The Detention Center
Calhoun County Correctional Facility
- Operated byCalhoun County Sheriff's Office
- Jail addressBattle Creek, Michigan (exact street address not published on the facility page reviewed).
- Beds630-inmate capacity; described as 'the fifth-largest correctional facility in the State of Michigan.'
- Opened1994; operates as a Direct Supervision facility (corrections officers work within inmate living areas).
Source: Calhoun County, MI - Jail · checked 2026-09-19
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
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✗How to post bond — not published
- ✓Phone, video and commissary rates
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1994
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds630 (stated capacity)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Steve Hinkley
- Runs the jailThe Sheriff has statutory custody and control of the county jail.
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term, MCL 51.70.
- 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: Michigan Sheriffs' Association - Calhoun County · 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.
Calhoun 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 boardCalhoun County Board of Commissioners; Board Chair Derek King (District 5), per the board's own page. →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- The jail page states the county rents out spare bed capacity 'to other cities, counties, and the federal government' and describes '24-hour NCCHC Accredited Medical Care, food service, religious support, laundry, counseling, GED education,' without naming the specific contracted vendors, so 'contracts' is recorded as no.
- The 2020 annual report (posted on the Sheriff's Office's own Annual Reports page) states 'State and federal inspections' of the jail were conducted that year, but gives no separate itemized inspection report; it also gives booking totals (6,252 bookings in 2020, down 38% from 2019) but no dollar budget figures.
- The PREA page states a 'zero-tolerance approach to sexual misconduct,' reporting channels, and compliance with 28 CFR Part 115 investigation standards.
- No dedicated online inmate roster/lookup tool was found on calhouncountymi.gov.
- 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 Calhoun 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