Chippewa County Jail

Run the name through Chippewa County Inmate Search. If the search shows nothing, the booking may be too new, so try again later. The Jail Administrator at 715-726-7704 can answer what the search does not cover, such as whether another county wants the person.

The jail takes fresh arrests from every police agency in the county, so a city or village arrest ends up in the same place.

The Chippewa County Jail is at 50 E Spruce Street, Chippewa Falls, WI 54729. It is a three-floor building built to hold 199 people, and it holds people awaiting trial, people serving sentences of up to a year, and people on fresh arrests. The Sheriff's Office is on the same street, and the courthouse is a separate building at 711 N Bridge Street.

Yes, and during business hours the county asks you to. Weekday business-hour bail is paid at the law enforcement agency nearest to you, not at the jail, or at the Clerk of Courts. Pay with cash, a money order, a certified bank check, or a credit card at the agency.

For criminal court questions, the clerk's criminal desk is at 715-726-7758, ext. 2.

After business hours, you may pay bail at the nearest law enforcement agency or at the Chippewa County Jail. State law lets an officer take bail only at a sheriff's office or police station and hand you a numbered receipt, so bring photo ID, the person's full name, and the exact dollar amount.

If you are unsure which agency is closest, call the Jail Administrator at 715-726-7704.

The Clerk of Courts takes cash, money orders, and certified bank checks. Police agencies and the jail take those same three plus credit cards. A personal check is not on either list.

Only the agencies and the jail list cards. A card fee may apply, so ask before you hand one over.

No. Wisconsin bans paid bonding. A surety must be an individual and cannot receive any pay for signing (Wis. Stat. 969.12(2)). A promise of "10 percent down" from a stranger has no court standing here.

The only money that counts is the cash the judge ordered, paid to a county office. Pay the county and nobody else.

Chippewa County runs a Pretrial Services program from Room 221 of the courthouse. When a judge orders monitoring, the released person must report to a pretrial specialist right away. If cash bail is paid on a weekend or after 4:30 p.m. on a weekday, the person must report by the next business day.

Monitoring usually carries no fee and lasts until the case ends. Conditions can include hearing reminders, check-ins, drug and alcohol tests, or a monitoring device. Call 715-726-7798 with questions.

Pretrial staff use a tool called the Public Safety Assessment to give the judge two scores: the chance of a new crime and the chance of missing a future hearing. It uses records, not an interview about the charge. The judge still decides release terms.

The program's stated aim is to release more people before trial while protecting the public and getting people back to court.

The prosecutor does not set bail. A judge does. After that, the district attorney can ask the court to raise the amount or change conditions (Wis. Stat. 969.08).

For a short list of serious charges, only the district attorney can ask the judge to deny release, and a hearing must begin within 10 days.

No. Huber, the county's work-release program, is for people who have been sentenced. The Huber deputy at 715-720-3640 explains the rules for those inmates. Someone awaiting trial who cannot pay bail stays in custody until the judge changes the terms or the case ends.

There is no promise of a full refund. A judge can apply the deposit to court costs, fines, forfeitures, or restitution. It can also be forfeited if the defendant misses court, breaks a bond condition, or is charged with a new offense.

When the court orders forfeiture, written notice goes to both the defendant and the payer, who then have 30 days to respond. A missed court date can bring an immediate forfeiture order.

Ask a lawyer to file a request under Wis. Stat. 969.08. A person still jailed 72 hours after the first appearance may ask the judge to review the terms, and a judge who keeps them must explain why on the record.

Courts may weigh ability to pay, the seriousness of the offense, past record, and the policy against needless pretrial jail.

A person arrested on a mandatory-arrest domestic abuse charge is held until bail is posted or a judge sees the case. After release, a 72-hour ban on contact and on going near the alleged victim's home applies (Wis. Stat. 968.075). Breaking it can bring a fine of up to $10,000, up to 9 months in jail, or both.

The State Public Defender office at 10 N Bridge Street, Suite 200, Chippewa Falls, WI 54729 covers Chippewa County. Call 715-908-8473. Request an appointed lawyer on the record when the judge first sees the case.

Call the juvenile clerk at 715-726-7734. The clerk can tell you where the young person is held and when the hearing takes place. Records for minors are private, so Chippewa County Inmate Search will not show them.

Real payment goes to the Clerk of Courts, a police agency, or the jail, never to a person who wants gift cards, an app transfer, or crypto. Verify any request by calling 715-726-7704 yourself.

