Cass County, Michigan — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Cass County Jail

Operated byCass County Sheriff's Office
Jail address321 N M-62, Cassopolis, MI 49031.
BedsNot found

Source: Cass County, MI - Corrections · 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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Cass County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-19. 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 Clinton D. Roach

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)

Still needed

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

Source: Cass 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.

Cass 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 2026-09-19

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 boardCass County Board of Commissioners. →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

The Inmate Services page describes a $10 warrant fee and $12 booking fee added to every booking, plus a $15/day charge to sentenced inmates for room and board, and states bonds are paid via ExpressAccount online or in cash at the Sheriff's Department.
The Corrections page links out to VINELink (vinelink.vineapps.com) for inmate status; because that tool is hosted off the county's own domain, it was not counted as a published roster.
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 Cass 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