed requests. Palestine Police keeps village reports at 301 S. Main Street, while Oblong Police keeps its reports at 202 S. Range Street. Call the village before sending an Oblong request because its redesigned site remains under construction.
Robinson's first 50 black-and-white letter or legal pages are free, later pages may cost up to 15 cents each, and certification is $1. Other media can carry actual reproduction cost. Those published city terms do not establish the sheriff's fee schedule. Ask each agency for its own current cost, channel, and redaction decision, while requesting the Crawford jail booking separately when custody followed the city arrest.
Arrest Records: What They Contain
A public roster shows only part of the intake file. Verified live fields include a photograph, age, race, sex, intake date, custody class, and a direction to call for visitation time. Older official roster layouts also showed charges, days in custody, court date, and bond, but an old PDF is not a current roster. Do not assume that unverified fields such as a full birth date, housing unit, medical flag, or warrant number appear online.
| Booking number | Agency key for the intake event when released or supplied. |
|---|---|
| Intake and release dates | Mark admission and discharge timing, if the latter is posted. |
| Arresting agency | Identifies which department should receive the report request. |
| Charges at intake | Booking-stage allegations that may differ from filed counts. |
| Custody class | A jail category, not necessarily an Illinois felony class. |
| Photograph | Captured during booking and disclosed only as law permits. |
| Release terms | May reflect custody or court instructions when posted. |
Note: Crawford roster “Class” language describes custody status and should not be read as the final grade of a criminal offense.
Inside Crawford County Jail Intake
An IDOC inspection reports that the jail was built in 1987 and renovated in 2015. Its official capacity is 46, with 30 male spaces, 14 female spaces, and one juvenile space for each sex. The inspection-date count was 24 and reported no noncompliances. Crawford also houses detainees for Jasper, Lawrence, and Edgar Counties when needed, so a person on its roster may face prosecution elsewhere.
At intake, staff verify legal authority to confine, check identity, conduct a pat-down, take fingerprints and a photograph as required, and arrange medical evaluation for a seriously ill, hurt, or unconscious person before detention. A personal booking record is kept for each detainee. Advanced Correctional Healthcare handles initial health screening, while local health departments support later screening and mental-health care.
Recent Crawford County Bookings
The roster can be browsed by the first letter of a last name or narrowed through the exact search. Results may show current inmates and recent release records, but an entry can change fast. Always call the jail before acting on custody status. Absence from a current list does not show that no arrest happened, because a person may have been released, transferred, booked under a different spelling, or held for another county.
Illinois FOIA section 2.15 requires chronologically maintained arrest information to be furnished as soon as practical and within 72 hours, subject to the statute. Covered information includes identity, age, address, available photograph, charges, arrest time and location, arresting agency, and custody receipt, discharge, or transfer. Juvenile and protected information follows stricter rules.
A dated sheriff press release can add incident context, but it is not a full booking log. Crawford publishes some releases as PDF summaries rather than maintaining a searchable arrest blotter. Match any release to the live roster and the Circuit Clerk record. That three-source check keeps a public summary, a custody event, and a filed court case from being treated as interchangeable records.
After a Crawford Jail Transfer
A person sentenced to state custody may disappear from the county roster after transfer. Search the IDOC Individual in Custody Search by last name, IDOC number, or birth date. Public results can include the IDOC number, current institution or status, vital data, admission and release dates, and sentencing information. Completed sentences may no longer appear online, in which case IDOC's record-search contact is the fallback.
The official IDOC locator shows the state-custody entry point.
This search belongs after county custody ends and should not be read as a Crawford booking history.
Federal custody is separate again. The Bureau of Prisons inmate locator searches by name and basic traits or by federal register, DCDC, FBI, or INS number.
A federal result provides federal custody or release data, not a county jail booking or Illinois court disposition.
Arrest Records vs Conviction Records
The booking entry freezes facts at intake. The court record develops later and may show that charges were changed, never filed, dismissed, resolved by supervision, tried, or ended in conviction. ISP's public UCIA product is conviction information, while Access and Review lets a person inspect and challenge a broader fingerprint-based state transcript.
| Arrest Record | Conviction Record |
|---|---|
| Created by police and the jail | Created through the court and reported to ISP |
| Shows that an arrest and booking occurred | Shows a judgment of guilt on a count |
| Held by the arresting agency and Crawford Jail | Held by the Circuit Clerk and state repository |
| May end with release or no filed charge | Includes disposition and sentence |
Note: An arrest is not proof of guilt, and many bookings do not end in a conviction.