The Detention Center
Washington County Jail
- Operated byWashington County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address500 Rolfs Avenue, West Bend, WI 53090
- Medical servicesContracted with Advance Correctional Healthcare; mental health evaluations through the Washington County Mental Health Center
- ProgramsMedication Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opiate-addicted inmates, AA/NA meetings, Huber (work release), electronic monitoring
Source: Washington County, WI · checked 2026-09-19
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓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
- ✓How to post bond
- ✓Phone, video and commissary rates
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 Martin R. Schulteis
- Runs the jailThe Washington County Sheriff's Office operates the county jail in West Bend
- 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: Washington County, WI · 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.
Washington 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 Inmate Information page discloses commissary kiosk fees ($2.75 cash deposit fee, $4.95 credit card deposit fee) and a $60 weekly commissary purchase limit, and names Advance Correctional Healthcare as the medical contractor.
- Inmate lookup on the county's own site links out to the state WI-VINE tool rather than hosting its own roster, so 'roster' was scored no.
- No bed capacity figure, PREA page, inspection records, or death records were found on the county's own site.
- State inspection/oversight: Wisconsin DOC Division of Community Corrections inspects county jails under Wis. Admin. Code DOC 350; applicability to Washington County jail not independently confirmed on the sheriff's site.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Washington 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