The Detention Center
Adams County Jail
- Operated byAdams County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address401 Adams Street, Friendship, WI 53934
- Staffing1 Jail Administrator, 4 Jail Sergeants, and 13 Jail Deputies, plus part-time transport staff
- BedsNot found
- Jail AdministratorMelissa Simcakowski — Jail Administrator overseeing day-to-day Adams County Jail operations, reachable at (608) 339-4245
Source: Adams County Sheriff's Office - Jail Division · checked 2026-09-19
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✓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 — 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
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Brent R. York
- Runs the jailAdams County Sheriff's Office operates the Adams County Jail through its Jail Division
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term, Wis. Stat. ch. 59
- Statutory basisSheriff described on the office's own site as chief law enforcement officer of the county, with duties defined by Wisconsin Statutes
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Adams County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-19
The Judges
Wisconsin circuit court judges are elected on a nonpartisan ballot to six-year terms under Wis. Const. art. VII — state judicial officers, not county officials.
Adams 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 boardAdams County Board (County Board of Supervisors, Wis. Stat. ch. 59) →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site names a Jail Administrator (Melissa Simcakowski) distinct from the elected sheriff.
- Jail Division page gives bond/bail payment methods (cash, money order, cashier's check, credit card, or online via govpaynow.com) but no published bed capacity, roster, budget line, death records, PREA report, inspection report, contracts, or fee schedule.
- County Finance Department page links to a Google Drive folder titled 'Budget' but individual budget document contents could not be verified line-by-line via fetch.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Adams 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