The Detention Center
Eaton County Jail
- Operated byEaton County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address1025 Independence Boulevard, Charlotte, MI 48813
- BedsHousing capacity of 374 inmates; staffed by a Captain, Lieutenant, 7 Corrections Sergeants, 35 Corrections Deputies, and 3 clerical staff; rents unused space to other counties
Source: Eaton County, MI - Corrections Division · checked 2026-09-19
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓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 — not published
- ✗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 builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds374
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Tom Reich
- Runs the jailThe Eaton County Sheriff's Office operates the Eaton County Jail, part of the county administrative complex in Charlotte
- 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: Eaton County, MI - Office of the Sheriff · 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.
Eaton 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 boardJim Mott, Chairperson (District 13) →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- PREA page states a zero-tolerance policy under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, lists a PREA Coordinator and multiple reporting lines, and links an 'ECJ PREA Annual Report' document.
- Corrections Division page cites a $32/day housing fee for sentenced inmates and $21/day for work-release participants, plus medical-visit charges; the jail also rents space to other counties for county general-fund revenue.
- State inspection/oversight: Michigan Department of Corrections conducts county jail inspections under state administrative rules; no specific inspection report was found published on the county's own site.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Eaton 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