1. Open the jail inmate search from a phone, tablet or computer.
2. Type only the last name. A shorter spelling often works better than a full one.
3. Find the date or time shown with the results. That shows how recent the data is.
4. Read across the row and copy the jail number, charges and bail amount into a note.
5. Try the statewide VINELink person search as a second check.

You can also have a staff member look. Call the shift supervisor on 608-757-7961.

Several simple things can hide a name. Think through each one.

A fresh arrest takes time to enter. Someone may also have left already after posting bail or seeing a judge. A nickname, a married name or a middle name can change how the system sorts a person. Another jail, or federal or immigration custody, could hold them now. A police station may still have them for a short while. Anyone under 17 goes through juvenile intake and not the adult jail.

The jail has a supervisor on every shift. Dial 608-757-7961 for first shift, 608-757-7959 for second or 608-757-8002 for third. Ask if the person is in the building at this moment.

The state's Jan. 1, 2025 estimate puts the county at 166,045 people. We can confirm one adult jail:

• Rock County Jail, in Janesville, holds adults. Phone 608-757-7961, the first shift supervisor.

The Sheriff also offers electronic monitoring for sentenced people who qualify, plus RECAP, a five-month drug and alcohol program inside the jail. Ask the supervisor whether any other building holds your person.

The Dane County Sheriff's website has a page on the Rock jail, so a Dane County detainee could be held here. The reverse could happen as well. Dane has two jails with JE pages: the City-County Building jail and the Public Safety Building jail. Each page lists an address and phone.

Open the search and check if a photo sits beside the person's name. When none shows, you may still request a booking photo. Under the open records rules in chapter 19 of the Wisconsin Statutes, records start out open. A requester does not have to give a name or a reason, and the Sheriff's Office weighs each request on its own facts.

Call 608-757-7959 and ask who handles mugshot requests. The state's public records guide explains how requests work. Police files about a juvenile stay closed.

• News reporters can make the same request.
• Federal mugshots are not given out to the public, but the U.S. Marshals Service may release one, such as for a person on the run.
• For a photo held by ICE, use the ICE records request page.

Wisconsin offers VINE, a free service that keeps your name private. It shows if someone is in a county jail and gives the location. You can also sign up for a phone, text or email notice when that person is let out or moved. English, Spanish and Hmong are supported.

• Go to VINELink for Wisconsin county jails.
• Or phone 888-944-8463 at any hour.

The state does not list which county jails use it. After you check VINE, phone the jail as well. Notis, a separate service, covers state prison and is only for victims who enrolled.

State law gives an arrested person a hearing before a judge in a reasonable time. When no warrant existed, the arrest must be backed by a judge's finding of probable cause, usually within 48 hours. At the first appearance the judge reads the charge, names release rules and may order cash bail.

• Release is the starting point. A judge can free someone without bail, or after the person signs a pledge that is paid only on a missed hearing. People call this a signature bond.
• Cash is for cases where money is needed to bring someone back. Since 2023, a judge facing a violent crime may also weigh danger and past record before setting an amount.
• Bondsmen cannot work in Wisconsin. Relatives put up the whole amount, and a helper may not be paid (Wis. Stat. 969.12).
• Deputies and officers accept it inside their own stations only, and must hand over a numbered receipt. The clerk of court takes it too. Phone 608-757-8002 to ask the jail where, when and how bail can be paid.
• After a guilty finding, the court is allowed to put the deposit toward fines, court costs and restitution, whoever paid it.

Locked up 72 hours past the first appearance? The judge must look at the rules again. Read the full story on our bail page. Our page on Wisconsin bail law adds the legal detail.

At that first hearing the person receives the written complaint from the judge. Meanwhile, the supervisor at 608-757-7961 can read the charges off the booking record.

After a case is opened, type the name into Wisconsin Circuit Court Access, a free statewide tool for charges, hearing dates and case status. The District Attorney's Office works from the courthouse, 51 South Main Street, Janesville, WI 53545, and picks the final charges. A crime victim can reach the Victim/Witness Program at 608-757-5569.

Wisconsin ranks misdemeanors by class. The worst, Class A, can mean 9 months and a $10,000 fine. Class B is capped at 90 days and $1,000, while Class C is capped at 30 days and $500.

On day one in court, the judge explains that a lawyer is allowed and refers anyone with no money to the State Public Defender. Families are free to hire a private lawyer at any point.

• State Public Defender, 101 E Milwaukee St, Suite 503, Janesville, WI 53545, 608-758-6170
• Filling out the form takes roughly 15 minutes and asks about income and savings.
• If the office turns the person down, raise county-paid counsel with the judge.

State jail rules require reasonable hours for attorney visits. Ask the jail how your lawyer sets up a time.

Each jail sets its own visiting rules. Ask the jail how visits work here, which days and hours are open, what they cost and how a visitor signs up. People on Huber release may follow different rules, so say if your person is one of them.

Rules and hours change, so phone 608-757-7961 before you plan a trip. Our visiting guide adds more advice.

Ask the jail how deposits work here: where to pay, what is accepted, what fees apply and whether you can pay online.

• Bring the full legal name and the jail number.
• Keep any receipt you are given.

Ask which days store orders arrive and how far ahead they must be placed. The money guide and commissary guide on our site go deeper. For questions, dial 608-757-7959.

Ask the jail how calls, prepaid minutes and digital messages work here, and which company runs them. Phone 608-757-7961. Read our phone guide and email guide.

In a real emergency, like a death or major illness, ask the shift supervisor on 608-757-8002 whether staff can pass on a message.

Letters travel through the post office to a Maryland box. Put the person's full name and jail number on the first line, then add:

Rock County Jail WI
P.O. Box 247
Phoenix, MD 21131

• Ask the jail what mail it accepts, how photos and cards are delivered, and how books or subscriptions must be sent.
• To send a money order, call 608-757-7961 for the right place.

Our mail guide has more. Staff may read ordinary mail in a Wisconsin jail, but a lawyer's letter gets only a light look.

Call 608-757-7959 before you drive over. Ask three things:

• Who is allowed to collect the items, and which ID counts.
• What days and hours the window stays open.
• Whether a signed form is needed.

Jail staff can explain how property is returned.

State standards oblige every county jail to treat physical illness, mental health needs and dental emergencies. A lack of funds is no reason to say no. A health review has to happen within 14 days after a person arrives.

Tell staff early about any daily medicine or serious condition. Call 608-757-7961 and ask for the shift supervisor. The person can also file a grievance, and the process includes an appeal.

If you see danger yourself, call 911.

Sheriff's deputies carry out warrant arrests. Phone the jail supervisor at 608-757-7961 to learn where to ask. Ask the Sheriff's Office if the person is on its most wanted list. Type the name into Wisconsin Circuit Court Access, where a missed hearing may show up; the Clerk or Sheriff can confirm a warrant. To clear one, walk into the jail with your lawyer, or call the court about getting a new date. The Clerk of Circuit Court is at 608-743-2200.

Misdemeanor and felony cases are both heard by the circuit court. Call the Clerk of Circuit Court on 608-743-2200 and follow the prompts to learn the courthouse address and courtroom, or look up the name on Wisconsin Circuit Court Access. Courthouse computers offer the same tool.

• Many Wisconsin counties hold first hearings by video from the jail.
• Ordinance tickets belong to a municipal court.
• One line, 608-757-5519, reaches the pretrial program, Adult Drug Court and OWI Treatment Court at 51 S. Main St. A Veterans Treatment Court exists too.

Our court page explains the steps in order.

Rock County is in the federal Western District of Wisconsin. Madison hosts the court: Robert W. Kastenmeier U.S. Courthouse, 120 N. Henry St., Room 320, Madison, WI 53703, 608-264-5156.

At the first federal appearance, a judge picks release or detention under 18 U.S.C. 3142. Detained people often sit in a jail that has a deal with the U.S. Marshals, so reach the Marshals at 120 N. Henry St., Suite 440, Madison, WI 53703, 608-661-8300.

• Federal Defender Services can supply a lawyer: 608-260-9900.
• Once the sentence is final, the Bureau of Prisons locator will point you to the prison that holds the person. Wisconsin has one federal prison, FCI Oxford.

When ICE wants a person held, it files Form I-247A, a detainer that asks Rock County to hold the person "up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released" (8 CFR 287.7(d)). Ask the jail on 608-757-7961 how it treats these requests.

• Use the ICE Online Detainee Locator and fill in the full name, the birth country and either an A-number or a date of birth.
• The ICE Chicago Field Office covers Wisconsin: 101 W. Ida B. Wells Dr., Suite 4000, Chicago, IL 60605, 872-351-3990.
• ICE detainees are kept at Dodge County Jail in Juneau, WI. Sauk County's Sheriff says its jail holds some of them briefly.
• The ICE check-in office is at 310 E. Knapp St., Milwaukee, WI 53202, 414-792-7198.

Someone sentenced to state prison starts at intake, where staff test and sort them for roughly 8 to 12 weeks. Then a prison that fits is chosen. Visitors are turned away at the men's intake site until a person has been there three days.

Find them with the DOC Inmate and Offender Search. A felony committed since Dec. 31, 1999 brings a sentence in two parts: prison first, then extended supervision at home. Parole does not apply.

Read more on our Wisconsin state prisons page.

A child under 17 does not go to the adult jail. County juvenile intake works around the clock and decides about secure detention. An intake worker has to talk with the youth in person first, with few exceptions. A court hearing must follow within 24 hours of the end of the day a hold began, leaving out weekends and holidays.

The Rock County Youth Services Center may hold local youths. Phone county dispatch on 608-757-2244 for its current address and the way to reach intake.

Seventeen is the line: from that age, criminal charges mean adult court and the adult jail.

County dispatch takes non-emergency calls for the whole area at 608-757-2244. Ask who made the arrest. Where a place has no police department, ask which agency came.

• Janesville: Police Services Building, 608-755-3100
• Beloit: 100 State St, 1st Floor, Beloit, WI 53511
• Milton: 690 S. Janesville Street, Milton, WI 53563, 608-868-6910
• Evansville: 10 W Church St., Evansville, WI 53536, 608-882-2292

The Town of Beloit and Edgerton also have departments. Dispatch can tell you who covers Clinton, Orfordville and Footville. For the highways, the State Patrol DeForest Post is at 911 W. North Street, DeForest, WI 53532, 608-846-8500.