The Detention Center
Jackson County Jail (Wesley Street Jail and Chanter Road Jail)
- Operated byJackson County Sheriff's Office
- Wesley Street Jail address212 W. Wesley Street, Jackson, MI 49201
- Chanter Road Jail address1995 Chanter Road, Jackson, MI 49201
- Combined rated capacity443 inmates (187 at the Wesley Street facility, 256 at Chanter Road), per a 2024 county RFP for inmate medical services
- HistoryWesley Street facility built 1953, expanded to 117 beds by 1978; Chanter Road facility completed 2004
Source: Jackson County, MI - Jail Information · checked 2026-09-19
Transparency rating
6/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✓Who else it holds, and for how much
- ✓How to post bond
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtWesley Street Jail: 1953 (expanded 1978, and again 2004 with a Northside Addition); Chanter Road Jail: 2004
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds117 (Wesley Street, per 1978 expansion) and 252-256 (Chanter Road), combined rated capacity reported as 443 in a 2024 county RFP
Since then
- 1978 West Side addition (Wesley Street, to 117 beds)
- 2004 Northside Addition (Wesley Street, replacing courthouse annex)
- 2004 Chanter Road minimum-security facility built
The Sheriff
Sheriff Gary Schuette
- Runs the jailThe Sheriff's Office operates the county's two jail facilities (Wesley Street and Chanter Road), per the county's own Jail Information page
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term, MCL 51.70
- Statutory basisMCL 51.75 gives the elected county sheriff 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: Jackson County, MI - Sheriff Directory · 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.
Jackson 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 boardhttps://www.mijackson.org/1673/Board-of-Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Jackson County operates two jail facilities under one Sheriff's Office: the Wesley Street Jail (higher security) and the Chanter Road Jail (minimum security).
- The county's own procurement documents (inmate medical services RFP) and a Sheriff's Department budget line item provide the clearest official capacity and funding figures found.
- No inmate death records, PREA policy, jail inspection reports, or an inmate fee schedule were found published on the county's own site.
- State inspection/oversight: Michigan county jails are subject to inspection under the Michigan Department of Corrections' Administrative Rules for Jails and Lockups; no county-published inspection reports were found on co.jackson.mi.us or mijackson.org.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Jackson 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