The Detention Center
Oconto County Jail
- Operated byOconto County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address220 Arbutus Avenue, Oconto, WI 54153
- BedsUp to 145 inmates across 17 housing units; jail opened August 7, 2017
- Staffing27 personnel across administrative, supervisory, and correctional-officer positions
- Jail AdministratorCarol Kopp
Source: Oconto County, WI - Jail Division · checked 2026-09-19
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓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 — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built2017 (opened August 7, 2017)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds145 (across 17 housing units)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Todd Skarban
- Runs the jailOconto County Sheriff's Office operates the Oconto County Jail
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term, Wis. Stat. ch. 59
- Statutory basisWis. Stat. ch. 59 (county sheriff)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Oconto County, WI - Sheriff's Office · 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.
Oconto 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 boardOconto County Board (Chairman: Alan Sleeter, District 27) →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- The Inmate Information page (ocontocountywi.gov/700/Inmate-Information) links to off-site inmate services (CIDnet for phone/visitation, JailATM for commissary) and an inmate handbook, but does not itself publish a roster, bond information, or a fee schedule, so those checks are marked no.
- The PREA page (effective policy dated January 2016, revised through 2018) publishes the zero-tolerance policy and a confidential complaint hotline, but no audit reports or statistics, distinguishing it from Marquette or Outagamie County's more complete PREA disclosures.
- Budget check uses the county's general Financial and Budget Reports page (2018-2026 budgets), not a Sheriff's-Office-specific budget document.
- County Board chair and jail administrator names were both confirmed directly from the county's own site.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Oconto 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