Jasper County, Indiana — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Jasper County Detention Center

Operated byJasper County Sheriff's Office
Mailing addressPO Box 296, Rensselaer, IN 47978
Corrections phone219-866-4993 (24/7)
Commissary depositsJailATM kiosk or money order by mail
VisitationOn-site Tue/Thu evenings and Sunday; off-site video visits daily, charged per minute (rate not stated)

Source: Jasper County Sheriff — Inmate Information · checked 2026-09-20

Transparency rating

1/10Closed

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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Jasper County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-20. 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 builtNot found
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
BedsNot found

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Patrick M. Williamson, Sr.

Runs the jailYes — sheriff keeps the county jail (IC 36-2-13-5); inmate page lists him as Sheriff over the Jail Commander
How the office is filledElected, four-year term
Chief DeputyBrandon Napier
Office address2171 North McKinley Avenue, Rensselaer, IN 47978

Still needed

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

Source: Jasper County Sheriff's Office home 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.

Jasper County Circuit Court

Not found

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 2026-09-20

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).
NoteIndiana counties have a three-member Board of County Commissioners and a seven-member County Council (fiscal body). The county's own website could not be opened, so members and minutes were not recorded.
The boardJasper County Board of Commissioners
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

Sheriff's site (in.gov/sheriffs/jasper) names the Jasper County Detention Center and gives visitation and deposit methods, but no bed count, roster, PREA or fee amounts.
Home page links only to a third-party bond payment portal (GovPayNet) and VINELink; no written guidance on how bond is set or posted, so bond_info is 'no'.
Video visits are charged per minute but the rate is not published.
Rensselaer is the county seat; the cited sheriff contact page shows the office there but does not itself state the seat.
What was tried: in.gov/sheriffs/jasper/online-documents and jaspercountyin.gov were refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED). jaspercountypolice.com (sheriff's corrections page, Indiana) opened but gave no jail details.
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 Jasper 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