The Detention Center
Lake County Jail
- Operated byLake County Sheriff's Office
- Address613 3rd Ave, Two Harbors, MN 55616
- Capacity'The Lake County Jail has the capacity to hold 25 inmates' — published on the county's own site
- Jail Administrator (title under the sheriff)Janel Peer, Jail Administrator/PSAP Coordinator (per county site and DOC report)
- Also houses inmates fromCook and St. Louis Counties, per the county's own site (no rate schedule found)
- Also sourced toMN DOC inspection report (Lake County, 09/26/2025) — https://mn.gov/doc/assets/Lake%20County%202025_tcm1089-708321.pdf
Source: Lake County Jail page · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✗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 — 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
- Beds25, per the county's own site (co.lake.mn.us/sheriff/lake-county-jail/)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Nathan Stadler
- Runs the jailYes — 'operates the county jail' per the Sheriff's Office page
- How the office is filledElected countywide under Minn. Stat. 382.01 (MN state layer)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Lake County Sheriff page · checked 2026-09-18
The Judges
Minnesota district judges are elected on a nonpartisan ballot to six-year terms, but most first reach the bench by gubernatorial appointment to a mid-term vacancy. Bail at first appearance is set by the court under Minn. R. Crim. P. 6.02.
Minnesota District Court (judicial district covering Lake County)
- 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 2026-09-18
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 boardBoard of County Commissioners
Notes on the record
- The county's own jail page names the facility, publishes a bed count (25) and a live jail roster, and states cash-bail posting procedures — the basis for the 'named', 'roster' and 'bond_info' yes checks. It does not publish a daily population figure alongside the bed count, so 'capacity' (which calls for both beds and population) is recorded as 'no'.
- The same page states the jail also houses inmates from neighboring Cook and St. Louis Counties, but no contract or rate schedule for that arrangement was found published, so 'contracts' is recorded as 'no'.
- Lake County Board of Commissioners — not confirmed within this group's fetch budget
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Lake 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 2026-09-18 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered