City & County Jails in Michigan
Michigan - Inmate Search - All County Jail Rosters
Clicking on any of the Michigan Counties or Cities below will direct you to a list of all the City Jails, County Jails and Juvenile Detention Centers in that specific County.
Search for any jail in Michigan
Michigan county jails and state prisons
Michigan has 83 counties. The sheriff runs the jail. Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Kent, and Genesee run the large buildings. A rural county in the Upper Peninsula or the northern Lower Peninsula often has one small jail and sends overflow to a neighbor. City police departments have holding rooms, not county jails. A few counties run more than one building, so a jail count and a county count are not the same number.
Jails in Michigan hold people before trial and people serving a misdemeanor. A sentence of a year or less stays in the county jail. A felony sentence goes to the Michigan Department of Corrections. A federal sentence goes to the Bureau of Prisons. FCI Milan is the federal prison in the state.
The department ended 2025 with 32,387 prisoners, down 391 from the year before and 37 percent below the March 2007 peak of 51,554. Capacity was spread across 26 prisons and was 95.2 percent occupied. The August 2026 census counted 32,216 in the grand total, including 28 in county jails. Women are held at Women’s Huron Valley in Ypsilanti. Men’s prisons include Baraga, Chippewa, Carson City, Gus Harrison, Central Michigan, and Thumb. The Special Alternative Incarceration boot camp is a separate short program.
How many county jails are there in Michigan?
Most of the 83 counties operate a jail. The ones that do not contract with a neighbor. When a jail holds someone for another county, for the state, or for the U.S. Marshals, it bills a contract rate. Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb account for most of the extra buildings. A full jail in the Upper Peninsula means a long transfer, not a second jail in the same town.
How many juvenile detention centers are there in Michigan?
County detention and state commitment are different systems. The Michigan Juvenile Detention Association lists 26 local detention agencies. Courts and counties run those centers and take youth from other counties under agreements. A youth there is usually waiting on a hearing.
The state side changed in 2025. Shawono Center in Grayling, one of the two state residential facilities for boys, closed that summer. Remaining residents were moved to the Macomb County Juvenile Justice Center. Bay Pines Center, in the Upper Peninsula, is still operating as a state facility. Search the county of the arrest. The listing shows the local detention center, and Bay Pines only if the youth has been placed there.
What the first days in a Michigan county jail are like
Booking is a queue: identity, prints, a medical screen, a search, property bagged, one call. The person has not been convicted. The pod still runs on counts. In January the holding cell is cold. Food is plain, the uniform does not fit, and sleep is broken. Withdrawal from alcohol, opioids, or methamphetamine can start before arraignment.
Deputies who apply the rules the same way to everyone run a quieter floor. Uneven enforcement is how contraband moves. Wayne, Oakland, and Kent can separate by risk. A small northern jail often cannot, and a full jail there means a transfer.
Most Michigan jails sell tablet time, video visits, and deposits through a vendor. Those accounts can be shut off. Each county page on this site lists the jail phone, the vendor, and the way to send money for that sheriff’s office.