The Detention Center
Phillips County Jail
- Operated byPhillips County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address221 S. Interocean Avenue, Holyoke, Colorado 80734
- FunctionShort-term housing during court appearances and primary processing center for new arrestees
- Longer-term housingContracted to Logan County Sheriff's Office (Logan County Detention Center, Sterling)
- VisitationCounty states no visitation is offered at the Phillips County Jail
- Jail phone(970) 854-3644
- Beds / capacityNot published on the county site
Source: Phillips County — Jail Information · 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
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff David Romero
- Runs the jailYes — the Phillips County Sheriff's Office operates the Phillips County Jail as a short-term/processing facility
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff
- Where longer-term prisoners goHoused under contract with the Logan County Sheriff's Office, Logan County Detention Center, Sterling
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Phillips 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.
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
Phillips County Court — County Court Judge
- Kimberlee Keleher
- 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
- Phillips County does name and address its jail on its own site, but uses it only for short-term holding and booking; inmates needing longer detention are transferred to the Logan County Detention Center in Sterling under contract with the Logan County Sheriff's Office.
- The contracts check is 'no' because the published material describes Phillips County paying to place its own prisoners elsewhere, not holding other agencies' prisoners, and no rate is published.
- Budget check is 'yes': the county's own Annual Budgets page publishes the full budget, and the 2026 budget PDF (https://phillipscounty.colorado.gov/sites/g/files/lrnvjt1351/files/2026%20Phillips%20County%20Budget.pdf) shows General Fund lines SHERIFF $413,207 and JAIL $93,320.
- No inmate roster, capacity figure, death-in-custody report, PREA audit, inspection result or phone/commissary rate schedule was found anywhere on phillipscounty.colorado.gov.
- 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 — three members, each representing a district but elected at large. District 1 Terry L. Hofmeister, District 2 Garold Roberts, District 3 Tom Timm (chair for 2025). The 2026 county budget carries a separate JAIL line of $93,320 and a SHERIFF line of $413,207 in the General Fund.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Phillips 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