Apache County

The Detention Center

Apache County Jail

• Operated byApache County Sheriff's Office
• Jail address370 South Washington, St Johns, AZ 85936, with the Sheriff's Office. Mailing address PO Box 518, St. Johns, AZ 85936. Phone (928) 337-4321
• When it was built'Completed on July 7, 1991, our facility has separate minimum, medium, and maximum security housing areas for both male and female inmates. It is also equipped with handicap-accessible cells'
• What is inside it'Each of the housing areas have telephones, which inmates may use to make collect and phone-card calls. Our facility also provides a commissary, a recreational yard, a library, an attorney-client room, a non-contact visiting area, a medical care room, a laundry, and a maintenance shop'
• Its mission, in the county's own words'The mission of the Apache County Jail is to provide safe, secure, constitutional, and humane care for pre-trial and sentenced inmates in the custody of the Apache County Sheriff's Office and to provide a safe, secure, and professional environment for the facility staff. It is not our role to legislate, to render legal judgment, or to punish'
• Who it holds'The Apache County Sheriff's Office houses all prisoners from the county courts as well as three incorporated city police departments. The Apache County jail only houses state inmates from the Federal Bureau of Prisons awaiting transfer to the Arizona Department of Corrections. We also contract with other county and tribal jurisdictions to house their inmates on an as needed basis'
• Who is in custodyThe Sheriff page carries a link headed 'Inmates Currently in Custody' pointing to https://acso.crimegraphics.com/2013/default.aspx
• VisitationOn-site visits Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., scheduled at least 24 hours in advance, one visit per day per visitor. Remote sessions Sunday to Saturday at 9:00-11:20 a.m., 4:00-5:50 p.m. and 8:00-9:50 p.m. Visits are booked on the lobby terminal, online through Securus Technologies, or by calling 1 (877) 578-3658. 'The jail is in full lockdown every day from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.; there are no visits during this time'
• Medical care is contracted outThe county published an RFP, 'RFP-2023-02 Health Care Services for Apache County Jail', in its document library
• What was triedThe archived Sheriff, Board of Supervisors, Superior Court, Justice Courts, St. Johns Justice Court, Puerco (Sanders) Justice Court and Round Valley Justice Court pages, the county's archived document library index, the FY2026 draft budget and the FY26 Summary Schedule of Estimated Revenues and Expenditures. The FY2026 draft budget PDF is capped at 5 MB by the archive and its cross-reference table is truncated, so it could not be read; the FY26 Summary Schedule is a scanned image with no text layer. No bed count, no daily population, no death in custody, no PREA audit, no inspection result, no bail-posting guidance and no phone, video or commissary price list was found

Source: Apache County - Sheriff's Office (Internet Archive capture of 14 October 2025) · checked 2026-08-23

• ✓The jail is named
• ✓Who is in custody
• ✗Beds and daily population — not published
• ✓What it costs taxpayers
• ✗Deaths in custody — not published
• ✗PREA audits — not published
• ✗Independent inspection — not published
• ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
• ✗How to post bond — not published
• ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Apache County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-23. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

• Year built1991. 'Completed on July 7, 1991, our facility has separate minimum, medium, and maximum security housing areas for both male and female inmates'
• Original costNot found
• Paid for byNot found for construction. Apache County has a jail district and a separate juvenile jail district, both of which appear as distinct budget units in the Board of Supervisors' notice of public hearing on the 2025-2026 county budget
• BedsNot found. The county describes separate minimum, medium and maximum security housing areas for men and women, and handicap-accessible cells, but gives no count

The Sheriff

Sheriff Joseph Dedman, Jr.

• Runs the jailYes. 'Under the leadership of Sheriff Joseph Dedman, Jr., the Apache County Sheriff's Office is responsible for the full-time law enforcement duties in Apache County', and the same page carries the Apache County Jail's mission, facility description and visitation rules. ARS 31-101 and ARS 11-441(A)(5) make the sheriff the jailer in every Arizona county
• How the office is filledElected. Arizona county sheriffs are elected countywide to four-year terms
• Size of the office'With an office that employs 80 personnel, which include 28 certified deputies'
• ReachApache County occupies 11,127 square miles in the north-east corner of Arizona, the third largest of the 15 counties. 'Although a portion of Northern Apache County is Navajo Nation, Apache County has jurisdiction for all the non-native American population living on the Navajo Nation'
• DispatchThe Sheriff's Office communications centre also dispatches for three police departments, seven fire departments and three ambulance companies, and assists the United States Forest Service and Arizona Game and Fish
• VolunteersSheriff Dedman uses a Reserve Deputy programme and the Northern and Southern Apache County Posses, plus organised citizen groups for search and rescue
• Office370 South Washington, St Johns, AZ 85936; mailing address PO Box 518, St. Johns, AZ 85936. Phone (928) 337-4321 or 1 (800) 352-1850, fax (928) 337-2709. Office hours Monday to Thursday, 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
• A note on accessThe live county website could not be reached during this research: apachecountyaz.gov sits behind a Cloudflare bot challenge that returns HTTP 403 to this researcher. Every county-published fact recorded here is taken from the Internet Archive's capture of the county's own pages, and the capture date is given for each

Source: Apache County - Sheriff's Office (Internet Archive capture of 14 October 2025) · checked 2026-08-23

The Judges

Arizona Superior Court judges outside Maricopa and Pima Counties are elected countywide in nonpartisan elections to four-year terms; in Maricopa and Pima they are appointed by the Governor from a commission's nominees and then stand for retention. Apache County's own Superior Court page says so plainly - 'Each county elects a superior court judge' - and Michael Latham has been the presiding judge since 2014. Justices of the peace are elected to four-year terms in their precinct, and the county's Justice Courts page explains that 'The number of county justice courts is determined based on population.' Apache County has four justice court precincts, Chinle, Puerco (Sanders), Round Valley and St. Johns, although the Chinle and Puerco courts have been consolidated into the Northstar Justice Court since 1 January 2023. All of these are state judicial officers, not county officials, even though the county funds the justice courts and the county's own website hosts their pages. In Arizona it is normally the justice of the peace or a municipal magistrate who sets release conditions at the initial appearance, so the officer who holds the prisoner - the elected sheriff - and the judge who decides whether the prisoner stays answer to different offices.

Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-23

The County Commissioners

They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.

• What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
• What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
• The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
• Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →