The Detention Center
Alger County Jail
- Operated byAlger County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address101 E. Varnum Street, Munising, MI 49862
- Beds52 beds at the primary facility; the site also references an additional 18 beds used to house Luce County inmates under a housing agreement, for a stated total of 70
Source: Alger County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-19
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓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 — 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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds52 (primary), plus 18 for Luce County inmates under a housing agreement
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Todd Brock
- Runs the jailAlger County Sheriff's Office operates the Alger County Jail
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term, MCL 51.70
- Statutory basisMCL 51.75 gives the sheriff custody of the county jail
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Alger County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-19
The Judges
Michigan circuit and district court judges are elected on a nonpartisan ballot to six-year terms under Mich. Const. art. VI — state judicial officers, not county officials.
Alger 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 2026-09-19
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 boardNot found →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Alger County publishes general county budget public-hearing notices (e.g. FY2025, FY2026) on its own site, but these are county-wide notices, not itemized jail/sheriff budget figures, so 'budget' was marked no.
- The county site publishes Requests for Proposals (e.g. for 911 dispatch room modifications, generator electrical work) but none found specific to jail contracts (food/medical) during this research.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Alger 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.
Names verified 2026-09-19 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered