Lake County Jail Overview
The Lake County Jail / Lake County Corrections Division is operated by the Lake County Sheriff's Office. The official corrections page lists the jail at 1153 Michigan Avenue in Baldwin and names Keith Bartram as Corrections Administrator. Sheriff Richard Martin is identified on the sheriff page, and the county directory confirms the jail, sheriff, dispatch, prosecutor, clerk, and trial court phone numbers. These official county pages are the correct local sources for the sheriff-run jail, not search results from other Lake Counties.
The county's Corrections Division page states that the jail holds felons, gross misdemeanants, misdemeanants, pre-trial detainees, juvenile non-status offenders, MDOC offenders, witnesses, and people held in protective custody. That mix is important. A person at the Lake County Jail may be waiting for arraignment, serving a local sentence, held for another agency, or in custody under a state corrections-related reason. Once a person is sentenced to state prison, the lookup route changes to MDOC OTIS. Immigration detainees at North Lake Processing Center are searched through ICE ODLS, not the sheriff jail.
The official Lake County Corrections page is the matched source for the jail's contact, staffing, capacity, and population-category details.
The source confirms the local jail facts and supports the distinction between sheriff custody and outside locator systems.
Lake County Jail Capacity
Lake County publishes unusually clear jail-size history. The official corrections page says the main jail opened in the mid-1960s with a capacity of 28 and was remodeled in 2000, bringing capacity to 48. The same page lists staffing as the Jail Administrator, four corporals, and ten corrections officers. No current daily jail population, average daily population, annual booking count, or demographic table was located in the official Lake County sources inspected, so those figures should not be inferred from the bed count.
| Measure | Published Figure | Source Note |
|---|---|---|
| Current capacity | 48 beds | Lake County Corrections page, inspected June 17, 2026. |
| Original capacity | 28 beds | County jail history from the same official page. |
| Current daily population | Not located | No county-published dashboard or roster count found. |
| Population categories | Pretrial, sentenced, MDOC-related, witnesses, protective custody, and other listed groups | County purpose statement. |
Look Up Lake County Jail Custody
No official online Lake County, Michigan jail roster, inmate-search page, daily booking report, or mugshot gallery was located on the county homepage, sheriff page, corrections page, directory, or court pages inspected. Because of that gap, a Lake County Jail inmate lookup should start with the jail phone and then move through records and court channels. Do not rely on a roster branded for a different Lake County or a third-party page that is not tied to the Michigan sheriff.
- Call Lake County Jail at (231) 745-6201 and ask whether the person is currently housed there and whether booking is complete.
- Ask whether public bond, court-date, or release information can be given by phone, or whether the caller must contact the Trial Court.
- For records routing, call the Sheriff's Office at (231) 745-2712 or email sheriff@co.lake.mi.us and ask for the FOIA coordinator or records custodian.
- Use Michigan VINE for custody-status notification where the person appears in a participating system.
- Use MiCOURT Case Search after a court case is filed, and use MDOC OTIS, BOP, or ICE ODLS only when custody has moved to those systems.
Lake County jail custody is local. MDOC OTIS is for prisoners, parolees, probationers, absconders, escapees, and some discharged offenders under state corrections authority. The BOP inmate locator is for federal prisoners. ICE ODLS is for immigration detainees, including people who may be held at North Lake Processing Center. Each system answers a different question.
Lake County Jail Address
Use the jail and sheriff address for custody questions, not the county courthouse address. The public county offices and Trial Court are useful for court-file lookup, clerk copies, prosecutor contact, or case payments, but booking status and current custody begin with the Corrections Division. Visitors should confirm lobby access, parking, entry point, allowed property, identification, and schedule before traveling because those details were not published in the official jail page.
Lake County Jail / Corrections Division
1153 Michigan Avenue
Baldwin, MI 49304
(231) 745-6201
Fax: (231) 745-4136
Lake County Sheriff's Office
1153 Michigan Avenue
Baldwin, MI 49304
(231) 745-2712
Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Lake County Jail Visitation
Official Lake County sources inspected do not publish a detailed visitation schedule, visitor-approval process, dress code, video vendor, attorney-visit rule page, or lobby procedure for the jail. The research-safe instruction is to call first. Visitors should ask whether visits are in person or video, whether a visitor list is required, what identification is accepted, how early to arrive, which items may enter the lobby, and whether the person must be fully booked before visits are allowed.
| Service | Published Rule Found? | What to Confirm |
|---|---|---|
| In-person visitation | Not located | Schedule, visitor list, ID, dress code, arrival time, and property rules. |
| Video visitation | Not located | Whether video exists, vendor name, registration, device rules, and fees. |
| Attorney visits | Not located | Professional visit hours, credentials, and legal-call procedures. |
| Newly booked people | Not located | When phone calls and visits may begin after intake. |
Note: A posted schedule from another Michigan county should not be used for Lake County Jail.
Lake County Jail Mail and Money
The official Lake County jail sources reviewed do not publish a mail address format, inmate ID rule, scanned-mail vendor, phone vendor, tablet vendor, commissary provider, deposit method, money-order rule, or deposit fee table. A family member should ask the jail for the exact current rule before mailing property or sending funds. If mail must include a booking number, housing unit, or full legal name, the jail can state that format after confirming custody.
| Service | Provider or Rule | Research-Safe Action |
|---|---|---|
| Mail address | Not published online | Ask the jail for exact name, ID, and address format. |
| Phone calls | Vendor not located | Ask when calls start and how family accounts are funded. |
| Commissary | Vendor not located | Ask whether deposits are online, by phone, in person, money order, or unavailable. |
| Money deposits | Fees not located | Verify payment methods and charges directly with jail staff. |
Lake County Jail Booking
After a Lake County arrest, the person is normally taken to the Lake County Jail unless released by citation, transported for medical care, held by another agency, or routed to federal or ICE custody. During booking, jail staff receive the arrestee, inventory property, collect identity information, take fingerprints and a booking photograph when required, perform medical and mental-health screening, classify the person for housing, enter charges and holds, and place the person in a cell or unit.
The jail's official policy language emphasizes facility security, inmate accountability, humane care, prevention of disturbances, and protection of inmate rights. Those local themes explain why booking may take time. A person may not be immediately confirmable if paperwork is incomplete, a transfer is underway, or another agency controls the hold. Court charges may also lag the arrest because the prosecutor must review the report before the court case is opened.
Lake County Jail Records
Michigan FOIA is the public-records route for jail booking records or photographs that are not posted online. MCL 15.231 states Michigan's policy of public access to government records, and MCL 15.235 covers written request handling and response timing. A request should identify the person, arrest or booking date, case number if known, and the exact record sought. The sheriff may release, redact, deny, or route the request under Michigan law and local policy.
For court-filed charges after the arrest, use MiCOURT or the Trial Court clerk. For a state-prison move after sentencing, use OTIS. For immigration detention at North Lake, use ODLS and the ICE facility line. The same person can pass through more than one system, so a missing result in one locator does not prove that the person is out of custody.
About Lake County Jail
The Lake County jail is small compared with the nearby North Lake Processing Center. The county jail's published capacity is 48 beds, while North Lake is an ICE processing center with a GEO-listed capacity of 1,800. The difference matters for search intent. A Lake County Jail lookup concerns sheriff custody, local booking, bond, trial-court routing, and FOIA records. A North Lake lookup concerns immigration detention and ICE ODLS.
Note: Confirm custody, visitation, mail, and money rules with Lake County Jail before traveling or sending funds.