Lake County Jail Inmate Bail & Bonds

That hinges on the charge. Sometimes a judge sets it, and sometimes the clerk works from the state chart. Lake falls inside the Third Judicial Circuit, whose written arrest and release procedure controls the timing. Jailers phone the on-call judge for bond any time from 8 a.m. through 9 p.m. Booked at 10 p.m.? Expect to sit until the 8 a.m. call.

• Felonies always need a judge's bond. So do a handful of Class 1 misdemeanors, for instance simple assault, stalking, and ignoring a no-contact or protection order.
• For Class 2 misdemeanors, your relative walks out on personal recognizance, a written promise to come back.
• Held and no bond posted? Unless probable cause gets a judge's signature inside 48 hours, the jail must turn your relative loose.
• After a warrantless arrest, the complaint must be on file within two business days. Otherwise your relative goes free and the bond is cancelled.

Next comes the first hearing. State law demands it "without unnecessary delay," and a video link from the jail counts (SDCL 23A-4-1). A magistrate judge holds it at the courthouse, 200 East Center Street, Madison, SD 57042-2941. Reach the Clerk of Courts at 605-256-5644.

State law lays out a ladder, and the judge stops at the first rung that will get the defendant back to court (SDCL 23A-43-2, 23A-43-3):

1. Own recognizance, or an unsecured bond. Your relative signs. The bond amount becomes payable only on a no-show.
2. A supervising adult or agency. Someone dependable takes responsibility for them.
3. Travel, contact or housing limits.
4. Mental health requirements, treatment for example.
5. Deposit of cash, never above 10 percent of the bond, returned once your relative follows every condition.
6. Surety bond, or the full sum in cash.
7. Anything else reasonably necessary.

What the judge weighs (SDCL 23A-43-4): the offense and how strong the evidence seems. Mental health findings count too. So does the risk your relative runs off or hurts someone.

Alcohol and drug cases frequently add 24/7 Sobriety (SDCL 1-11-20). That means blowing into a breath tester twice daily, or wearing an alcohol-detecting bracelet. Fee ceilings set by statute: breath test, $3; urinalysis, $10; drug patch, $70; bracelet, $10 daily, plus no more than $50 to install and $50 to remove. Locally the Sheriff's Office runs testing, so phone 605-256-7615 to learn where and when.

Third Circuit clerks consult the FY27 Fine and Bond Schedule, a single statewide table that took effect on July 1, 2026. With it, many bonds get set with no wait for a judge. Examples:

• Class 2 misdemeanor: released on a signed promise (circuit rule)
• Misdemeanor marijuana, 2 ounces or under: signed promise
• DUI, first or second: $225 to $1,000
• DUI, third or more (a felony): $1,000 to $5,000
• Grand theft: $1,000 to $10,000
• Robbery: $1,000 to $25,000
• Simple assault, stalking, protection order violation: judge decides
• Domestic abuse: judge decides amount and conditions, clerks can't
• Murder, first-degree manslaughter, kidnapping: nothing happens until a judge sees the defendant

Open the complete FY27 fine and bond schedule on the court system's site. Judges may go higher or lower. For the actual figure in your relative's case, dial the jail at 605-256-5044.

Jail and Sheriff's Office share the address 200 E Center St, Madison, SD 57042. Business hours there run 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, holidays excepted. Walk through it like this:

1. Before driving over, ring 605-256-5044.
2. Spell your relative's name, add the birth date, and confirm the bond figure.
3. Find out which window takes money at this hour.
4. Learn which payment types work and the payee to write in.
5. Confirm no judge review is still pending. After a domestic arrest, one always is.
6. Ask which entrance to use. Carry photo ID. Save receipts.

Prisoners from neighboring counties share these cells, so confirm that staff found your relative, not someone with a similar name, before money changes hands.

Try the Clerk of Courts next. South Dakota clerk magistrates may fix bond under the adopted schedule, or accept a personal recognizance bond (SDCL 16-12C-10). Find the office at 200 East Center Street, Madison, SD 57042-2941, phone 605-256-5644, open 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. on weekdays.

1. Phone first, with a case number if you have one.
2. Find out if the clerk can receive bond on this particular case, and how.
3. Ask how fast word of the payment reaches the jail.
4. Show photo ID at the counter. Pocket the receipt.

Picked up by a city officer? Phone the Madison Police Department, 503 S Highland Avenue, Madison, SD 57042, at 605-256-7531, and ask where that bond belongs.

