The jail uses Wisconsin VINE as its custody lookup. It is free, it keeps your name private, and it offers Hmong and Spanish as well as English. Follow these steps:

1. Open Wisconsin VINE on a phone or computer. With no internet, dial 888-944-8463 instead.
2. Pick the search by name and type the first and last name. Use the legal spelling, not a nickname.
3. Look through the matches. Use age or other details to choose the right person.
4. Check the status line and the facility listed.
5. Write down any number the record shows. Giving it to staff speeds up the call.

VINE tells you where someone is. For the charge, bail or court date, phone the jail at 920-294-4059.

Several things can explain a blank search:

• Paperwork lag. Fingerprints and photos are taken first, and a brand-new booking needs time to reach the system.
• Released. They may have posted cash or walked out on a signature bond.
• Different county. If the arrest happened past the county line, check that county's jail through our Wisconsin county jail list.
• Spelling. Try nicknames, both last names, or a spelling change.
• Too young for the adult jail. Anyone 16 or under goes to juvenile intake.

The Sheriff's Office at 920-294-4000 can check whether deputies or a city department has the person.

No. One adult jail serves the whole county:

• Correctional Facility, 571 County Road A, Green Lake, WI 54941, 920-294-4059. It has 108 beds. People wait here for court, and people serving a county jail sentence check in here.
• Huber through electronic monitoring. Huber is the Wisconsin law that lets a sentenced person leave for a job, school or treatment (Wis. Stat. 303.08). Here it is done through the jail's Electronic Monitoring Program. The person lives at an approved home and wears a GPS ankle bracelet. The Judgment of Conviction says whether Huber is allowed, and the Sheriff or jail leaders review each application in writing.

The jail will not take a Huber transfer from another county for someone who still has open cases. A person told to report to serve a sentence must get a check-in time from jail administration. The report date can't be canceled or moved, and skipping it is a crime (Wis. Stat. 946.425). Expect a drug and alcohol test at check-in.

VINE is a custody tool, so it may not show pictures. The Sheriff's Office, 920-294-4000, takes requests for booking photos. Wisconsin's open records statutes, 19.31 through 19.39, say a public record is open to anyone unless the law lets it be withheld. Requesters can stay anonymous and skip explaining why. The records keeper weighs each request, so a photo may be held back. Police records about children stay private.

• News outlets may ask the Sheriff's Office as well.
• Photos held by ICE come through its own records request page.
• Federal mugshots are usually kept from the public. The U.S. Marshals Service may share one, such as when a wanted person is on the loose.

Register on Wisconsin VINE or by phone at 888-944-8463. The state Department of Corrections runs it with local police and sheriffs. Once registered, you are told whenever the person's custody status shifts, for example a release or a transfer. Family members and friends may register too, with no charge and no need to give your name.

• A phone alert keeps calling for 48 hours, or until you enter your PIN.
• You can look up the person any time without signing up.
• DOC Notis is a separate tool. It serves enrolled victims of people in DOC prisons or under DOC supervision.

If a release is coming soon and you need to be sure, also ask the jail at 920-294-4059.

In Wisconsin a judge decides release, and the hearing is often done on a screen from inside the jail. The starting point is release without cash, on a signed promise people call a signature bond. Money bail is allowed only to help ensure a return to court, or, for a violent crime, after the judge looks at the whole picture (Wis. Stat. 969.01). The judge may add rules like no contact, no alcohol or no weapons.

• Paying. Tell jail staff you are there first, then use the Stellar kiosk in the lobby. It takes cash or a debit card, and each payment has a fee. During office hours, bond on a local case can go to the Clerk of Circuit Court instead.
• No bail companies. Wis. Stat. 969.12 outlaws for-profit bail agents. Relatives put up every dollar themselves.
• The money may not come back. The court can use it for restitution, fines and costs after a conviction.
• Stuck in jail? Three days (72 hours) past the first hearing, a person who still can't meet the terms gets a review by the judge.

Our bail page has the full steps. For the state rules in one place, see Wisconsin bail laws.

Jail staff at 920-294-4059 can tell you the booking charge. The District Attorney decides which counts go into the criminal complaint. That office is at 571 County Road A, Green Lake, WI 54941, 920-294-4046. Crime victims can reach Victim Assistance at 920-294-4047.

After the complaint is filed, search the name on Wisconsin Circuit Court Access. The free statewide site shows every count, where the case stands and upcoming hearings. It is a court record, so jail stays won't show there.

