The Detention Center
Clinton County Jail
- Operated byClinton County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address1347 E Townsend Road, St. Johns, MI 48879
- Beds236 inmate capacity; built 1991 with a design capacity of 186, expanded by 30 beds in 2004 and 20 beds in 2012
Source: Clinton County, MI - Jail Operations · checked 2026-09-19
Transparency rating
7/10Open- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✓Independent inspection
- ✗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 built1991
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds236 (original design capacity 186)
Since then
- 30 beds added 2004
- 20 beds added 2012
The Sheriff
Sheriff Sean Dush
- Runs the jailThe Clinton County Sheriff's Office operates the Clinton County Jail at 1347 E Townsend Road, St. Johns
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term, MCL 51.70
- Statutory basisMCL 51.75 (sheriff has 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: Clinton County, MI - 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.
Clinton 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 (chair not identified on county site) →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- 2025 Sheriff's Office Annual Report states 1,706 bookings and an average daily population of 89 in 2025, with jail revenue of $199,098 (down from $272,901 in 2024); it does not give a full departmental budget.
- Jail Operations page states the facility has maintained '100% compliance inspection from the Michigan Department of Corrections' since 2000, with one exception in 2013, and cites a $35/day housing fee for sentenced inmates plus charges for medical visits.
- Bail Bonds page lists the county's annually-approved list of bail bond agencies rather than per-inmate bond amounts.
- State inspection/oversight: Michigan Department of Corrections conducts county jail inspections under state administrative rules; the Jail Operations page cites the facility's MDOC compliance-inspection history.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Clinton 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