The Detention Center
Boulder County Jail
- Operated byBoulder County Sheriff's Office
- Address3200 Airport Road, Boulder, CO 80301
- ProgramsGED testing, religious services, education, wellness and rehabilitation programs, alternative sentencing, inmate worker programs
- What was tried for beds/year built/costChecked jail homepage, 'Boulder County Jail' page, FAQ page, and Daily Booking and Listing Reports page — none publish a bed count, year built, or construction cost
Source: Boulder County — Boulder County Jail · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗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
- ✗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 Curtis 'CJ' Johnson
- Runs the jailYes — Boulder County Sheriff's Office
- How the office is filledElected at-large
- Office address5600 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, CO 80301
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Boulder County — Elected Officials · 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. Boulder is the only county in the 20th Judicial District, which has a large bench — the source page lists additional District and County Court Magistrates beyond those named here.
20th Judicial District — Chief Judge
- Nancy W. Salomone
20th Judicial District Court — additional District Court Judges
- J. Keith Collins
- Andrew Hartman
- Ian Bonner
- Nicholas Trevino
- Elizabeth Brodsky
- Zachary Malkinson
- Thomas M. Ward
Boulder County Court — County Court Judges
- Dea M. Lindsey
- Carolyn McLean
- Robert R. Gunning
- Roxana Pollard
- Thomas F. Mulvahill
- 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
- The Jail's Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) page describes zero-tolerance policy and a reporting process, but does not publish audit results.
- The county publishes a Daily Booking and Listing Report (a current roster with charges/bond) but not an aggregate bed capacity or average daily population figure on the pages checked.
- Attempted to check a Budget page at bouldercounty.gov/government/budget/ but the fetched content did not render as readable text; no detention-specific budget line was confirmed.
- Board of County Commissioners (elected at-large, three districts) — Claire Levy (District 1), Marta Loachamin (District 2), Ashley Stolzmann (District 3)
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Boulder 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