Dane County Public Safety Building Jail Criminal Court Process

1. Local courts in Dane County (circuit court and municipal courts)

Dane County has one state trial court and an unusually long roster of municipal courts. The circuit court decides every crime. Municipal courts exist because a city, village or town chose to create one, and they rule only on violations of that community's ordinances: local traffic rules, a first OWI, underage drinking, small-quantity marijuana where an ordinance covers it, ordinance retail theft, and noise or nuisance complaints. Penalties there are forfeitures, license consequences and similar orders; a municipal judge cannot impose jail except to enforce an unpaid forfeiture. In certain situations a defendant can ask that a municipal case be transferred to the circuit court, and anyone thinking about that should ask about the deadline early, ideally before the first municipal court date.

The circuit court

• Dane County Circuit Court and Clerk of Circuit Court, Dane County Courthouse, 215 S. Hamilton Street, Room 1000, Madison, WI 53703-3285, (608) 266-4311. The clerk's office is open 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Fines and costs in circuit court cases are paid here, not at the District Attorney's office.

City municipal courts

• Madison Municipal Court (City of Madison), City-County Building, 210 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Room 203 (courtroom in Room 201), Madison, WI 53703, (608) 264-9282
• Fitchburg Municipal Court (City of Fitchburg), 5520 Lacy Road, Fitchburg, WI 53711, (608) 270-4224
• Middleton Municipal Court (City of Middleton), 7341 Donna Drive, Middleton, WI 53562, (608) 824-7370
• Monona Municipal Court (City of Monona), 5211 Schluter Road, Monona, WI 53716, (608) 216-7422
• Stoughton Municipal Court (City of Stoughton and the Towns of Dunkirk, Pleasant Springs and Rutland), Public Safety Building, 321 S. Fourth Street, Stoughton, WI 53589, (608) 873-6676
• Sun Prairie Municipal Court (City of Sun Prairie), 300 E. Main Street, Sun Prairie, WI 53590, (608) 837-9541
• Verona Municipal Court (City of Verona), 111 Lincoln Street, Verona, WI 53593, (608) 848-9938

Village municipal courts

• Belleville Municipal Court (Village of Belleville, which lies partly in Green County), P.O. Box 79, Belleville, WI 53508, (608) 636-9375
• Blue Mounds Municipal Court (Village of Blue Mounds), P.O. Box 189, Blue Mounds, WI 53517, (608) 437-5197
• Cottage Grove Village Municipal Court (Village of Cottage Grove), 221 E. Cottage Grove Road, Cottage Grove, WI 53527, (608) 839-8064
• Cross Plains Municipal Court (Village of Cross Plains), 2417 Brewery Road (P.O. Box 97), Cross Plains, WI 53528, (608) 798-4101
• DeForest/Windsor Municipal Court (Villages of DeForest and Windsor), 120 S. Stevenson Street, DeForest, WI 53532, (608) 846-6782
• Maple Bluff Municipal Court (Village of Maple Bluff), 18 Oxford Place, Madison, WI 53704, (608) 244-3069
• Marshall Municipal Court (Village of Marshall), 130 S. Pardee Street (P.O. Box 45), Marshall, WI 53559, (608) 655-4017
• Mazomanie-Black Earth Joint Municipal Court (Villages of Mazomanie and Black Earth), 133 Crescent Street, Mazomanie, WI 53560, (608) 795-2218
• McFarland Municipal Court (Village of McFarland), 5915 Milwaukee Street (P.O. Box 110), McFarland, WI 53558, (608) 838-3764
• Mount Horeb Municipal Court (Village of Mount Horeb and the Towns of Perry, Primrose, Springdale and Vermont), 138 E. Main Street, Mount Horeb, WI 53572, (608) 437-7748
• Oregon Municipal Court (Village of Oregon), 383 Park Street, Oregon, WI 53575, (608) 835-2206
• Shorewood Hills Municipal Court (Village of Shorewood Hills), 810 Shorewood Boulevard, Madison, WI 53705, (608) 267-2690
• Waunakee Municipal Court (Village of Waunakee), 500 W. Main Street (P.O. Box 100), Waunakee, WI 53597, (608) 849-4573

Town and joint municipal courts

• Eastern Dane County Joint Municipal Court (Villages of Cambridge, Deerfield and Rockdale), Amundson Community Center, 200 Spring Street (P.O. Box 99), Cambridge, WI 53523, clerk (608) 501-5010; sessions are held at 7 p.m. on the first Monday of most months
• Northeast Community Municipal Court (Towns of Blooming Grove, Bristol, Burke, Sun Prairie and Westport; state caseload reports also list the Village of Dane), 5387 Mary Lake Road, Waunakee, WI 53597, (608) 825-3119
• Western Dane County Joint Municipal Court (Towns of Middleton and Verona), contact through the Town of Middleton offices, 7555 W. Old Sauk Road, Verona, WI 53593, (608) 833-5887
• Town of Cottage Grove Municipal Court (Town of Cottage Grove), 4058 County Road N, Cottage Grove, WI 53527, (608) 839-8064
• Town of Dunn Municipal Court (Town of Dunn), 4156 County Road B, McFarland, WI 53558, (608) 838-1081

Courts outside the county that take some Dane County tickets

• Edgerton Joint Municipal Court (City of Edgerton and the Towns of Albion and Fulton; Albion is a Dane County town), 12 Albion Street, Edgerton, WI 53534, (608) 884-2671
• Sauk Prairie Municipal Court (Villages of Prairie du Sac and Sauk City, with the Dane County Town of Roxbury listed as a member in the state directory), 726 Water Street, Sauk City, WI 53583, (608) 643-6064

Joint-court memberships shift: the Town of Madison dissolved in 2022, and its former neighborhoods now fall under the City of Madison or the City of Fitchburg, while the Village of Brooklyn, on the Green County line, has recently appeared in state municipal court caseload reports. The citation itself names the court and the first appearance date, so read it before calling. Communities that belong to no municipal court send ordinance cases to the circuit court at 215 S. Hamilton Street.

Prosecution, defense, police and juvenile intake

• Dane County District Attorney, 215 S. Hamilton Street, Room 3000, Madison, WI 53703, (608) 266-4211
• Dane County Sheriff's Office, 115 W. Doty Street, Madison, WI 53703, (608) 284-6800; records (608) 284-6827
• Wisconsin State Public Defender, Madison Trial office, 17 S. Fairchild Street, 2nd Floor, Madison, WI 53703, (608) 266-9150
• Madison Police Department, City-County Building, 211 S. Carroll Street, Madison, WI 53703, non-emergency dispatch (608) 255-2345
• University of Wisconsin–Madison Police Department, 1429 Monroe Street, Madison, WI 53711
• Other city and village police departments, including Sun Prairie, Fitchburg, Middleton, Verona, Monona, Stoughton, Waunakee, DeForest, McFarland, Oregon and Cottage Grove; outside Madison, non-emergency calls for these agencies and the Sheriff go through Dane County dispatch at (608) 266-4948
• Dane County Juvenile Reception Center (staffed 24 hours), 210 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Madison, WI 53703, (608) 266-4983
• Dane County Department of Human Services, 1202 Northport Drive, Madison, WI 53704, (608) 242-6200

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2. The Dane County Courthouse and the downtown justice block

The modern Dane County Courthouse at 215 S. Hamilton Street, a few blocks off the Capitol Square, houses the courtrooms of all 17 circuit judges, the Clerk of Circuit Court in Room 1000 and the District Attorney's office in Room 3000. Next door, the Public Safety Building at 115 W. Doty Street holds the Sheriff's Office and central booking; across the street the older City-County Building contains the Madison Municipal Court, Madison police headquarters, juvenile detention and part of the jail.

How cases are divided

Judges rotate among criminal, civil, family and juvenile assignments. Circuit court commissioners do much of the early work: they preside over in-custody initial appearances, set bail and release conditions, sign warrants and conduct many preliminary hearings. The assigned judge then takes motions, pleas, trial and sentencing.

Visiting the courthouse

Every visitor passes through security screening at the Hamilton Street entrance, so leave knives, tools and similar items behind, and plan on lines at the door. Hearings for people held in the Dane County Jail are often conducted from the Public Safety Building by video, and the in-custody initial appearance calendar is streamed live. The Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District IV, also in Madison, hears appeals from Dane County, with review possible in the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

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3. After an arrest in Dane County: booking, initial appearance and release

Officers from roughly two dozen agencies bring arrested adults to central booking in the Public Safety Building, where staff of the Dane County Jail record fingerprints and photographs, take personal property into storage, screen for medical and mental-health needs, and check for warrants, probation holds and immigration or federal detainers.

Getting out without seeing a judge

Many people arrested for misdemeanors leave the same day, either with a citation that lists a court date or on a signature bond set by a bail schedule. That bond is a written promise to appear, sometimes with a dollar amount owed only after a missed date. Domestic abuse arrests differ: Wisconsin requires an arrest in many domestic situations, and after release the arrested person must avoid the alleged victim's residence and any contact with that person for the following 72 hours, a rule the victim may waive in writing.

The initial appearance

People charged with felonies, and others who are not released from booking, stay in custody until an initial appearance before a court commissioner. In Dane County these in-custody hearings are held Monday through Friday at 1:30 p.m. in the Public Safety Building, generally within 48 hours of arrest. The commissioner reviews the District Attorney's complaint, explains the charges and penalties and sets release terms. Someone released earlier on a misdemeanor will usually appear out of custody in Courtroom 1A of the courthouse.

Conditions and cash bail

Release can take the form of a signature bond, cash bail, or both, combined with conditions: no contact with named people, absolute sobriety, no driving, GPS monitoring, remote alcohol testing or random drug tests. Dane County Pretrial Services monitors many of them and texts court-date reminders. Wisconsin has no commercial bail bondsmen, so cash bail must be posted in full by the defendant or someone acting for them. Since voters amended the Wisconsin Constitution in 2023, a Dane County judge or commissioner fixing cash bail for someone charged with a violent crime may take into account the danger of serious harm to the public; how that applies to a particular charge is a question for the defense lawyer.

Posting bail at the Public Safety Building

Bail is paid at the Bail/Release window on the first floor of 115 W. Doty Street. The Sheriff's Office accepts cash, money orders and cashier's checks, and checks drawn outside Dane County are verified first. Card and online payments, which need the booking number, go through a processor that adds a 5% nonrefundable fee. The court decides at the end whether the money is refunded or applied to fines, costs or restitution.

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4. The Dane County Jail and the consolidation project

The Dane County Jail is operated by the Sheriff's Office in two connected parts of downtown Madison. The Public Safety Building, 115 W. Doty Street, is a medium-security facility that contains central booking, the window where cash bail is posted, property and financial offices, and housing for people awaiting trial. The City-County Building, 210 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, holds the county's maximum-security cell blocks for people awaiting trial and for sentenced residents who do not have work-release privileges. The jail's main line is (608) 284-6100.

What has changed

• Ferris Center closed. The William H. Ferris Center on the south side, which once housed Huber inmates, was decommissioned in 2024.
• Huber through Jail Diversion. Dane County no longer runs a Huber (work-release) housing facility. Sentenced people whose judgment allows Huber privileges can use them only through the Sheriff's Jail Diversion program, which relies on monitoring in the community.
• South Tower. A six-story South Tower is being added to the Public Safety Building. The Sheriff's Office expects the tower done by the end of 2026 and renovation of the older building finished near the end of 2027, cutting capacity from 1,013 to 825 beds and emptying the City-County Building cells.
• Open questions. In 2026 the Sheriff warned county leaders that the new capacity may not keep pace with the jail population, so whether the City-County Building cells close on schedule has been a subject of public debate.

Residents held in other counties

When space is short, some people held for Dane County may be housed temporarily in another county's jail; the Sheriff's Office publishes family information for the Rock County Jail in Janesville and the Oneida County Jail in Rhinelander for that reason. Anyone housed elsewhere for Dane County is brought back to Madison before release, and court appearances are typically handled by video.

