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

The Detention Center

Otero County Detention Center

Operated byOtero County Sheriff's Office
BedsUp to 60 detainees, per the county's 2026 adopted budget message describing 'the new detention center'
Jail addressNot found on the county's own site
VisitationAll visitation is by video visitation, scheduled through the Cidnet system
Commissary providerSterling Commissary; deposits through jailatm.com

Source: Otero County Jail page · checked 2026-08-24

Transparency rating

3/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✗Who is in custody — not published
✓Beds and daily population
✓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 — not published
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Otero 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 builtNot found — the county's 2026 adopted budget refers to 'the new detention center' but gives no completion date
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
BedsUp to 60 detainees

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Shawn Mobley

Runs the jailYes — the county's own page states that Sheriff Shawn Mobley oversees the day-to-day operations of the jail, patrol, transports, court security, civil process and administrative process
How the office is filledElected county sheriff; the county page records him as first elected in November 2014, with the current term expiring January 2027
UndersheriffEnrique 'Rick' Guzman
Sheriff's Office address220 E 2nd St., La Junta, CO 81050

Still needed

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

Source: Otero County Sheriff · 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.

16th Judicial District Court — Chief Judge

Samuel S. Vigil

16th Judicial District Court — District Judge

Deni E. Eiring

Otero County Court — County Court Judge

William J. Culver

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 only bed figure published by the county is in the 2026 adopted budget message, which describes the new detention center as accommodating up to 60 detainees. No daily population figure is published.
Budget check: the county's Financials page publishes adopted budgets for 2024, 2025 and 2026 and audited financial statements for 2023, 2024 and 2025. The 2026 adopted budget shows a separate Detention Center Fund #50 appropriation of $949,375 and General Fund Public Safety of $3,214,434 covering sheriff operations, jail, transport and other law enforcement.
Contracts check: the 2026 budget shows a 'JBBS OBH REIMBURSEMENT' revenue line of $125,000 for 2026, up from $72,000 in 2025, but the document does not identify the paying agency and it is not presented as a prisoner-boarding contract. No intergovernmental prisoner-housing agreement or per-diem rate was found on the county's own site, so this check is recorded as no.
Fees check: the jail page names Cidnet for phone and video visitation and Sterling Commissary for commissary, and states all visitation is now by video, but publishes no phone, video visit or commissary rates.
Bond check: no bond or bail posting guidance was found. The pages opened were https://oterocounty.colorado.gov/sheriff, https://oterocounty.colorado.gov/about-the-sheriffs-department and https://oterocounty.colorado.gov/otero-county-jail.
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.
Roster, PREA and independent inspections: nothing found on the county's own site.
Board of County Commissioners — three members by district. Current members: Rob Oquist (District 1, term to January 2029), Tim Knabenshue (District 2, term to January 2027), Jim Baldwin (District 3, term to January 2029). Meetings are held the 2nd and 4th Mondays of each month at 1:30 pm at the courthouse in La Junta.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Otero 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