The Detention Center
Dickinson County Jail
- Operated byDickinson County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address300 East 'D' Street, P.O. Box 609, Iron Mountain, MI 49801
- Beds71 total bed capacity, housing both male and female inmates; renovated/expanded in spring 1997
Source: Dickinson County, MI - Sheriff's Department · checked 2026-09-19
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓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 — 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
- Beds71
Since then
- Renovated/expanded spring 1997
The Sheriff
Sheriff Aaron Rochon
- Runs the jailThe Dickinson County Sheriff's Office operates the county jail at 300 East 'D' Street, Iron Mountain
- 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: Dickinson County, MI - Sheriff's Department · 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.
Dickinson 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 boardDan Harrington (District 3), Chairperson; also Joe Stevens, Kevin Sullivan, Peter Swanson, Victoria Jakel →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's Department page describes a work-release program and jail programming (AA, NA, mental health counseling) but no roster, budget, PREA, inspection, contract, bond, or fee information was found published on the county's own site.
- A FOIA request form is available on the county site for records not otherwise published.
- State inspection/oversight: Michigan Department of Corrections conducts county jail inspections under state administrative rules; no inspection report was found published on the county's own site.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Dickinson 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