The Detention Center
Not found — no jail is named on the county's public pages
- Operated byNot found
- Where prisoners goThe county pays to house prisoners elsewhere — the 2026 adopted budget line 253-7255 'COUNTY JAIL PRISONER HOUSE' is budgeted at $30,000 for 2026 — but the receiving facility is not named on the county site
- County Jail department total, 2026$37,000, entirely contractual/professional services: $6,000 professional services, $30,000 prisoner housing, $1,000 prisoner support; no personnel line
- What was triedhttps://www.ouraycountyco.gov/507/Jail-Information is listed in the county site map but redirects to a CivicPlus website sign-in and could not be opened publicly; https://www.ouraycountyco.gov/152/Sheriff; https://www.ouraycountyco.gov/442/Sheriffs-Office-Annual-Report (the 2024 annual report PDF at /DocumentCenter/View/22199 opened but its text is not machine-readable); https://www.ouraycountyco.gov/DocumentCenter/View/22737/Ouray-County-Sheriff-Office-Fee-Sheet (records fees only)
Source: Ouray County 2026 Adopted Budget · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✗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 — 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 Justin Perry
- Runs the jailNo staffed county jail found — the county's own 2026 adopted budget carries a County Jail department whose entire cost is contractual prisoner housing, with no detention personnel
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff
- UndersheriffTammy Stroup
- Sheriff's office address421 6th Avenue, P.O. Box 585, Ouray, CO 81427
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Ouray 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. County court judges typically set bond at first appearance. The 7th Judicial District covers Delta, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Montrose, Ouray and San Miguel counties.
7th Judicial District Court — Chief Judge
- D. Cory Jackson (Division 4)
7th Judicial District Court — District Judges
- Laura E. H. Harvell (Division 5)
- Matthew G. Margeson (Division 6)
- Steven L. Schultz (Division 1, also Water Judge)
- Kellie Starritt (Division 2)
- Keri A. Yoder (Division 3)
Ouray County Court — County Court Judge
- Lane P. Thomasson (Division F)
- 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
- Ouray is one of the smallest Colorado counties and does not appear to hold prisoners itself. Its 2026 adopted budget (https://www.ouraycountyco.gov/DocumentCenter/View/22462/2026-OURAY-COUNTY-ADOPTED-BUDGET) carries department 253 COUNTY JAIL with a 2026 total of $37,000, all of it contractual — $30,000 for 'COUNTY JAIL PRISONER HOUSE', $6,000 professional services and $1,000 prisoner support — and no detention salaries at all.
- The county does not publish which facility houses its prisoners. That is the finding: the arrangement is visible only as a budget line, and no partner county or facility is named anywhere on ouraycountyco.gov.
- 'named' is 'no' because the site map lists a Jail Information page at /507/Jail-Information but that page redirects to a CivicPlus account sign-in and is not publicly readable, and no other public page names a jail.
- The Sheriff's Office Fee Schedule (https://www.ouraycountyco.gov/DocumentCenter/View/22737/Ouray-County-Sheriff-Office-Fee-Sheet) covers records-request fees only — no jail phone, video visit or commissary rates — so the fees check is 'no'.
- No inmate roster, bond guidance, PREA audit, inspection result or death-in-custody report was found on the county site.
- Colorado's statewide Jail Data Dashboard (https://ors.colorado.gov/ors-jaildata) collects quarterly population and death data under CRS 17-26-118, but that is state publishing and does not satisfy the county-site checks.
- Board of County Commissioners — District 1 Lynn Padgett, District 2 Michelle Nauer (Vice-Chair), District 3 Jake Niece (Chair). Ouray County Courthouse, 541 4th Street, P.O. Box C, Ouray, CO 81427. No dedicated jail or detention sales-tax levy was found; the County Jail department is funded from the General Fund.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Ouray 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