The Detention Center
Buffalo County Jail
- Operated byBuffalo County Sheriff's Office
- Jail addressLocated within the Buffalo County Courthouse complex, 407 S. 2nd St, Alma, WI 54610 (deposit kiosk is on the second floor of the courthouse near the Sheriff's Office entry)
- BedsNot found
- VendorsStellar Services/JailATM used for inmate funds and video/text communications; commissary items include beverages, clothing, phone minutes, hygiene items, mail kits, snack foods, stationery
- Health careJail provides necessary medical treatment and emergency dental care; inmates are responsible for payment of medical costs incurred while incarcerated
Source: Buffalo County Sheriff's Office - Jail · checked 2026-09-19
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗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 — 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
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jake Laehn
- Runs the jailBuffalo County Sheriff's Office operates the Buffalo County Jail
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term, Wis. Stat. ch. 59
- Statutory basisSheriff's Office lists mission to protect and serve the public and partner with EMS, Fire, Emergency Government, Highway, Human Services and municipalities
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Buffalo 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.
Buffalo 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 boardBuffalo County Board (of Supervisors) — chair not found →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's Office publishes a detailed Fee Schedule PDF (adopted by County Board resolution under Wis. Stat. 814.705(a)) covering civil-process fees, records fees, Electronic Monitoring ($5.00/day), Booking Fee ($20.00), Intake Kit Fee ($10.00), and Warrant Pickup Fee.
- Records Request page routes crash reports and other police reports through a NextRequest portal and an external crash-report site, but does not itself publish an inmate roster.
- County Board and committee agendas/minutes (including a Law Enforcement/Emergency Management Committee) are published, but no standalone adopted-budget or jail-specific budget document was located.
- No published bed capacity, death records, PREA report, inspection report, contracts, or bond/bail information found on the Sheriff's Office pages checked.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Buffalo 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