Payment rules can shift, so let the jail at 605-256-5044 tell you what works today, and arrive with exactly that. Cash should never travel by mail.

• Court payments by card. UJS ePayments takes card payments on fines, costs and restitution orders. Bond falls outside its scope. The site flags open warrants too. Paying online requires at least $25, or the whole balance when it is smaller.
• Held in Brookings instead? At the Brookings County Detention Center, 315 7th Ave, Brookings, SD 57006, 605-696-8308, a lobby kiosk takes bond in cash or by card. That county's web page also links an online card service, jailATM web deposits. Expect small processing charges, plus a possible $25 Sheriff's fee.

Keep in mind that a fine paid online is not bond. Bond money goes only where jail or court staff direct it.

Bondspersons sell a guarantee: for a fee, they promise the court the full bond amount. Licensing belongs to the South Dakota Division of Insurance (SDCL 58-22), 124 South Euclid Avenue, 2nd Floor, Pierre, SD 57501, 605-773-3563. That office also verifies licenses and takes complaints.

• Bonding with no license: Class 6 felony (SDCL 58-22-4).
• Jailers, officers and sheriffs are forbidden any share of bail bond money (SDCL 58-22-3). Nobody at the jail should recommend a particular company.
• Soliciting clients where prisoners are confined is forbidden (SDCL 58-22-32).
• Put the fee and any collateral terms on paper. Insist on a receipt for property or cash you hand over.
• Family members can serve as personal sureties only by swearing an affidavit about their property and debts (SDCL 23A-43-20).

The court system's own bail bond agents list is the official place to start.

One bond frees someone from one case. Anything else pending can keep them in a cell, so before paying, ask jail staff at 605-256-5044 to read out every hold.

• Warrants elsewhere. Another court's or county's warrant needs separate bond.
• Probation trouble. A claimed violation can trigger a separate hold. Local supervision runs through Court Services, 200 East Center, Suite 1, Madison, SD 57042-2941, 605-256-5645.
• Domestic charges. Police must notify a judge, who decides the bond and the conditions (SDCL 25-10-40). Before the first hearing, your relative cannot contact the alleged victim or that household by any route, including through you. Breaking that rule is a Class 1 misdemeanor (SDCL 25-10-43). Refuse any request to pass along a note.
• 24/7 slipups. A missed or positive test may mean handcuffs again and a no-bond stay until court.
• Federal and immigration holds. Marshals or ICE agents can lodge a request with the jail.

Yes, but the window is tiny. Under the state Constitution, every accused person may be released on sufficient sureties (S.D. Const. art. VI, § 8). The exception covers capital charges, and only where guilt looks clear and the evidence is strong.

Short of denial, a judge worried about risk can impose strict conditions or require a big cash or surety bond. The judge looks hard at the accusation, the proof, mental health reports and community safety (SDCL 23A-43-4). Marsy's Law entitles victims to be heard at any release hearing (S.D. Const. art. VI, § 29).

Prosecutors from the State's Attorney's office, 200 E Center Street, Madison, SD 57042, 605-256-7630, argue these hearings. The office is staffed weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

1. Begin with defense counsel, who files the request. Conditions can be amended whenever the court sees fit (SDCL 23A-43-7).
2. Use the review rule. Conditions still unmet 24 hours on? Request a review (SDCL 23A-43-8).
3. A circuit judge may rework conditions a magistrate imposed (SDCL 23A-43-14).
4. Show local ties and means: pay stubs, a lease, letters from family, a budget that adds up.
5. Suggest something that eases the court's concern, 24/7 testing for instance.

Ask the Clerk of Courts, 605-256-5644, when a hearing can be set.

If your relative cannot pay a lawyer, they say so at the initial hearing, and the judge appoints one (SDCL 23A-40-6). Here, the county pays private attorneys appointed by the court (SDCL 23A-40-7, 23A-40-8). For the request form, see the Clerk of Courts, 200 East Center Street, Madison, SD 57042-2941, 605-256-5644.

• Petty offenses, ordinance tickets and Class 2 misdemeanors get no free lawyer. That applies when jail can't be imposed and your relative is out (SDCL 23A-40-6.1).
• Even an acquittal does not rule out a repayment order to the county (SDCL 23A-40-10).
• Liens on property are allowed, but foreclosing on a homestead is not (SDCL 23A-40-11, 23A-40-15).
• Appeals now go to the statewide Office of Indigent Legal Services, set up in 2024.

