The Detention Center
Elbert County Jail
- Operated byElbert County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address751 Ute Avenue, Kiowa, CO 80117 (co-located with the Sheriff's Office)
- Year built1984
- Holds prisoners forElizabeth and Simla police departments, Colorado State Patrol, and other state/federal agencies, per ECSO's own description
Source: Elbert County — Detentions · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓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
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1984
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Tim Norton
- Runs the jailYes — the Elbert County Sheriff's Office (ECSO) Detentions Division
- How the office is filledElected
- UndersheriffDave Fisher
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Elbert County — Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Colorado judges are appointed through a judicial nominating commission and then face retention elections; they are state judicial officers, not county officials. The 23rd Judicial District (Douglas, Elbert, Lincoln counties) was newly created effective January 14, 2025.
23rd Judicial District — Chief Judge
- Ryan J. Stuart
- 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 county's own FAQ states the jail roster is available only by calling the main information line (303-621-2027), not via an online public roster — recorded as 'no' for the roster check since it is not a published online list.
- The Detentions page states the jail houses inmates for Elizabeth PD, Simla PD, Colorado State Patrol, and state/federal agencies, but no rate schedule for holding other agencies' prisoners is published.
- Commissary allows telephone-fund use per the Detentions page, but no specific phone/video/commissary rate figures are published.
- Three-member Board of County Commissioners, each elected from a geographic district but representing the whole county, staggered four-year terms (two-term limit): Mike Buck (District 1), Dallas Schroeder (District 2), Byron McDaniel (District 3). No dedicated jail tax was found published.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Elbert 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