Reporting for a sentence and contact with residents

Someone ordered to serve a Dane County jail sentence reports to the first-floor Bail/Release window on Doty Street at the date and time set by the court. Failing to report can lead to a new charge, which is a misdemeanor for a sentence under 10 days and a felony for longer sentences. The Sheriff's Office posts the resident roster and visiting, mail and deposit rules, and a resident who wants an appointed lawyer should request the State Public Defender form at once.

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5. The State Public Defender's Madison Trial office

Lawyers for people who cannot afford one in Dane County come from the Wisconsin State Public Defender (SPD), Madison Trial office, 17 S. Fairchild Street, 2nd Floor, Madison, WI 53703, (608) 266-9150. The SPD's Madison Appellate office, for post-conviction appeals, is one floor up.

Applying for a lawyer

1. In custody. A person in the Dane County Jail can ask jail staff for the SPD application. SPD intake staff try to interview people in custody before or soon after the 1:30 p.m. initial appearance calendar.
2. Out of custody. Someone released on a signature bond should call or visit the Fairchild Street office promptly, well before the next court date.
3. Financial screening. A strict statutory test weighs household income and assets against the cost of a lawyer; bring pay stubs and benefit and expense records.
4. Assignment. A qualifying defendant is represented either by an SPD staff attorney or by a private Dane County lawyer who accepts SPD appointments.
5. Just over the limit. If the SPD finds a person ineligible but the person still cannot pay for a lawyer, the judge can be asked to appoint counsel, and if the judge agrees, Dane County pays that lawyer and may ask the defendant to reimburse part of the cost later.

The SPD does not take municipal ordinance cases, including a first OWI forfeiture in a municipal court, because those cases carry no jail sentence.

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6. Prosecution in Dane County: the District Attorney and diversion options

The Dane County District Attorney's Office, Room 3000 of the courthouse, (608) 266-4211, screens referrals from Madison police, the Sheriff and the suburban departments and chooses whether a criminal complaint is filed, what to charge and what to offer in plea negotiations. Its Victim Witness Unit keeps victims informed of hearings and of their rights under Marsy's Law, the victims' rights amendment Wisconsin voters added to the state constitution in 2020.

Ways a Dane County case can end without a conviction

• Deferred Prosecution Program. Sometimes called the First Offenders Program, it lets eligible defendants avoid a conviction and sentence by completing the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement, such as treatment, classes, community service or restitution.
• Community Restorative Court. A pre-charge, restorative approach for eligible lower-level offenses, in which the person meets with community members and agrees to repair the harm instead of being prosecuted in the usual way.
• Post-charge diversion. The county also offers post-plea diversion and deferred prosecution tracks for moderate-risk defendants, including a track focused on opioid use.
• Pre-arrest deflection. Since 2017 the Madison Police Department's Madison Addiction Recovery Initiative has offered some people with drug-related conduct a path to treatment before charges are filed.

State Treatment Alternatives and Diversion (TAD) grants help pay for programs like these in many Wisconsin counties. Eligibility for any of these options is the District Attorney's call, and the request normally comes from defense counsel, whether retained or assigned by the State Public Defender. A person in custody at the Dane County Jail or out on bail should not assume an offer will be made; agreements are placed on the record in court.

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7. Dane County treatment courts (drug, OWI, veterans)

Treatment courts trade close supervision for a chance at a lighter outcome. Participants see the same judge on a set schedule, answer to a team of lawyers, treatment staff and a probation agent, and are tested often. Progress earns incentives; relapses and missed appointments bring sanctions that can include short stays in the Dane County Jail.

• Adult Drug Treatment Court (since 1996): among Wisconsin's oldest, for higher-risk adult residents; violent records and weapon-linked drug cases are excluded, and the treatment track runs at least nine months.
• OWI Treatment Court: for county residents 18 and older charged with a third OWI who had a blood alcohol level of 0.15 or higher or are assessed as moderate or high risk; a fourth OWI can be admitted with District Attorney approval. Cases involving death or serious injury are excluded.
• Veterans Treatment Court (since 2015): for veterans assessed as moderate risk, after a plea or conviction, with support from volunteer veteran mentors.

Referrals to a treatment court usually come from the defense attorney, the prosecutor or a probation agent. Someone out on bond who wants to be screened should ask an attorney, including an SPD lawyer, early in the case.

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8. Misdemeanor (for example, theft, battery, disorderly conduct, a second OWI)

Dane County's misdemeanor calendar mixes college-town cases, such as State Street disturbances and game-day arrests near Camp Randall, with shoplifting, domestic incidents and repeat drunk driving on the Beltline.

The first weeks

Many people arrested on a misdemeanor are released from the Dane County Jail within hours on a signature bond or handed a citation with a date to appear. The first hearing for those released is usually in Courtroom 1A of the courthouse, where a commissioner explains the charge, sets or confirms release conditions and enters a not-guilty plea if the defendant has not decided. Anyone who needs an appointed lawyer should apply to the State Public Defender before that date.

Penalty ranges for common Dane County misdemeanors

• Theft of $2,500 or less, the usual shoplifting charge at the Madison malls: a Class A misdemeanor, which lets a Dane County judge impose as much as 9 months and a $10,000 fine.
• Battery: Class A; when the person allegedly hurt is a spouse, partner, relative or housemate, prosecutors add a domestic abuse modifier, which triggers a mandatory assessment and can affect future charges and firearm rights.
• Disorderly conduct: a Class B misdemeanor in Dane County as everywhere in Wisconsin, capped at 90 days and $1,000, and frequently paired with the domestic abuse modifier.
• Criminal trespass to a dwelling: Class A.
• Class C offenses: no more than 30 days and $500.
• Second OWI inside a 10-year window: a crime, not a forfeiture, carrying 5 days to 6 months of mandatory jail together with a fine, revocation of the license, an ignition interlock order and an alcohol and drug assessment. A third OWI is also a misdemeanor with longer mandatory jail, and a fourth is generally charged as a felony.

Resolution and timeline

Most misdemeanors end in a negotiated plea, an amended charge, deferred prosecution or dismissal. Six jurors hear a Dane County misdemeanor trial, and a speedy trial demand generally requires trial within 60 days, subject to exceptions. Possible sentences range from fines to Department of Corrections probation to county jail time, which in Dane County is served either in custody or, if the judgment allows Huber privileges, through the Sheriff's Jail Diversion program. A typical case takes two to six months from charging to final resolution.

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9. Felony (for example, burglary, felony theft, drug possession with intent to deliver, substantial battery)

A Dane County felony starts with a criminal complaint drafted by an assistant district attorney and filed with the Clerk of Circuit Court. A person arrested on a felony stays at the Dane County Jail until the weekday 1:30 p.m. initial appearance calendar in the Public Safety Building, where a court commissioner sets cash bail, a signature bond or both, along with conditions of release.

Step by step through the circuit court

1. Preliminary hearing. A commissioner or judge decides whether there is probable cause to believe the defendant committed a felony. For someone sitting in jail because the bail set is out of reach, the hearing is due within 10 days after the initial appearance; for everyone else the limit is 20 days. Defendants often waive it as part of negotiations.
2. Information and arraignment. After bindover, the prosecutor files an information, the formal charging document, and the defendant enters a plea at arraignment in front of the assigned judge.
3. Motions and negotiations. Defense lawyers file discovery requests and motions to suppress evidence, and most cases settle with a plea to some or all charges, sometimes reduced.
4. Trial. Felony juries in Dane County seat 12 people, and any verdict must be unanimous. A defendant who files a speedy trial demand is generally entitled to trial inside 90 days, though exceptions exist.
5. Sentencing. In many felony cases the assigned judge first asks the Department of Corrections for a presentence investigation report.

Felony classes and examples in a Dane County case

• Burglary: a Class F felony, exposing a Dane County defendant to as much as 12.5 years and a $25,000 fine.
• Theft over $2,500: Class I (up to 3.5 years) to $5,000, Class H (up to 6 years) to $10,000, Class G (up to 10 years) above that.
• Substantial battery: Class I; aggravated battery: Class H, rising to Class E (up to 15 years) when great bodily harm was intended.
• Possession with intent to deliver: graded by the substance and its weight, ranging from Class I for small amounts of marijuana to Class C for large quantities of heroin, fentanyl, cocaine or methamphetamine.

How felony sentences work

Wisconsin's truth-in-sentencing law splits a prison sentence into initial confinement and extended supervision; there is no parole for crimes committed after 1999. A judge may declare someone eligible for the Challenge Incarceration Program or the Substance Abuse Program, and finishing either can cut the confinement portion short. Terms shorter than a year stay in Madison at the county jail, while anything longer means a state prison. Probation is common for lower-level felonies. Dane County felonies typically take six months to a year.

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10. Violent felony (for example, homicide, sexual assault, armed robbery)

Violent felony cases in Dane County move through the same stages described above, but they go to the District Attorney's most experienced prosecutors and take longer. People charged with homicide, armed robbery or serious sexual assault are usually held at the Dane County Jail on high cash bail; under the 2023 constitutional amendment, a commissioner can factor in the danger of serious harm to others when fixing that amount and the conditions attached.

The most serious charges and their maximums

• First-degree intentional homicide: Class A felony with a mandatory life sentence. The judge decides whether the person may ever seek release to extended supervision and, if so, when.
• Second-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless homicide: each a Class B felony, so a Dane County judge may impose a total sentence of up to 60 years.
• First-degree sexual assault: also Class B with the same 60-year ceiling; certain offenses against young children carry mandatory minimum terms of initial confinement.
• Armed robbery: a Class C felony with a 40-year maximum, compared with Class E and 15 years for a robbery committed without a dangerous weapon or the threat of one.

Wisconsin abolished the death penalty in 1853, so no Dane County case can lead to a death sentence.

What to expect

Forensic work at the State Crime Laboratory in Madison and expert testimony are common. Marsy's Law gives victims and their families a right to advance notice of, and a chance to speak at, the important hearings, including bail reviews, plea hearings and sentencing. For homicide and major sexual assault charges, the SPD's Madison Trial office picks senior staff or experienced private lawyers who take its appointments. Cases commonly take one to two years to reach trial or a plea, and appeals go to the Court of Appeals, District IV.

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11. Juveniles (under 17) arrested in Dane County

Wisconsin law treats a 17-year-old as an adult in criminal cases, so a 17-year-old arrested in Madison goes through the adult process described above. From age 10 through 16, a child's case belongs to the Dane County Circuit Court acting as juvenile court, with judges on juvenile assignment and juvenile court commissioners at the Dane County Courthouse.

The Juvenile Reception Center and intake

When an officer arrests a child and cannot release the child to a parent, guardian or other responsible adult, the officer contacts the Juvenile Reception Center (JRC), (608) 266-4983, which is staffed by a juvenile court counselor 24 hours a day. The JRC conducts intake and decides whether the child goes home, into the Home Detention Program, to the non-secure Dane County Shelter Home on Atwood Avenue, or into secure custody at the Dane County Juvenile Detention Center on the second floor of the City-County Building. The 30-bed center also takes youth from other counties. Human Services screens each police referral and recommends a petition, a deferred prosecution agreement, counsel and release, or services.

Hearings

For a child kept in custody, the law generally calls for a hearing within 24 hours of the JRC's intake decision, with Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays excluded from the count, and a judge or commissioner decides whether continued custody is needed. The District Attorney decides whether to file a delinquency petition. Every child facing a petition may have counsel, and the State Public Defender appoints lawyers for juveniles without testing the family's finances. The case then moves to a plea hearing and, if the allegations are contested, a fact-finding hearing in front of a judge rather than a jury.

Possible outcomes

• A deferred prosecution agreement handled by Human Services, or a consent decree, under which the court holds the petition open while the child meets set conditions
• Court-ordered supervision while the child lives at home, with conditions like counseling, restitution, community service or an ankle monitor
• An out-of-home placement with a foster family, in a group home or at a residential care center
• A Type 2 placement, or, for the most serious conduct, a Type 1 commitment to the state-run juvenile prison campus near Irma in Lincoln County, made up of Lincoln Hills School for boys and Copper Lake School for girls
• Commitment to the Serious Juvenile Offender program, reserved for a short list of grave offenses

When a child can be tried as an adult

Prosecutors may petition the juvenile court to waive its jurisdiction so that a child 14 or older, and in some very serious cases a younger child, is prosecuted in adult court. No waiver is needed when adult court holds original jurisdiction: that covers a child aged 10 or more charged with first-degree intentional homicide or an attempt, first-degree reckless homicide or felony murder, and it reaches certain new offenses by youths already adjudicated delinquent. Exceptions exist, and the defense can sometimes seek a return to juvenile court. Juvenile records are generally confidential, though some information may be released in serious cases.

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12. Federal cases (U.S. District Court) from Dane County

Federal criminal cases from Dane County stay in Madison, the seat of the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. Its only clerk's office is in Room 320 of the federal courthouse, 120 North Henry Street in downtown Madison (ZIP 53703), (608) 264-5156.

When a Dane County case becomes federal

In Dane County, federal prosecutions tend to grow out of work by agents of the FBI, ATF, DEA, Homeland Security Investigations or postal inspectors. Typical cases include fentanyl and cocaine distribution rings, guns found on people barred from having them, bank holdups, child sexual exploitation over the internet, and schemes involving banks, the mail, wire transfers, government benefits or identity theft. Crimes on federal property, such as the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital near the UW–Madison campus, may also be prosecuted federally, although state jurisdiction often applies at the same time. The Ho-Chunk Nation holds scattered trust land in south-central Wisconsin, and on Ho-Chunk land Wisconsin generally exercises criminal jurisdiction under Public Law 280, with the tribe's own courts also operating; the Menominee Reservation is the state's exception, where serious crimes involving tribal members go to federal court.

Prosecutors and defenders

• United States Attorney (Western District): Suite 700 at 222 W. Washington Avenue in Madison (ZIP 53703), (608) 264-5158
• Federal Defender Services of Wisconsin: its Madison staff work from Suite 1000 at 22 E. Mifflin Street (ZIP 53703), (608) 260-9900; if the defenders cannot take a case because of a conflict, the judge names a private lawyer from the district's Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel
• Probation and Pretrial Services for the Western District: Suite 340 in the same Washington Avenue building, (608) 264-5165

How the federal process differs

After a federal arrest in Dane County, the first court date is in front of a federal magistrate judge on Henry Street. If the Assistant U.S. Attorney asks that a Madison defendant stay locked up, a contested detention hearing usually comes within about three court days. Federal judges in Madison do not work from a cash bail schedule; applying the Bail Reform Act, they either free the defendant under conditions that Pretrial Services officers enforce or order detention when no conditions can reasonably assure appearance and community safety. When the case starts with a complaint, a grand jury indictment has to follow within 30 days of the arrest. The Speedy Trial Act then allows 70 days to trial, a deadline the court often extends for discovery or motions. Plea agreements resolve most Western District cases, and those that go to trial are decided by 12 jurors who must all agree.

Once guilt is established, a federal probation officer writes a presentence report, and the district judge weighs the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and any mandatory minimum, which drug quantity and gun charges frequently trigger. Federal sentences carry no parole; prisoners serve at least about 85% of the sentence, in a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility, followed by a term of supervised release. Any appeal is taken to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which meets in Chicago.

Finding someone in federal custody

To locate a sentenced federal prisoner, search the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator by name or register number. A Dane County defendant still awaiting a federal trial may instead be in a county jail that boards prisoners for the Marshals Service, and such a person may also be listed on that jail's roster. Federal charges against anyone under 18 are rare. For any federal question, the Federal Defender or a private lawyer, not the State Public Defender, is the place to start.

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