The Detention Center
Arapahoe County Detention Facility
- Operated byArapahoe County Sheriff's Office, Detention Services Bureau (Bureau Chief Scott Luedtke, under Sheriff Tyler S. Brown)
- Jail address7375 S. Potomac St., Centennial, CO 80112
- Original facilityA 299,241 sq. ft. detention facility opened in 1987 with a bed-space capacity of 404
- ExpansionConstruction of two additional housing units began in 1999, occupied late 2001/early 2002
- Current capacityApproximately 1,400 inmates, with about 17,000 intakes annually
- AccreditationAmerican Correctional Association (ACA) accredited since 1991; medical unit National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) accredited since 1989
Source: Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office — Detention Services Bureau · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✓Independent inspection
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✓How to post bond
- ✓Phone, video and commissary rates
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1987 (original structure); a one-room jailhouse in Littleton predating it opened in 1865
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds404 originally (1987); approximately 1,400 capacity after 1999–2002 expansion
Since then
- 1999–2002: two additional housing units constructed and occupied
The Sheriff
Sheriff Tyler S. Brown
- Runs the jailYes — the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office Detention Services Bureau operates the Arapahoe County Detention Facility
- How the office is filledElected sheriff, per Colorado's standard county sheriff model
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office — Our Agency · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Colorado's District Court and County Court judges are state judicial officers, not county officials. They are initially appointed by the Governor through a judicial nominating commission and subsequently face retention elections. Arapahoe County is a large, multi-county judicial district with numerous County Court judges also serving; not all are listed here.
18th Judicial District — District Court Judges (partial list published)
- David Karpel
- Darren Vahle
- Laqunya Baker
- Jacob Edson
- Benjamin Figa
- Thomas Henderson
- H. Clay Hurst
- Michelle Jones
- Bonnie McLean
- James Quinn
- Natalie Stricklin
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-24
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 →
Notes on the record
- Published phone rates: $0.16/minute local, $0.60/minute international (via GTL/ConnectNetwork), satisfying the fees check.
- The Detention Services Bureau page states ACA accreditation since 1991 and NCCHC medical accreditation since 1989; these are independent accreditation results, satisfying the inspections check even though no Colorado Jail Standards Commission result is yet published (that mandate only became effective July 1, 2026).
- A PREA policy/reporting page is published, but no PREA audit result or certification document was found, so the prea check is marked no.
- The county's 2026 Adopted Budget is referenced on the Finance Department's Budget page, but its Document Center list of PDFs loads dynamically and specific detention-fund figures could not be confirmed through direct fetch, so budget is marked no.
- No public inmate roster/lookup tool could be confirmed; the 'Inmate Lookup, Charges and Bonds' page found contains only legal bond-rights text, not a working name-search tool, in the static page content retrieved.
- Arapahoe County Board of County Commissioners: Carrie Warren-Gully, Jeff Baker, Jessica Campbell, Leslie Summey, Rhonda Fields.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Arapahoe County 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.
Names verified 2026-08-24 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered