Wisconsin's VINE system checks custody status by name. It costs nothing, and it never asks who you are. Here's how to run the search:

1. Pull up Wisconsin VINELink in any web browser.
2. Choose the person search. Enter the first and last name, spelled just like the person's ID.
3. When two people share a name, compare the age or birth year to choose the right one.
4. Note the custody status shown, plus the facility listed beside it.
5. Copy down any ID number. Staff in Lancaster call this the inmate ID number, and you will want it for deposits, letters and phone time.

Came up empty, or does the status look stale? Ring 608-723-2157 and ask for the jail desk, which stays staffed all night.

Six things usually explain a blank result:

• Still in booking. Fingerprints, photos and forms come before anything shows, so allow some time after the arrest.
• Released already. They may already be home on a signature bond, or a relative paid the cash. People finishing a sentence go home between 6 and 8 a.m.
• On a home monitor. The Sheriff runs a small electronic monitoring program, usually with four to six people on it.
• Moved to another facility. About two local inmates a month do their time in a different jail.
• Spelled a new way. Nicknames, maiden names and middle names are all worth a try.
• Age 16 or under. Kids that young go through juvenile intake rather than adult booking.

Phoning 608-723-2157 settles it fastest. Keep their birthday handy when you dial.

Lancaster holds the county's only adult jail, the county jail in Lancaster, 8820 Hwy 35/61/81, Lancaster, WI 53813, 608-723-2157. Inside, it serves several groups:

• Men and women. Monthly counts in early 2026 ran about 41 to 46 men and 15 to 20 women.
• Pretrial, sentenced and probation-hold inmates. All three are housed in the same building.
• Huber work release. With a judge's OK at sentencing, a person leaves daily for a job or classes and returns through the Huber entrance on the building's east side.
• Contract inmates. In April 2026 Lancaster also held people for Richland, Green, Lafayette and Crawford counties, plus Scott County, Iowa.

A couple of local inmates each month are placed elsewhere, so ask the Sheriff's Office which jail. Arrests near a border may also land in one of these:

• Iowa County Jail, 109 East Leffler Street, Dodgeville, WI 53533, 608-930-9500
• Crawford County Jail, Crawford County Justice Center, 224 N. Beaumont Rd., Prairie du Chien, WI 53821, 608-326-8414. During spring 2026, many Crawford inmates sat in Lancaster while Crawford's new jail waited on its state inspection.

VINE reports custody status and location only. For a mugshot, send a request to the Sheriff's Office, 608-723-2157, under the state's open records law, found at Wis. Stat. 19.31 through 19.39.

• Records in Wisconsin start out presumed open. Requesters can keep their names and reasons to themselves.
• The records custodian decides on every photo request one at a time and owes you a reason for any denial.
• Police files on children are kept confidential.
• Reporters use this same records route with the Sheriff.
• Immigration photos: ask through ICE's records request page.
• The U.S. Marshals Service sometimes releases a federal booking photo, as in a manhunt for a fugitive. Other federal mugshots stay private.

Wisconsin VINE handles this. The state Department of Corrections runs it together with local law enforcement, in English, Spanish or Hmong.

• Look up status whenever you like, with no account, on VINELink or at 888-944-8463.
• Register, and VINE contacts you if the person is let out or sent to another jail.
• Phone notices keep coming back for as long as 48 hours unless you enter your PIN.

Registration is up to you. VINE relies on local updates, so double-check by calling 608-723-2157 before you make the drive for a pickup. DOC Notis is a separate service, built for enrolled crime victims, and it covers state prisons and state supervision.

