The Detention Center
Gilpin County Detention Facility (Gilpin County Jail)
- Operated byGilpin County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address2960 Dory Hill Road, Black Hawk, CO 80422
- Beds / year builtNot found on county site
Source: Gilpin County — Detentions · 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 Kevin M. Armstrong
- Runs the jailYes — the Gilpin County Sheriff's Office (GCSO) Detentions Division
- How the office is filledElected (first elected 2019, second term ending 2027)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Gilpin County — Sheriff's Page · 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 1st Judicial District also covers Jefferson County; Gilpin County Court cases are handled through a shared 'Duty Division' with Jefferson County.
1st Judicial District — Chief Judge
- Jeffrey R. Pilkington
1st Judicial District — District Court Judges (Gilpin County)
- Tamara S. Russell
- Lindsay VanGilder
- Todd L. Vriesman
- Christopher Zenisek
- 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
- County publishes a Detentions PREA Information page describing PREA policy, zero-tolerance standard, and a reporting process/form, but this is a policy page, not a published PREA audit result — recorded as 'no' for the prea check.
- Jail-bonds page publishes bond fees ($10 filing fee, $30 booking fee) but phone/video/commissary pages only link out to vendor (Cidnet, JailATM) FAQ pages without stating specific rates on the county's own site.
- Roster is available via a linked third-party inmate-lookup tool (Zuercher portal) referenced directly from the county's own Detentions page.
- Three-member Board of County Commissioners: Jeff Aiken, Susan Berumen (Chair), Sandy Hollingsworth. No dedicated jail tax was found published.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Gilpin 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