Mesa County, Colorado — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Mesa County Detention Facility

Operated byMesa County Sheriff's Office
Jail address215 Rice Street, Grand Junction, CO 81501
Beds553 beds, plus temporary bed space and the booking area
Original design capacity392 inmates
Operational targetUnder 442 inmates, or under 80% of housing capacity
Inmate lookuphttps://inmateinfo.mesacounty.us/

Source: Mesa County Sheriff's Office — Detentions Division · checked 2026-08-24

Transparency rating

6/10Partial

✓The jail is named
✓Who is in custody
✓Beds and daily population
✓What it costs taxpayers
✗Deaths in custody — not published
✓PREA audits
✗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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Mesa County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-24. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year builtCompleted June 1992
Original costEstimated $8 million
Paid for byNot found — the county's facility history page does not state the funding source
Beds553 (originally 192)

Since then

1996 — two 8,000-square-foot pods added, $3.4 million, 56 new beds each, bringing the total to 336 beds
2007–2008 — 54 beds added to the two newest housing units
August 2016 — gymnasium remodelled into the dormitory-style Maple unit, 48 beds added, capacity to 438
2017–2018 — bunks added to cells to increase bed space

The Sheriff

Sheriff Todd Rowell

Runs the jailYes — the Mesa County Sheriff's Office operates the Mesa County Detention Facility
How the office is filledElected county sheriff
Detentions Division commanderCaptain Jeff Byrne

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Mesa 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. In Colorado the County Court judge normally sets bond at first appearance.

21st Judicial District Court — Chief Judge

Brian J. Flynn (Division 11)

21st Judicial District Court — District Judges

Matthew D. Barrett (Division 9)
Jeremy L. Chaffin (Division 5)
Craig P. Henderson (Division 12)
Gretchen B. Larson (Division 8)
JenniLynn E. Lawrence (Division 10)

Mesa County Court — County Court Judges

Scott J. Burrill (Division 15)
Courtney L. Dinnel (Division 1)
Michael J. Grattan (Division 14)
Bruce R. Raaum (Division 2)

Still needed

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

Capacity check: the county's own Inmate Population page publishes 553 beds and the original 392-inmate design capacity, but does not publish a current or average daily population figure.
PREA check: the county publishes a 2024 and 2025 PREA Annual Report on its own site with allegation counts. That report states the facility has had four federal PREA audits (2016, 2019, 2022 and 2025); the audit reports themselves were not located on the county site.
Fees check: the visitation page states one free video visit per inmate per week and that a fee may apply for additional visits, and names ICS Solutions as the phone vendor, but publishes no phone, video or commissary rates. The inmate information page states a $100 per week commissary spending limit but no item prices.
Deaths check: no death-in-custody reporting was found on the county's own site. Colorado counties report jail deaths quarterly to the state Division of Criminal Justice under CRS 17-26-118 (HB19-1297), published on the state Jail Data Dashboard at https://ors.colorado.gov/ors-jaildata — that is the state publishing, not the county.
Contracts check: no intergovernmental agreements or per-diem rates for holding other agencies' prisoners were found on the county site.
Board of County Commissioners — three commissioners, each representing a district but elected countywide, serving four-year terms. Current members: Bobbie Daniel, Cody Davis, JJ Fletcher.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Mesa 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