Which court hears your case. First-offense OWI is a civil matter in Wisconsin (a forfeiture rather than a crime, unless a passenger younger than 16 was aboard), and it is handled the same way as other ordinance tickets: in the Cornell or New Auburn municipal court if the stop happened in that community, and otherwise in the circuit court. Because Chippewa Falls, Bloomer, Lake Hallie and most other municipalities here do not run their own courts, the large majority of tickets in the county go to the circuit court. Misdemeanors, along with criminal traffic charges like a second OWI, are filed in the Chippewa County Circuit Court and divided among its three branches. A felony is handled in that same court at every stage, including the initial appearance, the preliminary hearing and any trial.

Where pretrial inmates are held. The Sheriff's Office operates the county jail at 32 East Spruce Street, a short distance from the courthouse, and it receives arrestees from the Chippewa Falls, Lake Hallie, Bloomer, Cadott, Cornell, Boyd and Stanley police as well as from deputies and troopers. An arrest in the slice of the city of Eau Claire that lies inside Chippewa County can raise questions about which county's court and jail apply, so confirm with the arresting agency. Some sentenced inmates may receive Huber release. Call the Sheriff's Office at (715) 726-7700 to learn whether a person is in custody and what is needed for release.

• Chippewa County Circuit Court (Branches 1, 2 and 3), Chippewa County Courthouse, 711 North Bridge Street, Chippewa Falls, WI 54729; Clerk of Circuit Court (715) 726-7758
• Chippewa County District Attorney, Courthouse, Room 222, 711 North Bridge Street, Chippewa Falls, WI 54729, (715) 726-7740
• Chippewa County Sheriff's Office, 32 East Spruce Street, Chippewa Falls, WI 54729, (715) 726-7700
• Chippewa County Jail, 32 East Spruce Street, Chippewa Falls, WI 54729, (715) 726-7700
• Wisconsin State Public Defender, Chippewa Falls office (assigned to Chippewa, Barron and Rusk counties), 10 North Bridge Street, Suite 200, Chippewa Falls, WI 54729, (715) 908-8473
• Chippewa County Department of Human Services, Children, Youth & Family Services (juvenile intake), Courthouse, Room 305, 711 North Bridge Street, Chippewa Falls, WI 54729, (715) 726-7788

Chippewa County's court system is centered almost entirely on the circuit court. Only two municipal courts operate in the county, each serving one small community, and the city of Stanley reports that its own municipal court was abolished in 2016, so Stanley tickets are now filed in the Chippewa County or Clark County circuit court depending on where they were written. A municipal judge hears ordinance violations only and can impose money forfeitures, not jail, except to enforce a forfeiture that has gone unpaid. Depending on the type of case, a defendant may have a route to move a municipal citation into circuit court; the municipal clerk can explain the deadline.

Circuit court

• Chippewa County Circuit Court, Chippewa County Courthouse, 711 North Bridge Street, Chippewa Falls, WI 54729. Three branches. Clerk of Circuit Court for criminal, traffic and forfeiture cases (715) 726-7758; juvenile clerk (715) 726-7734. Ticket payments can be made in person or by mail at the courthouse.

Municipal courts

• Cornell Municipal Court (city of Cornell), P.O. Box 796, Cornell, WI 54732, (715) 202-3621
• New Auburn Municipal Court (village of New Auburn, which straddles the Chippewa–Barron county line), Post Office Box 100, New Auburn, WI 54757, (715) 237-2423
• Chippewa Falls, Bloomer, Cadott, Lake Hallie, Boyd, Stanley and the towns generally send their citations to the circuit court unless a municipality sets up its own court; check the citation to see which court is named.

Prosecutor, public defender, police and youth services

• Chippewa County District Attorney, Courthouse, Room 222, (715) 726-7740; victim/witness services (715) 726-7733
• State Public Defender, Chippewa Falls office, 10 North Bridge Street, Suite 200, (715) 908-8473
• Chippewa County Sheriff's Office (runs the Chippewa County Jail), 32 East Spruce Street, (715) 726-7700
• Chippewa Falls Police Department, 210 Island Street, Chippewa Falls, WI 54729, (715) 726-2707
• Lake Hallie Police Department, 13138 30th Avenue, Lake Hallie, WI 54729, (715) 726-2666
• Bloomer Police Department, 1200 15th Avenue, Bloomer, WI 54724, (715) 568-5924
• Cadott Police Department, 110 Central Street, Cadott, WI 54727, (715) 289-4238
• Cornell Police Department, 221 Main Street, Cornell, WI 54732, (715) 239-3708
• Boyd Police Department, 705 Murray Street, Boyd, WI 54726, (715) 667-3577
• Stanley Police Department, Stanley, WI 54768, (715) 644-5975
• Juvenile intake: Chippewa County Department of Human Services, Children, Youth & Family Services, Courthouse, Room 305, (715) 726-7788 or (715) 726-7736

Retail theft along the Highway 124 and Lake Hallie commercial strips, domestic disturbances, and drunk-driving arrests on Highways 29, 53 and 178 fill much of the Chippewa County misdemeanor calendar.

