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

The Detention Center

Not found

Operated byLake County Sheriff's Department
Sheriff's Department address2293 N. Main Street, Crown Point, IN 46307-1854
Jail Booking phone(219) 648-6300
Jail Records & Pretrial phone(219) 755-3421

Source: Lake County Sheriff, Contact page · checked 2026-09-20

Transparency rating

Not scored. Lake County's and its sheriff's own websites could not be reached or read in the session that produced this record, so their disclosures were never examined. This is a gap in the research, not a finding about the county.

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 Oscar Martinez Jr.

Runs the jailYes — the sheriff keeps the county jail (IC 36-2-13-5)
How the office is filledElected, four-year term; no more than eight years in any twelve
Office address2293 N. Main Street, Crown Point, IN 46307-1854

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 - About the Sheriff · 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.

Lake 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 also have a seven-member County Council (fiscal body); county site not opened.
The boardLake County Board of Commissioners
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

Confirmed Lake County, Indiana (Crown Point address) on lakecountysheriff.com contact page.
Only the sheriff's contact page could be opened; it lists Jail Operations, Jail Command Staff, Inmate Visitation and Inmate Phone Services pages, but fetches of those and of the home page were refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED).
Current sheriff's name not shown on the page opened.
County government website not opened; checks reflect only the one sheriff page read.
Not scored: Sheriff's jail operations pages and home page were refused; only the contact page was read. Marking the rest 'not published' would claim more than was checked.
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 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 and council members who pay for it.

Names verified 2026-09-20 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered