The Detention Center
Montcalm County Jail
- Operated byMontcalm County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address649 N State St, Stanton, MI 48888
- Beds205-bed facility, per the county's own Jail Services page
- Service area20 townships across a combined 720 square miles, per the county's own Sheriff page
- Jail AdministratorAndrew Powell (per the county's own Sheriff page)
Source: Montcalm County, MI - Jail Services · 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 — not published
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗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 builtThe current Montcalm County Jail opened March 1, 2002, per the county's own Jail Services page
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds205 (opened with 119 beds in 2002, expanded to 181 in 2003, and to 205 after a 2006 renovation)
Since then
- 2003 expansion to 181 beds
- 2006 renovation adding beds to reach 205 total
The Sheriff
Sheriff Mike Williams
- Runs the jailThe Sheriff's Office operates the Montcalm County Jail, per the county's own Sheriff 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: Montcalm County, MI - 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.
Montcalm 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.montcalm.us/225/Board-of-Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- The county's own site publishes a detailed fee schedule (police reports, fingerprinting, civil process, garnishment, mortgage foreclosure sales, etc., effective January 1, 2021) and a Bond/Court Information page describing cash, online (eXpressAccount.com), and money-order bond payment options plus a list of approved bail bond agents.
- No inmate roster, PREA policy, deaths-in-custody data, inspection reports, or vendor contracts 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 montcalm.us.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Montcalm 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