Arrest, release and the first court date

For many misdemeanors the officer issues a citation or summons and the person goes home. If the person is booked into the Chippewa County Jail, the common result is release on a signature bond: a signed promise to appear, with a dollar figure that becomes owed only on a failure to appear. When a judge or court commissioner requires cash, the defendant or a family member pays the full sum at the jail or the Clerk of Circuit Court, because Wisconsin has no bail bond companies. An arrest for domestic abuse brings a 72-hour ban on contact with the alleged victim and on returning to that home, which the victim can waive in writing. A person who is still held typically appears before the court within 48 hours, frequently by video.

Getting a lawyer

The judge reads the charge and the maximum penalty at the initial appearance. Defendants who cannot pay for a lawyer can apply to the State Public Defender's Chippewa Falls office on North Bridge Street at (715) 908-8473. Its financial test is demanding; a judge may appoint counsel at county expense for someone who is just over the limit but genuinely cannot afford a lawyer.

Penalties in Chippewa County

• Theft ($2,500 or less): Class A misdemeanor, carrying a maximum of 9 months in the county jail plus a $10,000 fine in Chippewa County Circuit Court.
• Battery: Class A misdemeanor; a domestic abuse finding adds a surcharge and may trigger a federal firearms ban.
• Disorderly conduct: Class B misdemeanor, up to 90 days and $1,000.
• Second OWI in 10 years: a crime with 5 days to 6 months of mandatory jail, a fine, license revocation and an interlock device. A first offense is a forfeiture of $150 to $300 plus costs, a revocation of 6 to 9 months and an assessment, with an interlock required for a 0.15 or higher test or a refusal.
• Class C misdemeanors: a Chippewa County defendant risks no more than 30 days behind bars and a $500 fine.

A Chippewa County misdemeanor jury has six members. Results include dismissal, deferred prosecution through the District Attorney, fines, probation, or jail with Huber privileges. A speedy trial demand generally entitles a defendant to trial within about 60 days, although most cases close in two to six months.

Methamphetamine cases are a fixture of the Chippewa County felony docket, alongside burglaries of homes and rural outbuildings, embezzlement and repeat OWI cases that have reached felony level.

Stages of the case

1. Charging and initial appearance. The District Attorney files a criminal complaint. At the initial appearance a judge or court commissioner checks that the complaint shows probable cause and sets conditions and any cash bail. Following a 2023 constitutional amendment, the court may consider the risk of serious harm to the public in setting cash bail for violent charges.
2. Preliminary hearing. Within 10 days if the defendant sits in the Chippewa County Jail unable to meet the amount set, or within 20 days for others. The judge decides only whether probable cause exists to believe a felony was committed. Defendants frequently waive it.
3. Information and arraignment. After bindover the DA files an information and the defendant enters a plea in one of the three branches.
4. Resolution. Most cases settle with a plea. Felony juries in Chippewa County have 12 members, all of whom must agree; a defendant who demands a speedy trial generally must be tried within 90 days.
5. Sentencing. A presentence investigation by the Department of Corrections often comes first. The judge can order probation, conditional jail time, or prison.

Penalty ranges

• Burglary: Class F felony, with a ceiling of 12 years 6 months and $25,000 in fines.
• Felony theft: Class I between $2,500 and $5,000 (up to 3.5 years), Class H from $5,000 to $10,000 (up to 6 years), Class G beyond $10,000 (up to 10 years).
• Possession with intent to deliver: graded by drug and quantity; methamphetamine counts can reach Class C, with up to 40 years, at the top weights.
• Substantial battery: Class I. If great bodily harm results, prosecutors may charge aggravated battery, a Class H felony or a Class E felony when the harm was intended.

Prison sentences in Wisconsin are bifurcated into a term of initial confinement and a term of extended supervision, and parole was eliminated for crimes after 1999. A judge can declare a defendant eligible for the Challenge Incarceration Program or the Substance Abuse Program. Anything over a year is served in a state prison. Chippewa County felonies usually take six months to a year, and the State Public Defender can help a defendant explore treatment-based options with the DA.

Chippewa County records only a handful of homicides, yet sexual assault, serious battery and robbery charges come before its circuit judges every year. These defendants are usually held at the Chippewa County Jail on a high cash bail with orders to stay away from victims and witnesses.

Maximum sentences

• First-degree intentional homicide: Class A, a mandatory life sentence. The Chippewa County judge decides at sentencing whether the person will ever be eligible for extended supervision, and when.
• Second-degree intentional homicide; first-degree reckless homicide: Class B, up to 60 years for either.
• First-degree sexual assault: Class B, up to 60 years; some offenses against very young children carry required minimum prison terms.
• Armed robbery: Class C, as much as 40 years and $100,000. Robbery committed without a dangerous weapon drops to a Class E felony.

