The Detention Center
Morgan County Sheriff's Office Detention Division
- Operated byMorgan County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address801 E. Beaver Ave., Fort Morgan, CO 80701
- BedsNot found on the county's own site
- Commissary depositsRouted to smartdeposit.com; no rates published
- Inmate phone systemRouted to homewav.com; no rates published
- Bond paymentOnline through https://www.bail.cash/morganco, plus a published Legal Rights Related to Posting Money Bond document and the sheriff's bond policy manual excerpt
Source: Morgan County Sheriff's Office — Detention Division · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗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 — the 2026 budget book's table of contents lists a Jail Capital Improvement Fund, but no construction figures were located
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Dave Martin
- Runs the jailYes — the Morgan County Sheriff's Office Detention Division operates the county jail at 801 E. Beaver Ave., Fort Morgan
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff
- Sheriff's Office staffing in the budgetThe 2026 budget book lists the Sheriff department with 58 full-time employees
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Morgan 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.
13th Judicial District Court — Chief Judge
- Carl S. McGuire III
13th Judicial District Court — District Judges
- Matthew W. E. Bradley
- Dina M. Christiansen
- Stevie M. G. Gagliano
- Robert C. James
- Kimbra L. Killin
Morgan County Court — County Court Judge
- Milla Lishchuk
- 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
- Roster check: the Detention Division page offers no county-run inmate list; it points the public to VINELink at https://vinelink.vineapps.com/search/CO/Person, a third-party statewide notification service, so this is not the county publishing a roster.
- Budget check: the county publishes full budget books. The 2025 budget book shows a Jail Detention line of $2,729,144 (2023), $3,418,425 (2024) and $3,542,134 (2025 approved). The 2026 budget book front section lists a Jail Capital Improvement Fund in its contents.
- Fees check: commissary deposits are routed to smartdeposit.com and inmate phone accounts to homewav.com, but no phone, video visit or commissary rates are published on the county's own site.
- Bond check: the Detention Division page explains bond posting, links an online bond payment portal, and publishes a Legal Rights Related to Posting Money Bond document at https://morgancounty.colorado.gov/sites/morgancounty/files/documents/Legal-Rights-Related-to-Posting-Money-Bond_3.pdf and a bond policy manual excerpt at https://morgancounty.colorado.gov/sites/morgancounty/files/documents/MCSO-Manual-Reference-Bond.pdf.
- 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.
- Capacity, PREA, independent inspections and prisoner-boarding contracts: nothing found on the county's own site. The Sheriff's Office About page was opened and carries only vision, mission and contact material.
- Board of County Commissioners — three members by district. Current members: Kelvin Bernhardt (District 1), Jon Becker (District 2), Tim Malone (District 3). The county also has a Home Rule Charter Commission page at https://morgancounty.colorado.gov/morgan-county-home-rule-charter-commission.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Morgan 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