The Detention Center
Clark County Jail
- Operated byClark County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address517 Court St, Room 308, Neillsville, WI 54456
- Beds126 beds
- OpenedApril 2000, pod-based design
Source: Clark County WI - County Jail · checked 2026-09-19
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓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 — not published
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built2000
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds126
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Kerry L. Kirn
- Runs the jailSheriff's Office operates the Clark County Jail in Neillsville
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term, Wis. Stat. ch. 59; current sheriff was appointed by Gov. Tony Evers effective January 1, 2025 per the office's own page
- Statutory basisWis. Stat. ch. 59 (county sheriff, custody of jail)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Clark County WI - Sheriff Administration · 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.
Clark 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 boardClark County Board of Supervisors (Chairman Ken Gerhardt, Vice Chairperson Scott Jalling per county site) →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site (clarkcountywi.gov) does not publish an inmate roster, budget document, PREA policy, inspection reports, contracts, bond schedule, or fee schedule; a Finance Department page references 'audit reports and budget documents' generically but no specific sheriff/jail budget line items were located on the site.
- What was tried: searched clarkcountywi.gov/publications-data and /finance for a budget PDF with sheriff/jail line items — none found.
- State inspection/oversight: Wisconsin DOC Division of Community Corrections inspects county jails under Wis. Admin. Code DOC 350; not independently confirmed to apply to Clark County on the county's own site.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Clark 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