The Detention Center
The county publishes no formal name for this facility.
- Operated byThere is no borough or census area jail in Petersburg Borough
- Who holds people awaiting trialAlaska Department of Corrections - 13 state institutions directly, plus 14 city- and borough-operated community and regional jails under contract through the department's Community and Regional Jail Program
- Who runs the facilityTwo different people, depending on the facility. A state institution is run by a Department of Corrections superintendent. A contracted community or regional jail is run by the local government's designated community jail administrator, which the state's own standards say may be the chief of police or director of public safety - so in most of these towns the police chief is also the jailer. Alaska has no sheriff to call anywhere.
- WhyNo Alaska borough or census area runs a jail of its own the way a county does elsewhere. The state Department of Corrections runs a combined jail-and-prison system and holds most people awaiting trial in its own 13 institutions; in 14 coastal and rural communities that have no state institution, a city or borough government operates a small community jail under contract with the department, holding people arrested on state charges until they are released, arraigned or flown out to a state facility.
- What this means for this pageThe ten transparency checks ask what a borough or census area publishes about its own jail. This borough or census area does not operate one, so it is not scored. The questions belong to the state.
Source: Alaska Department of Corrections - 13 state institutions directly, plus 14 city- and borough-operated community and regional jails under contract through the department's Community and Regional Jail Program · checked 2026-08-23
The Sheriff
Sheriff There is no sheriff here
- Does a sheriff run a jail here?No
- How that work is done insteadAlaska has no sheriffs at all - not elected, not appointed. The work a sheriff does elsewhere is split up: Court Services Officers in the Alaska State Troopers' Judicial Services Section (Department of Public Safety) provide courtroom security, transport and supervise prisoners at court appearances, serve subpoenas, summonses, eviction notices and other process, and execute arrest warrants. Local policing is by municipal police departments, Village Public Safety Officers, tribal police and the State Troopers. Civil process may also be served by private process servers.
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Alaska — how law enforcement is organised · checked 2026-08-23
The Judges
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-23
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Petersburg Borough and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).
How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?
Your VOTE is POWERFUL.
The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.
Alaska runs elections through the state Division of Elections. Links from vote.gov and USA.gov.
Names verified 2026-08-23 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered