The Detention Center
Not found — the county operates a detention facility but does not publish a name for it
- Operated byHuerfano County Sheriff's Office
- Sheriff's Office address500 South Albert Street, Walsenburg, CO 81089
- Evidence the county holds prisonersA published Sheriff's Office job posting states detention officers 'work closely with the detention office staff; Sheriff's staff; Emergency Service staff; inmates and the public'
- What was triedhttps://huerfano.us/, https://huerfano.us/sheriff/, https://huerfano.us/public-safety/ and https://huerfano.us/sheriff/current-sheriff-job-openings/ were all checked; the county site has no jail, detention, inmate, roster, bond or fee page
Source: Huerfano County — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
0/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✗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 Bruce Newman
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office states its mission includes correctional and court security services, and publishes a separate Jail phone line
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff
- Office address500 South Albert Street, Walsenburg, CO 81089
- Jail phone line published(719) 738-1740
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Huerfano County — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Colorado judges are appointed by the Governor from a list submitted by a judicial nominating commission and then face retention elections. District and county court judges are state judicial officers, not county officials. The county court judge normally sets bond at first appearance.
3rd Judicial District — District Court Chief Judge
- John "Clay" McKisson
3rd Judicial District — District Court Judge
- Pierce L. Fowler
Huerfano County Court Judges
- Dawn Mann
- John Mochel
- 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
- Huerfano County plainly holds prisoners — the Sheriff's Office publishes a Jail phone line and advertises detention officer positions — but it publishes no page naming or describing the facility, so named is recorded as no.
- budget: the county publishes budgets and audits at https://huerfano.us/board-of-county-commissioners/budgets-and-audits/, but the documents are hosted on Google Drive and could not be opened, so no corrections or detention appropriation was verified. Recorded as no rather than assumed.
- The Sheriff's Office records-request form (https://huerfano.us/wp-content/uploads/REQUEST_FOR_RELEASE_OF_RECORDS_INFORMATION.pdf) also carries Bruce Newman's name as Sheriff, confirming the officeholder from a second county page.
- Board of County Commissioners — Mitchell Wardell (District 1), Jim Chamberlain (District 2), Karl Sporleder (District 3). Offices at 401 Main Street, Walsenburg. The Board adopts a budget by December 15 for the following fiscal year. No dedicated jail or detention sales-tax levy was found.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Huerfano 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