The Detention Center
Racine County Jail
- Operated byRacine County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address717 Wisconsin Ave, Racine, WI 53403 (mailing: 730 Wisconsin Ave., Racine, WI 53403)
- BedsRated capacity of 876 persons
Source: Racine County, WI - Official Website · checked 2026-09-19
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗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 builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds876 (rated capacity)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Christopher Schmaling
- Runs the jailRacine County Sheriff's Office operates the Racine 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
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Racine 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.
Racine 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
- About Us page describes the jail as 'one of the largest pre-detention facilities in the state of Wisconsin' with a rated capacity of 876 detainees.
- PREA page lists annual PREA reports for 2021-2024 and a Final PREA Audit Report from 2023, plus a 24/7 PREA hotline (262-636-3811).
- What was tried: the county's inmate-locator subdomain (rcj-web.racinecounty.com) failed on a TLS certificate error; roster 'yes' is instead based on the About Us page's mention of the Inmate Locator link on the sheriff's own site.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Racine 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