One courthouse handles every state case: 200 East Center Street, Madison, SD 57042-2941. Both the circuit bench and the magistrate bench sit there. The Clerk of Courts picks up at 605-256-5644, weekdays 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m.

• Court Services (probation): 200 East Center, Suite 1, Madison, SD 57042-2941, 605-256-5645
• State's Attorney: 200 E Center Street, Madison, SD 57042, 605-256-7630
• Third Circuit office: 314 6th Avenue, Suite 6, Brookings, SD 57006-2085, 605-688-4200
• Federal court: United States Courthouse, 400 S. Phillips Ave., Room 128, Sioux Falls, SD 57104, 605-330-6600

Violations of Madison's city ordinances land in that same magistrate court.

After the case wraps up with all conditions kept, the bond is exonerated and the money freed up (SDCL 23A-43-26). Deposits of ten percent are refunded on the same terms (SDCL 23A-43-3).

• A missed hearing allows forfeiture plus an arrest warrant (SDCL 23A-43-21).
• Skipping a hearing is itself a crime (SDCL 23A-43-31). Missed felony or DUI dates bring a new Class 6 felony; missed misdemeanor dates bring a Class 1 misdemeanor charge.
• Judges can set aside a forfeiture in the interest of justice (SDCL 23A-43-22).
• Forfeited cash is deposited in the county treasury (SDCL 23A-43-25).

Paying for somebody else? First ask the Clerk of Courts, 605-256-5644, if fines, court costs or attorney fees might be deducted. Ask also whose name a refund carries. For how paying and refunds work in every court, see the statewide rules on South Dakota bail.

Belongings collected at booking stay in storage until release. Before your relative walks out, find out how the money left on the jail account comes back. The jail number is 605-256-5044.

• Ask whether pickup happens at the Sheriff's Office, 200 E Center St, Madison, SD 57042, open weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Bring photo ID.
• Collecting for another adult? Ask if that person must sign a release first.
• Jail stays can be billed to the prisoner (SDCL 24-11-45).

Our inmate money explainer describes deposits and refunds generally.

A federal judge in Sioux Falls decides, since this county lies in the Southern Division of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota. Clerk: United States Courthouse, 400 S. Phillips Ave., Room 128, Sioux Falls, SD 57104, 605-330-6600.

• Detention gets argued at the initial appearance. Either side can ask to postpone that hearing (18 U.S.C. 3142). Defense delays top out at five days, prosecution delays at three.
• Until trial, your relative is a Marshals Service prisoner. The office at 400 South Phillips Avenue, Room 216, Sioux Falls, SD 57104-6851, 605-330-4351, can say where they are housed.
• Background reports for the judge come out of U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services, 314 S. Main Ave., Suite 100, Sioux Falls, SD 57104, 605-977-8900.
• After sentencing, find them in the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

No. Paying the state bond leaves that federal request standing. Typically:

1. A detainer request reaches the jailers from ICE on Form I-247A.
2. It requests custody for up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. The ICE St. Paul Field Office, 1 Federal Drive, Suite 1601, Fort Snelling, MN 55111, 612-843-8600, covers South Dakota and arranges the pickup.
4. Search by name in the ICE Online Detainee Locator.
5. Last, state law. SB 7 (SL 2025, ch 100) forbids counties and cities to adopt rules that block telling federal officials about anyone's immigration status.

Misdemeanor sentences are served in county jail. Prison terms on felonies go to the South Dakota Department of Corrections (SDCL 22-6-1). Felonies in Classes 5 and 6 start from a presumption of probation, barring aggravating facts (SDCL 22-6-11). For those, a judge may also order up to one year in county jail instead (SDCL 22-6-1.1).

• DOC decides which prison each state prisoner goes to.
• Name or DOC number pulls up a prisoner in the DOC offender locator.
• Facility profiles are in our South Dakota prisons directory.

Children 10 and older who break the law are handled on circuit court's juvenile docket (SDCL 26-8C-2). Release to a parent is the normal outcome. An intake officer may approve holding a child only on one of the grounds the statute lists (SDCL 26-8C-3), and a risk assessment tool guides the Third Circuit.

Trying a youth as an adult takes a transfer hearing before a circuit judge (SDCL 26-11-4). Minnehaha County Regional Juvenile Detention Center, 4200 S. West Ave., Sioux Falls, SD 57105, 605-367-4313, handles secure detention for this county. It is staffed around the clock and shared by 16 counties.