The death penalty has been prohibited in Wisconsin since 1853.

What families should know

Investigations often involve the state Division of Criminal Investigation and the state crime lab, and expert testimony, competency questions and discovery disputes can stretch a case to a year or two. The State Public Defender's Chippewa Falls office typically assigns its most experienced lawyers to these files. Under Marsy's Law, adopted in 2020, victims are entitled to notice, to attend hearings and to be heard at sentencing; the DA's victim/witness staff can be reached at (715) 726-7733.

Wisconsin law sends 17-year-olds accused of crimes to adult court. For children aged 10 to 16, delinquency cases are heard by the Chippewa County Circuit Court acting as juvenile court, with a separate juvenile clerk at (715) 726-7734.

Intake

Police refer the youth to the Children, Youth & Family Services division of the Chippewa County Department of Human Services ((715) 726-7788). Intake can dismiss the referral, offer a deferred prosecution agreement, or recommend that the District Attorney file a delinquency petition. When intake orders a child held, Wisconsin law calls for a custody hearing within 24 hours of the decision, leaving out weekends and legal holidays.

Secure detention

Chippewa County does not run its own juvenile detention center. Youths who need secure custody are generally taken to a regional center under contract with the county, typically the Northwest Regional Juvenile Detention Center at 721 Oxford Avenue in Eau Claire. Intake staff can tell parents where their child is being held.

Dispositions

• Deferred prosecution or a consent decree, either of which pauses the case while the youth follows rules.
• A delinquency adjudication with supervision, treatment, restitution or service hours.
• Out-of-home placement, a Type 2 placement under county supervision, or Type 1 commitment to Lincoln Hills School for boys or Copper Lake School for girls in Irma.
• The Serious Juvenile Offender program, reserved for the gravest cases and lasting up to five years.

Adult court for juveniles

The DA may ask the juvenile court to waive jurisdiction over a youth 14 or older for certain offenses, and the judge weighs the seriousness of the act and the child's record. Adult court has original jurisdiction, with no waiver hearing, when a child at least 10 years old is charged with attempted or completed first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide or felony murder, and in some cases where a youth previously adjudicated delinquent is accused of certain new crimes. Children are represented by the State Public Defender regardless of what their parents earn. Juvenile court records are generally confidential.

Federal prosecutions arising in Chippewa County belong to the Western District of Wisconsin, whose criminal clerk's office and courtrooms are in Madison, roughly a three-hour drive south. U.S. Probation keeps an office in the federal building in nearby Eau Claire.

• U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, Clerk's Office (criminal filings), 120 North Henry Street, Room 320, Madison, WI 53703, (608) 264-5156
• U.S. Attorney's Office, Madison headquarters, 222 West Washington Avenue, Suite 700, Madison, WI 53703, (608) 264-5158
• Federal Defender Services of Wisconsin, Suite 1000, 22 East Mifflin Street, Madison, WI 53703, (608) 260-9900; Criminal Justice Act panel lawyers are appointed when the defender's office cannot take a case

When charges go federal

Typical federal cases from Chippewa County involve methamphetamine or fentanyl distribution networks, felons or other prohibited persons caught with firearms, bank robbery, child exploitation offenses and fraud against banks or government programs. Tribal-land questions seldom arise here; Wisconsin is a Public Law 280 state, which means state courts generally have criminal jurisdiction on reservations, except the Menominee Reservation.

Steps in federal court

Someone arrested on federal charges from Chippewa County is first brought before a federal magistrate judge, told of the charges and given appointed counsel if eligible. In place of the cash bail used in Chippewa County Circuit Court, the Bail Reform Act calls for release under conditions monitored by U.S. Pretrial Services, or detention, with a detention hearing usually within three court days after the prosecutor asks for one. When a case starts with a complaint, an indictment from a grand jury must follow within 30 days. Trial must begin within 70 days under the Speedy Trial Act, though judges frequently extend that period.

Guilty pleas resolve most cases. Federal juries are made up of 12 people, and every one of them must agree to convict or acquit. Before sentencing, a federal probation officer writes a presentence report, which the judge uses along with the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and any mandatory minimum. Federal sentences carry no parole; people serve about 85 percent of the prison term with the Bureau of Prisons and then a period of supervised release. Any appeal goes to the Seventh Circuit, which sits in Chicago and covers Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.

Locating a federal inmate

Families can find a federal prisoner through the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator, using either a name or a register number. A defendant held before trial in a county jail through a U.S. Marshals agreement may also show on that jail's roster. Juvenile prosecutions in federal court from Chippewa County are uncommon. The State Public Defender does not handle federal cases.