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Dane County Jail Roster & Inmate Search

This page lists custody and booking records for Dane County Public Safety Bldg Jail in Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin: legal name, booking number, booking date, listed charges and custody status. Records are synced from the county's official booking source. Below the roster you will find practical information on bond, inmate money, communication, visitation and Dane County court records.

Current Dane County jail roster

819 records in the latest sync — newest booking first

Show more records (769 remaining)

A jail roster is a custody record, not a court docket. Charges listed at booking are allegations, not convictions. Custody status, bond and release details change constantly, so confirm anything time-sensitive with Dane County Public Safety Bldg Jail or the court. Official source: Dane County Sheriff's Office. If a record on this page is inaccurate, use our corrections and removal page.

Dane County Public Safety Bldg Jail: address, phone and visiting

Call before you travel. Visitation at Dane County Public Safety Bldg Jail is normally scheduled in advance and may be video-only, bonding hours can be shorter than the lobby's opening hours, and both change without much notice. The desk can also confirm whether someone booked in the last few hours is in custody, which a roster sync cannot do.

The federal facility dataset lists Dane County Public Safety Bldg Jail with 492 beds as recorded in 2018, while 819 people appear on the roster published today. Read those two numbers side by side rather than as an occupancy rate: rated capacity is not a live figure, jails open and close housing units, and a roster counts everyone booked into the facility including people being held for other agencies.

Other detention facilities in Dane County

The same federal dataset records 2 other facilities in Dane County: City-County Building Jail, William H Ferris Center. This page tracks the roster published for Dane County Public Safety Bldg Jail. Someone booked into one of the others, or moved there after booking, may never appear here — which is one of the more common reasons a search comes up empty when the person really is in custody in the county. The booking desk on (608) 284-6100 can say which facility holds a given person.

Facility details from the DHS HIFLD Prison Boundaries dataset, last recorded 2018-05-08. We publish them as-is and do not independently verify them; if something here is wrong, tell us and we will correct it.

What this roster shows right now

Of the 819 people currently listed in Dane County, the county's booking source publishes names, booking dates and custody status but not the offence recorded at booking, so the charge itself has to come from Dane County Public Safety Bldg Jail on (608) 284-6100. This county's source system does not publish bond amounts. The most recent booking on file is dated 2024-09-25.

Figures are recomputed from Dane County's own roster at every sync and describe allegations recorded at booking, not convictions. Categories are derived from published charge text, and a record can fall into more than one. See the national data report for method and comparison.

What to do with this information

Posting bond in Dane County

Bond is set by a judge, usually at a first appearance within about 24 to 72 hours of booking. Until a bond amount is set, no one can be released. Once it is set you generally have two options: pay the full amount in cash directly to the detention center, which is refundable at the end of the case, or pay a licensed Wisconsin bail bondsman a non-refundable fee, typically around ten percent, to post the bond for you. Ask the jail which payment methods it accepts and whether bonding hours are limited.

Sending money to someone in custody

Most county jails use a third-party commissary vendor rather than accepting cash at the desk. You will normally need the person's full legal name and booking number, both shown on the roster above. Funds usually appear on the account within a few hours and are used for commissary, phone credit and messaging. Vendor fees vary, so check the amount charged before confirming a deposit.

Phone calls, mail and visitation

Calls are placed by the person in custody, not by you, and are recorded. Visitation is often scheduled in advance and may be video-only. Physical mail is inspected, and many facilities reject anything other than plain letters on white paper. These rules differ from county to county and change often, so verify them with Dane County Public Safety Bldg Jail before making arrangements.

Finding the related Dane County court case

The roster shows custody, not court proceedings. To follow the case itself, including hearing dates, filings and final disposition, you need the Wisconsin court record system for Dane County. Search using the person's full legal name and, where possible, date of birth or case number.

If the person is not on the roster

They may have been released, transferred to another facility, held by a different agency, or booked too recently to appear in the latest sync. People serving longer sentences are usually held by the state department of corrections rather than a county jail, and appear in a separate state system.

Guides for what comes next

Each of these explains one step of the process in detail, written for people dealing with it for the first time rather than for lawyers.

Common questions

Other Wisconsin county jail rosters

Booking often happens in the county where the incident occurred rather than where the person lives, so neighbouring counties are worth checking when a search comes up empty.

All Wisconsin counties · Every published county · Guides