Benzie County Jail Release Paths
A person can leave Benzie County Jail in several ways. Bond, recognizance, dismissal with release, time served, completion of a county sentence, probation, or another court-authorized local outcome may return the person to the community. A move to the Michigan Department of Corrections, another county, a federal authority, treatment placement, or an immigration custodian is a transfer. Both events end the local jail's physical custody, but only one describes a community release.
The release record needs a date, time, and disposition. A bare absence from custody cannot show which route applied. Ask whether the person was released to the community or delivered to another authority. When the record names a receiving agency, follow that agency's system before drawing any conclusion about current custody.
Release from Benzie County Jail means local custody ended. It does not always mean the person became free of all custody.
Confirm Benzie County Jail Release
The county publishes no verified public jail roster, recent-release feed, or searchable release archive. Immediate confirmation starts with the Benzie County Jail at 231-882-4484. Give the full name and another identifier if known. Staff may limit what they disclose by phone, so a written release record remains the stronger source for a durable result.
- Call the jail and ask whether the named person remains in Benzie County custody.
- Ask staff to distinguish a community release from transfer to another custodian.
- Check the 85th District Court for misdemeanor, bond, arraignment, and preliminary felony activity; use the 19th Circuit for a felony disposition or sentence.
- Request the Sheriff release form, timestamp, disposition, bond entry, and receiving agency when a written record is needed.
- Move to OTIS, another county, BOP, or ICE only if the transfer record points there.
The full Benzie County released inmate search explains how these agency boundaries fit together. A current-custody call answers the immediate local question. The release form preserves what happened during the specific booking.
Benzie County Jail Release Records
The Sheriff FOIA page accepts written requests by email, fax, mail, or in person. Address jail-record requests to the Sheriff coordinator rather than the general county coordinator. Describe an existing record with a full name, identifier, approximate booking date, and a narrow date range.
A focused request can seek the booking and release entry, release date and time, disposition or type, transfer destination if disclosable, related bond information, inmate release form, and booking photograph. Ask for an electronic copy when available. Do not ask staff to write a new explanation of why a name vanished.
| Request channel | Benzie Sheriff FOIA contact |
|---|---|
| LEvans@BenzieCo.Gov | |
| Telephone | 231-882-4484, extension 231 |
| Fax | 231-882-5814 |
| Mail or in person | 505 S. Michigan Avenue, Beulah, MI 49617 |
Benzie states that most requests are completed within the allotted five-business-day framework, though a document search may need an extension. Fees may apply, but no flat release-record or photo price is published. Michigan FOIA permits an initial response and one lawful ten-business-day extension. The response can grant, deny, partly grant, seek clarification, or give a fee estimate.
Benzie Jail Release Record Retention
Michigan General Schedule 11 makes the retained file far more useful than the nonexistent public feed. Item 11.210 keeps a county jail inmate jacket until release plus ten years. The schedule says that file may include intake records, booking cards, mug shots, sentencing documents, property release records, prison-transfer papers, release forms, bonds, and warrants.
Other records can have shorter lives. Daily count summaries that may identify people processed or released are retained through the end of the calendar year plus one year. Property intake and release records use the same period. A focused request should lead with the inmate jacket and release form, then name a daily count or property record only if it is relevant and still retained.
Retention is not a promise of full disclosure. The Sheriff must apply Michigan FOIA exemptions, redactions, and limits for privacy, investigation, security, juvenile, or other protected content. Still, the schedule explains why a Benzie County Jail release record may remain available long after no public web result can be found.
Note: Ask early for short-lived daily records, while using the retained inmate jacket as the main long-term release source.
Benzie Jail Release Court Checks
The court file explains the legal event behind many releases. The 85th District Court handles misdemeanors, arraignments, and felony preliminary proceedings. Its docket may show a bond order, dismissal, county sentence, time-served credit, or local probation. The 19th Judicial Circuit Court handles felony dispositions and sentences for Benzie and Manistee Counties.
Choose both the correct court level and location. A circuit search spans two counties, so compare the case number and party information. A docket event can show why the court expected custody to change, but it does not establish the exact moment jail staff completed the release. Another hold or processing step may intervene. Pair the order with Sheriff confirmation or the release form.
Benzie County Jail Contact
The official Corrections Division identifies the jail as part of the Benzie County Law Enforcement Center. The Sheriff operates the county jail. Published Sheriff business hours apply to the office, while custodial operations continue as required. No official source gives a separate release-desk schedule or daily release time.
Benzie County Jail505 S. Michigan Avenue
Beulah, MI 49617
Phone: 231-882-4484
Sheriff business hours: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m., excluding holidays
The official Benzie Corrections Division page provides jail rules, handbooks, visitation material, and history. It does not provide a roster, release list, photo gallery, or release calendar.
The navigation supports the phone and records-request path instead of a self-service Benzie County Jail release search.
Benzie County Jail Release History
The official jail history is unusually detailed. It traces local custody from a small Honor jail used from 1908 to 1916, an early Beulah concrete jail, a 12-bed building completed in 1959, crowding and outside boarding in the late 1980s, a 1989 millage, and the 1990 groundbreaking for the present facility. The county describes the current building as an approximately 19,000-square-foot direct-supervision jail with a maximum capacity of 47.
Historical boarding shows why transfer is a real category, but it cannot establish present overflow practice. The history also mentions former trustee or work-release space. That is not proof that a current work-release program exists. Capacity does not show the annual number of releases, average stay, release hours, or current population.
The Benzie County Jail history page is the source for these facility facts.
Use the history for local context while relying on current Sheriff records for an individual release or transfer.
Follow Benzie Jail Transfers
OTIS becomes the correct public system only after MDOC jurisdiction begins. It covers Michigan prisoners, parolees, felony probationers, and certain discharged people. It does not cover a person sentenced only to Benzie County Jail. A delay can also occur between the county transfer and MDOC intake, so keep the Sheriff disposition and sentencing judgment while the state record is processed.
For a federal case, use the BOP locator after the person enters BOP custody. U.S. Marshals pretrial custody has no equivalent public released-person locator. Use ICE ODLS only when a detainer or receiving agency gives a real reason to suspect immigration custody. No official source identifies Benzie County Jail as an ICE contract detention site.
| Release destination | Next check | Key limit |
|---|---|---|
| Community after local order | Sheriff release form and court file | Another hold can delay the exit |
| Michigan prison | OTIS and MDOC records | County-jail-only cases never appear |
| Another county | Named receiving sheriff or jail | The Benzie exit is only a transfer |
| Federal custody | BOP or federal court route | USMS lacks a comparable public locator |
| Immigration custody | ICE ODLS or information line | No result alone proves nothing |
Benzie Jail Release Questions
No official source states the daily release time, physical exit door, family waiting point, holiday processing details, property-return method, gate money, discharge medication process, or bond vendor. These are legitimate questions for jail staff. They cannot be presented as facts without a current official answer.
Benzie Bus offers reserved curb-to-curb transportation, but no source describes a fixed stop at the jail or says the Sheriff arranges or pays for a ride. Coordinate the actual release time and safe pickup point before travel. A projected court event can change because of processing or another hold.
- Release
- The named custodian ends its hold, sometimes to the community.
- Transfer
- One agency ends custody because another agency takes control.
- Time served
- The court credits the custodial part of a sentence as complete.
- Detainer
- A request or hold that may cause transfer instead of community release.