At the first court hearing, a judge chooses the release terms. Wisconsin law says that hearing must come within a reasonable time, and it often runs by video from the jail. For someone arrested with no warrant in hand, probable cause must be approved by a judge, as a rule within 48 hours. Key points:

• Going home is the norm. Many walk out on a signature bond, a promise to pay only if they skip court. Rules like no contact or no alcohol often come with it.
• Cash bail comes in when the judge believes money is the only way to assure a return to court. In violent cases, the judge can look at everything, past violent convictions included.
• Wisconsin outlaws paid bail agents (Wis. Stat. 969.12). Each dollar of cash bail comes from the family or the person.
• Paying: use "Pay Bond" on jailatm.com, or the kiosk in the main lobby of the Sheriff's Office, 8820 Hwy 35/61/81, Lancaster, WI 53813. Cash carries a $3.00 fee; cards carry a 10% fee. Hang on to the receipt.
• At release, the person signs the bond and lists a current address and phone number.
• The court may keep it. After a conviction, posted cash can cover fines, costs and restitution, even if a family member paid.
• Locked up 72 hours past that first hearing because no one can meet the terms? A judge must take another look (Wis. Stat. 969.08).

Phone the Sheriff's Office at 608-723-2157 about a set amount. Details live in our bail guide, with a state summary on JE's Wisconsin bail laws page.

Ask the jail on the phone for the booking charges. After the District Attorney files a complaint, look the case up for free on Wisconsin Circuit Court Access. A name search lists each charge, the case number, hearing dates and status.

Which charges stick is up to the District Attorney, 130 W. Maple Street, Lancaster, WI 53813, 608-723-4237. Wis. Stat. 939.51 sets three misdemeanor classes:

• Class A: up to $10,000 in fines and 9 months locked up.
• Class B: $1,000 and 90 days at most.
• Class C: $500 and 30 days at most.

Bail jumping (Wis. Stat. 946.49) is its own crime: ignoring a rule the judge set for release.

The judge spells out the charge at the first hearing and explains the person's right to counsel. As Wis. Stat. 970.02 requires, a person with no money for counsel gets a referral to the State Public Defender.

• The Lancaster office sits at 207 W Maple St, Suite A, Lancaster, WI 53813, 608-401-2030. It handles cases from Crawford, Grant, Iowa and Richland counties.
• An application takes roughly 15 minutes, and staff review income and assets. Steps are on the public defender's how to apply page.
• Turned down? Request a county-paid lawyer from the judge.

Some families hire their own attorney instead. Under state jail rules, attorneys may visit at reasonable hours, and legal letters can travel sealed.

Family visits are all by video. Public slots are Wednesdays and Saturdays, noon to 8 p.m., and every visit ends at 15 minutes sharp. Getting set up works like this:

1. Make an account with Cidnet, the jail's video visit service.
2. Register online, then wait for staff approval.
3. Reserve a time well before the day you hope to visit.

No internet? The Sheriff's Office lobby has guest video kiosks at 8820 Hwy 35/61/81, Lancaster, WI 53813. Book by phone at 608-723-2157, or buzz the intercom once you get there. Revealing outfits, nudity, gang signs or illegal acts can get a visitor dropped from the list. Read our visiting guide before your first video call.

Account funds pay for canteen snacks, hygiene items and phone minutes. Pick one of these:

• Online: go to jailatm.com and click "Send Money Now." Pick the state and the jail. Then type 3 or more letters of the last name, or the inmate ID number.
• Kiosk: one waits just inside the main door of the Community Services Building. Call 608-723-2157 to ask the way.
• Mail: money orders only. Cash and personal checks are refused.

The handbook also lists Stellar Teller for deposits; staff can explain it. When medical bills are owed, 75% of every deposit pays them down first, and other jail debts are taken in full. Canteen orders close at midnight Monday and show up Wednesday. Our deposit guide and canteen guide fill in the rest.

Each housing unit has wall phones. To buy minutes, the person enters their inmate ID number and a PIN. Family can top up phone time from outside through Jail ATM at jailatm.com.

Every block also has a kiosk or tablet. People use it for requests, canteen orders, phone time, visit booking, the handbook and the law library. For questions about messaging or email, dial 608-723-2157.

Save case details for the defense lawyer. JE's phone guide and email and text guide offer more pointers.

Before sending a letter, check with the Sheriff's Office at 608-723-2157 for the correct address and whether the inmate ID number belongs on it. Books and magazines go to the person's full name at:

Grant County Jail, 8820 Hwy 35/61/81, PO Box 506, Lancaster, WI 53813

Every incoming envelope is opened and searched. Send as many letters as you like, but these come back:

• Ink other than blue or black, pencil, or very small typed print
• Paper that is colored, stained or scented
• Photos on plain paper, hand drawings with heavy shading, and stickers
• Stamps, stamped envelopes, food, cash and store-bought greeting cards
• Pictures of violence, gangs or nudity

Plain single-line drawings are allowed. Papers and magazines have to ship from the publisher, and any book becomes jail property. Hand-delivered mail is turned away at the door. JE's mail guide lists more general tips.

The request starts inside. The person files a property release on the kiosk, naming each item and who may collect it. Staff give out only those items, and only to that named person. Whoever is named should bring photo ID to the Sheriff's Office, 8820 Hwy 35/61/81, Lancaster, WI 53813, after calling 608-723-2157 to set a time.

• Clothing or other things brought in for someone inside are refused.
• Belongings left after release stay 30 days, then get discarded.
• People walk out through the Inmate Report/Release door on the east side. Its waiting room has seats, a restroom and a spot to charge a phone.

Medical requests go in on the kiosk's medical form. In an emergency, the person tells an officer at once. A nurse visit is $5 and a doctor visit is $50, yet no one goes without care because they are broke. State jail rules add a health check within 14 days after arrival.

• Relatives get 72 hours to bring prescriptions, unless medical staff approved something earlier.
• Refused items: store-bought medicine, expired or mixed pills, the wrong containers, opened creams or liquids, needles, lancets and narcotics. Insulin is allowed.
• Health details are shared only after the person signs a release.

Concerned about their health? Phone 608-723-2157 and ask for the jail. Inmates may file a grievance and appeal the answer. Every jail in the state is inspected by the Office of Detention Facilities, 3099 East Washington Ave., Madison, WI 53704, 608-240-5000.

Which agency serves a warrant depends on your town, and the Sheriff's Office can sort that out. Dispatch logged 578 warrants in 2025. Call the Sheriff's Office at 608-723-2157, day or night, to ask about one. Platteville police's non-emergency line is 608-348-2313.

A name search on Wisconsin Circuit Court Access can reveal a skipped court date. Then ask the clerk or the Sheriff to confirm if that missed date led to a warrant. To clear it, call a lawyer, and then either surrender at the jail's Inmate Report/Release door, 8820 Hwy 35/61/81, Lancaster, WI 53813, or ask for a fresh court date. The Clerk of Circuit Court is at 130 W. Maple Street, Lancaster, WI 53813, 608-723-2752.

Circuit court cases are run through the Clerk of Circuit Court, 130 W. Maple Street, Lancaster, WI 53813, and the court hears misdemeanors and felonies alike. For a date or a courtroom, call the Clerk of Circuit Court at 608-723-2752.

• Run a name on Wisconsin Circuit Court Access. Courthouse computers offer the same search.
• Felonies get a preliminary hearing. With bail over $500 and the person still locked up, it must come within 10 days. Someone free on release waits up to 20 days.
• Victims can call the Victim/Witness office in the same building at 608-723-2462.

JE's court guide lays out a case from start to finish.

For federal crimes, this area falls to the Western District of Wisconsin. Its Madison courthouse, the Robert W. Kastenmeier U.S. Courthouse, is at 120 N. Henry St., Room 320, Madison, WI 53703, 608-264-5156.

1. Soon after arrest comes a detention hearing. There, the federal judge weighs keeping the person in custody against releasing them while the case is pending (18 U.S.C. 3142).
2. Until trial, the U.S. Marshals Service keeps custody, often in a county jail with a federal housing agreement. Its Madison office is at 120 N. Henry St., Suite 440, Madison, WI 53703, 608-661-8300; call there to learn which jail.
3. Federal Defender Services of Wisconsin represents defendants without money for counsel. Its office is at 22 East Mifflin Street, Suite 1000, Madison, WI 53703, 608-260-9900.
4. Use the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator once a sentence is handed down. A name works, and so does a federal register number.

When immigration officers want someone, these steps usually follow:

1. It starts with paperwork: ICE sends the Lancaster jail Form I-247A, its detainer.
2. The detainer's request: hold the person up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released, so ICE has time to take custody (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Wisconsin falls under ICE's Chicago Field Office, 101 W. Ida B. Wells Dr., Suite 4000, Chicago, IL 60605, 872-351-3990.
4. ICE also detains people at the Dodge County Jail, 216 W. Center Street, Juneau, WI 53039, 920-386-3734.
5. To use the ICE Online Detainee Locator, have the A-number ready. Without one, type the full legal name along with the person's birth country. A search that finds no one is a cue to call the field office.

State lawmakers took up 2025 Assembly Bill 24, tied to county sheriffs and federal immigration duties. It passed the Assembly, and its last recorded step on June 12, 2025 still left it short of law. The Sheriff's Office at 608-723-2157 can describe its own practice on holds.

With a prison sentence, custody shifts to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Expect roughly 8 to 12 weeks in intake, where DOC staff run tests and set a custody level. A permanent prison is chosen next, and the move happens once a bed opens up. Family hoping to see someone at the men's intake prison must wait until day 4.

• Search by name on the state prison lookup, the DOC Inmate and Offender Search.
• For a felony on or after Dec. 31, 1999, the judge imposes a two-part sentence: confinement first, then extended supervision in the community. Those sentences come with no parole.
• JE's Wisconsin state prisons page explains visits, mail and deposits prison by prison.

For timing on the trip out of Lancaster, call 608-723-2157.

Charged at 17? Wisconsin treats that teen as an adult, with booking at the adult jail and a case in adult court. Those 16 and younger meet with juvenile intake instead, a service state law keeps open 24 hours a day. Except in rare cases, no youth is locked up before an in-person intake interview.

• Reach the county's Social Services department, 8820 Hwy 35/61/81, Lancaster, WI 53813, at 608-723-2136, and ask who takes juvenile intake calls. Once offices close, the Sheriff's Office answers at 608-723-2157.
• The state has about a dozen county youth detention centers, and all of them sit outside this county. Intake workers can name the center caring for your child.
• If intake orders a youth held, the court hearing comes no later than 24 hours past midnight of that day. That clock skips Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays.
• Lincoln Hills School (boys) and Copper Lake School (girls) take the state's most serious youth cases.

Roughly 51,807 people call the county home, per the Wisconsin Department of Administration's Jan. 1, 2025 estimate. Adults arrested by these agencies are booked at the jail in Lancaster.

• Sheriff's Office, 8820 Hwy 35/61/81, Lancaster, WI 53813, 608-723-2157, 24 hours. Deputies patrol the rural towns and villages such as Bloomington, Livingston, Montfort, Mount Hope, Potosi and Tennyson.
• Platteville Police Department, 165 N. 4th St, Platteville, WI 53818, non-emergency 608-348-2313. Alternative number: 608-348-1839.
• Lancaster Police Department, 222 S. Madison Street, Lancaster, WI 53813, 608-723-4188
• Boscobel Police Department, 202 W Oak St, Boscobel, WI 53805, 608-375-4122
• Fennimore Police Department, 860 Lincoln Avenue, Fennimore, WI 53809, 608-822-3215
• Cuba City Police Department, 108 N. Main Street, Cuba City, WI 53807, 608-744-3575
• Cassville Police Department, 1034 E. Dewey Street, Cassville, WI 53806, 608-725-5229. Alternative number: 608-732-1937.
• Dickeyville Police Department, 500 East Avenue, Dickeyville, WI 53808, 608-568-7284
• Hazel Green Police Department, 1610 Fairplay, Hazel Green, WI 53811, 608-854-2951
• Muscoda Police Department, 206 N. Wisconsin Avenue, Muscoda, WI 53573, 608-739-3144
• UW-Platteville University Police, 1 University Plaza, Platteville, WI 53818, 608-342-1584, weekdays 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Wisconsin State Patrol, Tomah Post, 23928 Lester McMullen Drive, Tomah, WI 54660, 608-374-0513