Misdemeanors come in three classes. Class A: up to a $10,000 fine, 9 months in jail, or both. Class B: a 90-day and $1,000 ceiling. Class C: 30 days and $500 at most (Wis. Stat. 939.51).

The State Public Defender takes cases from this county at its Fond du Lac office, 25 3rd St, Fond du Lac, WI 54935, 920-929-3990. Adults facing a misdemeanor or felony count can get a lawyer from it when they pass its financial test. The application is short, roughly 15 minutes, and the Public Defender's apply page explains each step.

• At the first hearing, the judge sends anyone who can't pay for a lawyer to the Public Defender.
• A person turned down by the Public Defender can ask the court to appoint counsel at county expense.
• You can always hire a private lawyer instead.

Lawyers meet clients in secure booths. Professional visits run on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to noon and 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Every visit must be booked ahead. Call the jail at 920-294-4059 and ask for visit scheduling, Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Requests for the coming week must be in by Thursday at 4:00 p.m. A request made on Friday rolls to the week after.

• Days: Friday 2:00 to 10:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. There are breaks from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. and 5:00 to 6:30 p.m.
• Length: 30 minutes per visiting day.
• How many: it depends on security level. Maximum gets 1 a week, medium 2 and minimum 3.
• Who: the person names up to 5 adults, with each one's birth date, address and phone. A child comes in with a listed parent or guardian, never alone.
• Leave your cell phone behind. Phones are not allowed where visits happen.

Our visiting guide has general advice for first-timers.

Deposits are made at a lobby kiosk inside the jail, 571 County Road A, Green Lake, WI 54941. It takes cash or a debit card. A debit payment costs 10 percent, so $50 on a card adds $45 to the account. Cash has a small flat fee, so ask staff at 920-294-4059 the current amount. The front desk itself won't take money.

Mailed deposits must be money orders or certified checks issued by a financial institution. Personal checks, cashier's checks and checks from a third person get turned away. Learn more in our deposit guide, and see what the funds buy in our commissary guide.

Calls go through Reliance Telephone, the service the jail names for families. Set up an account or ask about rates at 800-896-3201. Mail is also read on the Reliance system, as letters are scanned for the person to view.

If there is a true emergency, such as a serious illness at home, phone the jail at 920-294-4059 and ask to leave a message for the person. Staff check each one before it goes through. For other ways to stay in touch, ask the jail.

Case details belong in lawyer meetings, not on a jail call. Our phone guide covers jail calls, and our inmate email guide covers electronic messages.

Write it this way:

Their full legal name
Green Lake County Correctional Facility
571 County Road A
Green Lake, WI 54941

Your own name and a return address must appear on the envelope. Ask the jail at 920-294-4059 if a number should go next to the name. Letters are scanned, the person reads them on the Reliance system, and the paper goes into their stored property. Legal mail is opened with the person watching.

These get sent back:

• Envelopes missing a full name or return address
• Drawings or graffiti, perfume or liquid stains
• Polaroid photos, stamps, stamped envelopes or blank writing paper
• Boxes, packages and anything banned

Our mail guide has more help.

The person in jail decides. They fill out a Property Release Form at least 24 hours before pickup and name who may collect the items. That person comes to the jail lobby at 571 County Road A, Green Lake, WI 54941 and shows a photo ID. Call 920-294-4059 first to check that the form is in.

State jail rules make the Sheriff responsible for treating physical and mental illness, plus dental emergencies. Being broke never blocks treatment. Within 14 days of arriving, each person has a health screening (DOC 350).

• Call 920-294-4059 and ask for the corrections nurse. Tell the nurse which medicine, how much, and how to reach the prescriber.
• Bring medicine only in its first labeled bottle, prescribed to that person.
• Say plainly if you think they may hurt themselves.
• The person can file a grievance about care, and every jail must offer an appeal.

Every year the DOC Office of Detention Facilities reviews each county jail. It is at 3099 East Washington Ave., Madison, WI 53704, 608-240-5000.

Either the Sheriff's Office or a city police force could hold the warrant. To ask whether one is active in the name, call 920-294-4000. On Wisconsin Circuit Court Access, a name search can show a missed hearing in a case. Talk with a lawyer before acting. Surrendering at the jail, 571 County Road A, Green Lake, WI 54941, is one way to resolve it, and asking the court to set a fresh date is another. The Clerk of Circuit Court is in the same building complex at 571 County Road A, Green Lake, WI 54941, 920-294-4142, open 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays except county holidays.

Criminal cases go to the Green Lake County circuit court. The Clerk of Circuit Court, 571 County Road A, Green Lake, WI 54941, 920-294-4142, has the date and time. You can also search the name on Wisconsin Circuit Court Access.

• A person under arrest must go before a judge "within a reasonable time." That rule is in Wis. Stat. 970.01(1). For a warrantless arrest, the probable cause review by a judge generally happens inside 48 hours.
• Felony preliminary hearing: within 10 days when bail over $500 keeps the person locked up, within 20 days when they are out (Wis. Stat. 970.03).
• Tickets from Berlin, Green Lake, Markesan and Princeton go to Lakeside Municipal Court, 920-924-2479. The ticket shows where to appear.

Our court guide explains the path from complaint to sentencing.

Federal crimes charged here land in Milwaukee, at the Eastern District of Wisconsin's Milwaukee Division, in the U.S. Federal Building and Courthouse, 517 E. Wisconsin Ave., Room 362, Milwaukee, WI 53202, 414-297-3372.

1. The first federal hearing settles detention: release on conditions, or custody until trial (18 U.S.C. 3142). Postponements are short, capped at five days when the accused asks and three when prosecutors ask.
2. The U.S. Marshals Service keeps people held for trial. Its office is at 517 E. Wisconsin Ave., Room 711, Milwaukee, WI 53202, 414-297-3707. Ask there which jail has them.
3. Federal Defender Services of Wisconsin represents people who can't afford a lawyer. Its Milwaukee office is at 411 East Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 2310, Milwaukee, WI 53202, 414-221-9900.
4. After sentencing, look them up on the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator by name or register number.

An immigration hold on someone at County Road A unfolds like this:

1. Immigration officers write to the Sheriff on the federal detainer form numbered I-247A (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
2. It asks staff to keep the person up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released.
3. Wisconsin cases fall to ICE's Chicago Field Office, at 101 W. Ida B. Wells Dr., Suite 4000, Chicago, IL 60605, 872-351-3990. ICE has held people at the Dodge County jail in Juneau.
4. Use the ICE Online Detainee Locator. An A-number works best. Lacking that, a name together with the birth country can do it. If it finds nobody, call the Chicago office for help.

To learn how detainers are handled on County Road A, call the Sheriff's Office at 920-294-4000.

Someone sentenced to state prison passes first through a Department of Corrections intake center. Staff test and classify them there for roughly 8 to 12 weeks. A bed in a prison matched to their security and program needs comes next. Visitors are turned away for an inmate's first 3 days at the main men's intake prison.

• Look them up with the DOC Inmate and Offender Search.
• Parole ended for felonies committed after Dec. 31, 1999. Those sentences have two parts: time inside, then a period of extended supervision living outside.
• Visits, mail and money for each prison are on our Wisconsin state prisons page.

From age 17, Wisconsin charges a person as an adult, which means the County Road A jail and adult court (Wis. Stat. 938.02). Anyone younger is screened by a juvenile intake worker, who decides whether the youth goes home or into secure detention.

• That worker can be reached at any hour. Except in narrow cases, no child is placed in detention without a face-to-face interview first (Wis. Stat. 938.067).
• Once intake orders a youth held, a court hearing must follow quickly. The limit is 24 hours after that day closes, not counting Saturdays, Sundays or legal holidays (Wis. Stat. 938.21).
• For the most serious cases, boys may go to Lincoln Hills School and girls to Copper Lake School.

Call the Sheriff's Office at 920-294-4000 to learn where the youth is and how to reach intake.

The county had roughly 19,070 residents on Jan. 1, 2025, by the state Department of Administration's estimate. Any of these offices may have made the arrest:

• Sheriff's Office, 571 County Road A, Green Lake, WI 54941, 920-294-4000. For an arrest in Princeton, Kingston, Marquette or a rural town, ask here which agency handled it.
• Berlin Police Department, 108 N. Capron Street, Berlin, WI 54923, 920-361-0444
• Green Lake Police Department, 534 Mill Street, Green Lake, WI 54941, 920-294-6333
• Markesan Police Department, 150 S. Bridge Street, Markesan, WI 53946, 920-398-2121
• Wisconsin State Patrol troopers work the highways. Find the post for this area on the State Patrol locations page.