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

The Detention Center

Polk County Jail

Operated byPolk County Sheriff's Office
Jail addressPolk County Justice Center, 1005 West Main St, Suite 900, Balsam Lake, WI 54810
Beds160-bed facility, opened in 2003

Source: Polk County, WI - Official Website · 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 — 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
✓Phone, video and commissary rates

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Polk 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 built2003
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds160

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Brent A. Waak

Runs the jailPolk County Sheriff's Office operates the Polk County Jail
How the office is filledElected, four-year term, Wis. Stat. ch. 59
Statutory basisWis. Stat. ch. 59 gives the elected Sheriff custody of the county jail

Still needed

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

Source: Polk County, WI - Official Website · 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.

Polk 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

Jail page states bond can be posted in-person at the Clerk of Courts, via after-hours lobby kiosk, or by phone/online via Securus.
Fees listed: remote video visitation $12.99 (20 min) or $25.98 (40 min); on-site video visitation free; phone rates set by Securus.
What was tried: https://www.polkcountywi.gov/government/elected_officials/sheriff/corrections_jail.php was refused by robots.txt.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Polk 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