The Detention Center
Elkhart County Correctional Facility (Elkhart County Correctional Complex)
- Operated byElkhart County Sheriff's Office, Corrections Division
- Jail address26861 County Road 26, Elkhart, IN 46517
- Beds (ECSO 2024 annual report)950
- Average population 2024 (annual report)906 per month, up 111 from 2023
- Medical provider (annual report)WellPath
- Phone vendorSecurus Technologies
- Commissary/depositsJailATM; $3.75 convenience fee per transaction
- Jail AdministratorCaptain David Lanzen — Corrections Division Commander (Captain), promoted to Corrections Captain in 2020
Source: ECSO Annual Report 2024 · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✓How to post bond
- ✓Phone, video and commissary rates
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds950 (ECSO 2024 annual report)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jeff Siegel
- Runs the jailYes — Indiana sheriffs keep the county jail (IC 36-2-13-5)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term; no more than eight years in any twelve
- In office sinceElected November 2018 (sheriff's site)
- Office26861 County Road 26, Elkhart, IN 46517; (574) 891-2100
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Elkhart County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Jeff Siegel page · checked 2026-09-20
The Judges
Indiana circuit and superior court judges are state judicial officers, not county officials. In most counties they are elected to six-year terms; a few counties choose some judges through a nominating commission followed by retention votes.
Elkhart County Circuit Court
- Not found
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-20
The Commissioners and County Council
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe three county commissioners own and maintain the jail building and sign its contracts; the seven-member county council adopts the budget and appropriates the jail's money.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and keeps the jail by state law (IC 36-2-13-5).
- NoteCounty site elkhartcounty.com could not be opened (robots error), so commissioners, council and minutes were not examined.
- The boardElkhart County Board of Commissioners
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site publishes a 2024 annual report with 950 beds and an average of 906 inmates a month in 2024.
- PREA page: zero-tolerance statement and reporting routes; no audit reports posted.
- Bond page: post at the correctional complex lobby, cash or credit card (10% fee added for credit card).
- Inmate lookup links to the state portal public.indianajail.gov, which was not opened, so roster is not credited.
- Annual report names WellPath as medical provider, but no contract is posted.
- County site elkhartcounty.com refused (robots); budget and board pages not examined.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail Services inspects annually (IC 11-12-4); reports are public record on request but not posted by the state. None found on the county's own site.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Elkhart 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 and council members who pay for it.
Names verified 2026-09-20 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered