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

The Detention Center

Iowa County Jail

Operated byIowa County Sheriff's Office
Jail address109 E Leffler St, Dodgeville, WI 53533
BedsNot found

Source: Dane County Sheriff's Office - Iowa County Jail visitation info · checked 2026-09-19

Transparency rating

1/10Closed

✓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 — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Iowa 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
BedsNot found

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Michael Peterson

Runs the jailIowa County Sheriff's Office operates the Iowa County Jail
How the office is filledElected, four-year term, Wis. Stat. ch. 59
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: Iowa County, WI - 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.

Iowa 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

Iowa County runs its own jail at 109 E Leffler St, Dodgeville — it is not boarded out to a neighboring county. The Dane County Sheriff's Office website happens to host a family/visitation information page about the Iowa County Jail (a regional resource page, not evidence of custody transfer); the jail's own address and operation were confirmed via the county's own Sheriff page and this Dane County page describing visitation at the Dodgeville facility.
Facebook material referencing a 'Sheriff Michael Peterson' campaign page was not used as a source; the name was instead confirmed via the county's own official Sheriff department page.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Iowa 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