The Detention Center
Branch County Jail
- Operated byBranch County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address379 Keith Wilhelm Drive, Coldwater, MI 49036; open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- BedsNot found
Source: Branch County, Michigan - Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-19
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓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
- ✓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
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Fred Blankenship
- Runs the jailThe Sheriff has statutory custody and control of the county jail.
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term, MCL 51.70. The county's own site states: 'The Office of Sheriff is an elected office, constitutionally mandated in the State of Michigan. The Sheriff serves a 4-year term of office with the duties and powers of the Office provided by law.'
- Statutory basisMCL 51.75 (county sheriff has charge and 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: Branch County, Michigan - 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.
Branch 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 boardBranch County Board of Commissioners; Chairman Randall Hazelbaker, per the board's own page. →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- The site (branchcounty.gov / countyofbranch.com) describes five bond categories (cash only, cash or surety, 10% bond, personal recognizance) plus a $12 booking charge and $10 warrant charge added to every booking.
- The sheriff's page was recently updated (staff photos dated August 2026) and calls the jail a 'new state-of-the-art' facility, but gives no capacity figure or construction date.
- State inspection/oversight: Michigan county jails operate under the Michigan Department of Corrections' Administrative Rules for Jails and Lockups (promulgated under MCL 791.262), with periodic compliance inspections; Benzie County's own site cites continuous compliance since 2000 with a inspection most recently in 2022, and Calhoun County's 2020 annual report references state and federal inspections conducted that year.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Branch 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