Understanding arrest trends provides insight into how law enforcement interacts with communities over time. Arrests may result in the filing of a criminal case in court and may result in those arrested being booked into the Winnebago County Jail for a period of pretrial detention.

This chart reflects total juvenile and adult arrests made by police departments in Winnebago County and reported to NIBRS. Figures represent the number of arrests, not the number of persons arrested. Like reported crime, arrest trends also show typical seasonal fluctuations.

Arrest trends are based on data routinely reported by police departments in Winnebago County to the Illinois State Police’s (ISP) National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), and is updated every quarter.

People who are arrested in Winnebago County are typically processed, or “booked,” at the Winnebago County Jail in Rockford, after which they may be released or held in the jail until they can appear before a judge. The Winnebago Sheriff's Office operates the Winnebago County Jail, which holds individuals who are being detained pretrial and individuals who have been sentenced to serve time in jail following a conviction. Other individuals may be held in the jail while awaiting hearings on probation or parole violations, transfer to other jurisdictions, or transfer to the Illinois Department of Corrections following imposition of a prison sentence.

This chart shows trends in Winnebago County pretrial bookings and average daily jail populations. Like crime and arrests, the number of pretrial jail bookings tends to fluctuate seasonally, but jail populations are more stable from season to season.

Jail bookings and population are reported by the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office to the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) Jail and Detention Standards Unit and is updated every quarter.

One of the conditions a judge may impose on those released pretrial is that the defendant be superviseed by the Winnebago County Pretrial Services Division. Pretrial supervision lasts until the underlying criminal charges are resolved, and may include regular reporting, random urine screens, drug and alcohol evaluations, curfew checks, and other conditions that may be set by the judge.

This chart shows recent trends in the number of people on pretrial supervision and the number of people in jail in Winnebago County. It is important to remember that most individuals awaiting disposition of criminal charges in Winnebago County are neither in jail nor on pretrial supervision.

Pretrial trends are based on data routinely reported to the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts (AOIC), compared with the average daily population in the Winnebago County Jail, as reported to the IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit. It is updated every quarter.

A criminal case can be filed in Winnebago in several ways: law enforcement may issue a citation to an individual which requires the person to appear in court at a later date or the Winnebago County State's Attorney's Office may approve arrest charges and either file charges with the court or empanel a grand jury to issue an indictment.

This chart shows recent trends in the number of criminal case filings in Winnebago County. Filings are broken out into overall felony filings (including felony domestic violence), misdemeanor domestic violence filings, and other misdemeanor filings.

Information on criminal case filings is based on data made public by the 17th Judicial Circuit Court, and is updated every quarter.

Following a conviction, the judge imposes a sentence which may include fines, community service, probation, or jail for a conviction on a misdemeanor charge; or it may include fines, community service, probation, jail, or prison for a conviction on a felony charge.

This chart shows recent trends in the sentencing of people convicted of felony offenses in Winnebago County.

Sentence information is derived from data provided by the IDOC and the AOIC, and is updated every quarter. To examine data on sentences to prison from Winnebago County in more detail, see Loyola's Sentencing Dashboard and Prison Admissions Dashboard and select Winnebago County from the drop-down filter for the sentencing county.

Individuals convicted of felony charges may be sentenced to probation or to a term of incarceration of one year or more in prison. Once an individual sentenced to prison serves their prison sentence, upon release they are supervised in the community under Mandatory Supervised Release (MSR, “Parole”) by parole agents who work for the Illinois Department of Corrections.

This chart shows recent trends in the number of adults on probation in Winnebago County following felony convictions, as well as the number serving prison sentences imposed by Winnebago County courts and the number on post-prison Mandatory Supervised Release (MSR) in Winnebago County.

Correctional population information is derived from data reported to the AOIC and provided by the IDOC and is updated every quarter. To examine data on the number of people in prison sentenced in Winnebago County or on post-prison supervision in Winnebago County in more detail, see Loyola's Prison Dashboard and MSR Dashboard and select Winnebago County from the drop-down filter for the sentencing county.