The Detention Center
Charlevoix County Jail
- Operated byCharlevoix County Sheriff's Office
- Jail addressCo-located with the Sheriff's Office at 1000 Grant Street, Charlevoix, MI 49720; open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- BedsNot found
- Jail AdministratorLt. Benjamin Owens
Source: Charlevoix County Sheriff - Corrections · checked 2026-09-19
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✓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 — 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
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Charles Vondra
- 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 - Charlevoix 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.
Charlevoix 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 boardCharlevoix County Board of Commissioners. →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- The Corrections page names the jail administrator (Lt. Benjamin Owens) and lists shift supervisors and visitation/mail/phone rules, but gives no capacity, budget, death, PREA, inspection, contract, bond, or fee information.
- The Sheriff's Office maintains substations on Beaver Island and in Boyne Falls in addition to the main Charlevoix facility.
- 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 Charlevoix 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