The Detention Center
Chippewa County Jail
- Operated byChippewa County Sheriff's Office
- Jail addressChippewa County Courthouse, 711 N Bridge Street, Chippewa Falls, WI 54729
- BedsCapacity of 199 inmates; approximately 60,000 square feet on three floors
- Statewide contextCounty's own jail page states there are 72 county jails in the state of Wisconsin
- ClassificationInmate classification system in place, mandated by the state in 2006
Source: Chippewa County, WI - County Jail · 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
- ✗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 built1949 (original jail, built with an adjoining Sheriff's residence; capacity 18)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds199
Since then
- 1985: Huber work-release dormitory added, raising capacity to 42
- 1992: addition raised capacity to 79
- 2002: large addition raised capacity to 199, added a full kitchen facility, and enabled comprehensive inmate classification (state-mandated classification in 2006)
The Sheriff
Sheriff Travis Hakes
- Runs the jailChippewa County Sheriff's Office operates the Chippewa County Jail, which the county's own site says 'is run under the constitutional authority of the Sheriff'
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term, Wis. Stat. ch. 59
- Statutory basisSheriff Hakes describes himself on the office's own site as 'the 56th Sheriff of Chippewa County'
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Chippewa County, WI - Meet the Sheriff · 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.
Chippewa 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 boardChippewa County Board of Supervisors, Chair Jason Bergeron (District 7), Vice-Chair Joel Seidlitz (District 9) →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- County Jail page gives an unusually detailed public building history (1949 original construction through the 2002 expansion) directly on the Sheriff's Office's own site.
- PREA page describes a zero-tolerance policy and multiple reporting channels (staff, letter, anonymous outgoing mail, kiosk PREA tab) for inmates and family/visitors.
- Jail Fees page (effective August 1, 2020) itemizes Huber fees ($20/day in-county, $30/day out-of-county), Home Detention fees ($20-26/day), Electronic Monitor fees ($20-36/day), court-ordered PBT fees ($5/test), Soberlink fees ($14/day), and records/copy fees.
- Reporting-to-Jail page separately states Huber board/lodging/maintenance is set by the County Board at $17/day, collected nine days in advance ($168).
- Inmate Roster page links to a Current Inmate Listing (PDF) updated during business hours, distinguishing Electronic Monitoring, Housed-Out-of-County, and Boarder inmates.
- No published bed-level death records, inspection reports, vendor contracts (food/medical/commissary), or bond/bail payment page found on the pages checked.
- County's Budget page states an overall county budget of over $126 million and more than 440 employees, with individual annual budget documents from 2010-2026, though a jail-specific budget line was not separately verified.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Chippewa 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