Sanilac County Sheriff's Office Corrections Command Staff: History

SHERIFF’S OF SANILAC COUNTY

Years in Office	Sheriff	Years in Office	Sheriff
1850	Silas Bardwell	1911-1912	A.C. Graham
1851-1861	No Records	1913-1916	Thomas Dunphy
1862-1863	John Sheldon	1917-1920	Herbert M. Stone
1864-1868	No Records	1921-1923	Charles McGuiness (1)
1869-1872	Peter D. Kenney	1923	John Bradford (2)
1873-1874	Jonathan W. Babcock	1923-1924	Emily McGuiness (3)
1875-1876	James Minard	1925-1932	Lovel C. Hagel
1877-1880	Hugh Mckenzie	1933-1936	James Greenan
1881-1884	Andrew Gray	1937-1942	Ace T. Campbell
1885-1888	William Stephenson	1943-1948	Roland L. Meredith
1889-1892	Joseph C. Alexander	1949-1954	Otto John Zorn
1893-1896	John Dawson	1955-1964	Quincy P. Hoffman
1897-1900	Maitland M. Stone	1965-1984	Ross E. Dundas
1901-1904	Egerton Proctor	1985-1988	John G. Osborn
1905-1906	Maitland M. Stone	1989-2008	Virgil Strickler
1907-1910	William H. Epplett	2009-Present	Garry M. Biniecki

(1) Died in office, February 3, 1923 (Bladder)
(2) Undersheriff Served February 4, 1923 to February 21, 1923
(3) Appointed. Served February 21, 1923 to December 31, 1923 (first and only female Sheriff in Sanilac County) Eichman, D.E., & Eichman, A. E. (1997). Michigan sheriff’s in four centuries 1788 to 2013. Lansing, MI: MSA Educational Services.

Sanilac County Jail

photo courtesy of Sanilac District Library

In 1955 the oldest portion of our current jail was built. Several renovations and additions have occurred through the years leading to the current facility we operate now. The first change took place in 1977 when a small addition was done. A conference room and security garage was added at this time. In 1989 some renovations were done, our dispatch center which was part of the Sheriff’s Office at that time, were moved. The old dispatch center area was converted into a new booking area. In 1997 a larger addition was done. A new security garage, car wash bay, and administration offices were added on the lower level of the addition. The second story of the addition added an inmate recreation room, and two dormitory style cells. One was a 52 man open dorm and the other was a 30 man open dorm. The jail was operated this way until the newest addition was completed. Construction started September of 2013 and this addition was completed in July of 2014. This last addition consisted of 2 new podular cells, labeled A pod and B pod. Each pod is a tier system with 17 two man cells on both the upper and lower tier totaling 68 total beds between the two pods. On the lower level of this addition a new booking and holding area was added, a new security garage, and new administration offices. Once this addition was complete a major renovation of the existing structure took place. The old 52 man dormitory cell was divided by a block wall. On one side of that wall is a 20 man dormitory cell that houses work release, work crew and inmate workers. The other side was converted to a maximum security cell with 11 individual lock down cells. The old booking and holding area was converted to locker rooms and a small work out room. The old inmate visitation room was converted into a training room, and the old administration offices became the new squad room for Uniformed Services.