The Detention Center
Vilas County Jail
- Operated byVilas County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address330 Court Street, Eagle River, WI 54521
- CapacityFacility houses approximately 125 inmates
- ProgramsHSED/GED, Bible study groups, Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Huber (work-release) program
Source: Vilas County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-19
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓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
- ✗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
- BedsApproximately 125 (per sheriff's office site; not stated as a formal rated capacity)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Gerard Ritter
- Runs the jailThe Vilas County Sheriff's Office operates the county jail in Eagle River
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term, Wis. Stat. ch. 59
- Statutory basisWis. Stat. ch. 59 (county sheriff has 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: Vilas County 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.
Vilas 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
- The Services page lists downloadable Annual PREA Reports (2020-2025) and PREA Audit reports (2018, 2022, 2025) and a current inmate list PDF, but does not give a formal bed count, budget, inspection records, contracts, or death records.
- Bond is handled via Jail ATM kiosk deposits after notifying the jail; general debts/fees are processed through a Point and Pay portal, but no itemized fee schedule with dollar amounts was found on the site.
- State inspection/oversight: Wisconsin DOC Division of Community Corrections inspects county jails under Wis. Admin. Code DOC 350; applicability to Vilas County jail not independently confirmed on the sheriff's site.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Vilas 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