Florence County, Wisconsin — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Florence County Jail

Operated byFlorence County Sheriff's Office
Jail address425 Lake Avenue, Florence, WI 54121
Beds28-inmate capacity
Staffing12 correctional officers who also serve as 911 dispatchers
Jail AdministratorLt. Theresa Pataconi (named as jail administrator on the county's jail page)

Source: Florence County Government - 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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Florence County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-19. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year builtNot found
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds28

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Teresa Chrisman

Runs the jailFlorence County Sheriff's Office operates the Florence County Jail at 425 Lake Avenue, Florence, WI
How the office is filledElected, four-year term, Wis. Stat. ch. 59; Chrisman was appointed by Gov. Evers in July 2023 to fill a vacancy
Statutory basisWis. Stat. ch. 59 (county sheriff, custody of jail)

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Florence County Government - 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.

Florence County Circuit Court

Not found

Still needed

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 boardNot found
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

The county's own department directory page (department id d051f2f33340) displayed a contact listing showing 'Sheriff Dan Miller' in one fetch, while the dedicated Sheriff bio page names Teresa Chrisman as Sheriff and a separate contact-us page lists Chrisman as 'Chief Deputy Sheriff'. News coverage (Gov. Evers' office, July 2023) confirms Teresa Chrisman was appointed Florence County Sheriff, with Dan Miller named chief deputy at that time — the county's own directory pages appear inconsistently updated. The official Sheriff bio page (florencecountywi.com/departments/sheriff/) is treated here as the more current, authoritative page.
Jail provides medical care, mental health care, substance abuse services, and religious services per the county's jail page.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Florence 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