A rising jail population has Shawano County authorities considering shipping some inmates to neighboring counties.
Troy Beyer, jail administrator, told members of the public safety committee Jan. 7 the average daily population in December was 185 and stood at 195 just hours before the meeting.
“Normally between Thanksgiving and Christmas, our population goes down. It didn’t happen (last year); it went up,” he said. “Currently, we are at 195 inmates in custody, 153 in the jail and we’re rated to hold 155.”
As of Jan. 7, there were 132 pre-sentenced inmates in custody, with 115 of them facing felony charges.
Staff will review all inmates’ classifications to see if any can be moved to the Huber Work Release Center as overflow.
However, even though the 115 facing felony charges may not all go to prison, they can’t be transferred to Huber.
“I’m going to have to be reaching out to other counties,” Beyer said. “Potentially, we might have to ship inmates out.”
Sheriff George Lenzner said they would select the most cost-effective place to transfer inmates.
In addition to a daily housing charge, the county also has to pay a deputy to transport the inmate back and forth from the other county jail to Shawano for court proceedings.
“There’s a handful waiting to go to prison,” Beyer added. “Normally, that was usually a two-week wait. Now it’s two months due to staffing and issues that DOC (Department of Corrections) has.”
Of the 132 pre-sentence inmates in custody, two have been in custody since 2022, two have been there since 2023, and 11 have been there since 2024.
There are 107 pre-sentenced inmates in custody since 2025 and 10 since Jan. 1.
The jail still has four vacancies for corrections officers with Jerome Turbyville starting Jan. 5 and Kevin Rogers starting Jan. 12.
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
