The Detention Center
Baca County Jail (run by the Sheriff's Office)
- Operated byBaca County Sheriff's Office
- VisitationThursdays 4-6pm; Saturdays 1-3pm, 15 minutes per week, pre-approval required for extended visits
- What was triedChecked county homepage, Sheriff's Office page, and Jail Visitation page — no beds/capacity, year-built, cost, or roster/budget pages found on the county's site
Source: Baca County Sheriff's Office — Jail Visitation · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Aaron Shiplett
- Runs the jailYes — Baca County Sheriff's Office
- How the office is filledElected
- Office address265 E. 2nd Ave, Springfield, CO 81073
- Office phone719-523-4511
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Baca County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Colorado judges are initially appointed through a judicial nominating commission and then face retention elections; they are state judicial officers, not county officials. The 15th Judicial District (District Court) also covers Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Prowers counties; Baca has its own County Court.
15th Judicial District — Chief Judge
- Tarryn L. Johnson
15th Judicial District Court — District Court Judge
- Mike Davidson
Baca County Court — County Court Judge
- Tyler K. Gibson
- 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
- Baca County's own site has no dedicated finance/budget page in its main navigation (checked homepage nav in full); no county budget document was located.
- No roster, PREA, inspection, contracts, or fee-schedule pages found on the county's site — the Sheriff's Office page set is limited to an About page and a Jail Visitation page.
- Board of County Commissioners — Race Chenoweth (District 1), Shiloh Freed (District 2), Troy Bishop (District 3)
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Baca 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