The Detention Center
Jackson County Jail
- Operated byJackson County Sheriff's Office
- Jail addressJackson County Sheriff's Office, 396 LaFever Street, Walden, CO 80480
- Inmate mailInmate name, P.O. Box 565, Walden, CO 80480
- Contact with inmatesCounty page describes scheduled phone and video calls and personal mail
- BondAn 'Online Bond Pay' link to a remote bail payment portal is published; no bond types, amounts or process are explained
- What was triedhttps://jacksoncounty.colorado.gov/government and https://jacksoncounty.colorado.gov/commissioners were checked for a budget, roster, capacity, PREA or death-in-custody page; none found
Source: Jackson County — Sheriff/Jail · 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 Mark McGarry
- Runs the jailYes — the Jackson County Sheriff's Office operates the Jackson County Jail
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff
- Office address396 LaFever Street, Walden, CO 80480
- Phone970-723-4242
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Jackson County — Sheriff/Jail · 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.
8th Judicial District — District Court Chief Judge
- Gregory M. Lammons
8th Judicial District — District Court Judges
- Gregory M. Lammons
- Joseph D. Findley
Jackson County Court Judge
- Chelsea W. Ryan
- 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
- Jackson County is one of Colorado's smallest counties but does hold its own prisoners — the county names the Jackson County Jail on its Sheriff/Jail page.
- bond_info: the only bail material published is a link to an online bond payment portal. There is no explanation of bond types, amounts or how to post, so this is recorded as no.
- fees: the page says phone and video calls are available but publishes no rates.
- budget: no adopted budget document was found anywhere on jacksoncounty.colorado.gov. The site's footer links to the state's Transparency Online portal at data.colorado.gov, which is the state publishing, not the county.
- Board of County Commissioners — Coby Corkle (District 1, Chairman), David 'Ty' Wattenberg (District 2), Ronald F. Drinkwine (District 3). Board meetings are held the second and fourth Tuesday of each month; agendas are posted as PDFs on the commissioners page. No dedicated jail or detention sales-tax levy was found.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Jackson 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