Lake County, California — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Hill Road Correctional Facility (Lake County Jail)

Operated byLake County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameYes — Hill Road Correctional Facility
Jail address4913 Helbush Drive, Lakeport, CA 95453
Size68,193 square feet
Staffing published68 full-time employees, including 52 sworn
Who it servesLake County Sheriff's Office, Clearlake PD, Lakeport PD, CHP and other local, state and federal agencies
BookingsOver 4,000 people booked annually (3,748 in 2024)
Rated capacity308 beds

Source: Lake County Sheriff — Jail · checked 2026-08-23

Transparency rating

6/10Partial

✓The jail is named
✓Who is in custody
✓Beds and daily population
✓What it costs taxpayers
✓Deaths in custody
✗PREA audits — not published
✗Independent inspection — not published
✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
✓How to post bond
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Lake County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-23. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year built1990 — opened when the first phase of construction was completed; construction continued until 1999, when the 68,193 square foot facility became fully operational
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds297 state-rated capacity as published by the county. The state rated capacity file records 308 for Lake County Jail — Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Since then

Construction continued from the 1990 first-phase opening until 1999, bringing the facility to 68,193 square feet and full operation

The Sheriff

Sheriff Luke Bingham

Title as publishedSheriff - Coroner
Also serves asCounty Coroner — the county's own death-in-custody releases are headed 'Lake County Sheriff - Coroner'
Cross-checkCalifornia State Sheriffs' Association directory lists Luke Bingham for Lake

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Lake County Sheriff's Office — AB481 Annual Report 2024-2025 · checked 2026-08-23

The Judges

Small court. The court publishes no judicial-officers page and names no dedicated arraignment or bail department; only the Presiding Judge is published on the court's own site.

Superior Court of California, County of Lake — Presiding Judge

Michael S. Lunas

Still needed

The county's bond schedule
Share of the jail population held pretrial
Median time from booking to first appearance

Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-23

The County Commissioners

They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.

What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

Capacity is recorded 'yes' on both a published rated capacity of 297 and a published average daily population of 213 (2024 LCSO Annual Report).
Budget is recorded 'yes' twice over: the county posts annual County Budgets, and the Sheriff's own 2024 Annual Report publishes a Correctional Facility budget of $10,632,169 against a $42,967,259 office total and a Sheriff/Coroner line of $14,263,814.
The Sheriff's 2024 Annual Report also publishes transfer counts: 104 people transferred to other county jails and 116 to or from state prisons — but no contract or per-diem rate is published, so contracts remains 'no'.
PREA is recorded 'no': the county publishes how to report sexual misconduct but no audit result.
Fees are recorded 'no': the Inmate Mail & Telephone page names ICSolutions and a JailATM tablet system and states 'Fees may apply for certain services', directing readers to the vendor for rates.
The Sheriff's Transparency page carries only AB 481 military equipment reporting; the in-custody deaths page sits under Jail rather than under Transparency.
No BSCC inspection report is posted on the county's own site.
Five-member Board of Supervisors, elected by district.

What California law requires

Lake County posts a death-in-custody page.

Posts 7 of 7

The page is here. A dedicated 'In Custody Deaths' page that cites AB 2761 and Penal Code 10008 and posts two PDF releases, dated 04-15-2023 and 06-17-2024. Each PDF carries agency, county, facility, location, race, gender, age, date of death, custody status and manner/means. The 2023 death occurred at Sutter Roseville Medical Center in Placer County (manner/means: Natural); the 2024 death occurred at the Sutter Lakeside Emergency Department and its manner/means is recorded as 'Unknown', which is posted rather than updated.

✓The agency with custodial responsibility
✓The county where the death occurred
✓The facility — and where inside it
✓Race, gender and age
✓The date of death
✓Custodial status — awaiting arraignment, awaiting trial, or incarcerated
✓Manner and means of death

California Penal Code § 10008, enacted by AB 2761 and in force since January 2023, requires the agency with custodial responsibility to post these seven items on its own website within ten days of a death in custody, and to update them within thirty days if the facts change. California is the only state in the country with this duty. Checked 2026-08-23. This records what is published, nothing more.

The record

4 people have died in the Lake County jail since 2019.

0 by suicide

0 illness or medical

4 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them2 of 4

Most recent death on the state's record2024-06-17

Deaths: Texas Justice Initiative, the cleaned copy of the Texas Attorney General’s custodial death reports — the state’s own public index carries no cause of death and has not been refreshed since August 2025. Population: Texas Commission on Jail Standards monthly report. Counted, not estimated.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Lake County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).

How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?

Your VOTE is POWERFUL.

The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.

The sheriff is on your ballot

The county elections office runs the polling place in Lake County and prints the ballot the sheriff’s name is on. Links from the California Secretary of State and vote.gov.

Names verified 2026-08-23 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered