The Detention Center
Forest County Jail
- Operated byForest County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address100 South Park Ave., Crandon, WI 54520
- Beds80-bed facility, completed 1997
- NotableAlso houses inmates boarded from Oconto County
- Jail AdministratorAmanda Herman (named as jail administrator on the county's jail page)
Source: Forest County Sheriff's Department - Jail · checked 2026-09-19
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✗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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1997
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds80
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Not found
- Runs the jailForest County Sheriff's Office operates the Forest County Jail
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term, Wis. Stat. ch. 59
- 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: Forest County Sheriff's Department · 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.
Forest 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 boardNot found
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Forest County is a small northern county but, per its own jail page, runs its own 80-bed jail (built 1997) and also boards inmates from Oconto County — the reverse of the boarding arrangement seen in some neighboring small counties.
- Fees listed on the jail page: booking fee $20.00; daily room and board $20.00; Huber fee $15.00/day plus room and board.
- Could not confirm the current sheriff's name from any Forest County official page opened (forestcountysheriff.org home, jail, contact, staff, about, and co.forest.wi.gov pages checked); recording as Not found per accuracy rules rather than guessing.
- What was tried: forestcountysheriff.org/about-us/ (404), forestcountysheriff.org/about.html (404), co.forest.wi.gov/docview.asp?docid=30805 (404).
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Forest 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