The Detention Center
None — no county jail
- Operated byLa Plata County (contracted jail services)
- County statement"San Juan County does not have a jail, but contracts with La Plata County for jail services."
- Smallest county in ColoradoSilverton is the only incorporated municipality in the county
- What was triedhttps://sanjuancounty.colorado.gov/sheriff and https://sanjuancounty.colorado.gov/county-government — no detention facility listed anywhere on the county site
Source: San Juan County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-24
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 Steve Lowrance
- Runs the jailNo — San Juan County operates no jail
- Where prisoners goThe county's own sheriff page states the county contracts with La Plata County for jail services
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: San Juan 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.
6th Judicial District Court — Chief Judge
- Kim S. Shropshire (also Water Judge)
6th Judicial District Court — District Judges
- A. Nathaniel Baca
- Justin Fay
- Reid Stewart
San Juan County Court
- Kelly Tompkins
- 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
- San Juan County has no jail of its own. The county's sheriff page states plainly that it contracts with La Plata County for jail services. That is the finding, not a gap.
- The budget check is marked yes on the strength of the county's own transparency page, which publishes annual county budget documents (2017-2025). No separate corrections or detention budget line was located, which is consistent with the county holding no prisoners of its own.
- The county does publish a County Contracts page at https://sanjuancounty.colorado.gov/county-contracts-0, but no jail-services contract with rates was found there, so contracts is recorded no.
- No inmate roster, capacity figure, PREA audit, inspection result, bond guidance or inmate fee schedule is published on the county's own domain.
- The state Jail Data Dashboard at https://ors.colorado.gov/ors-jaildata is a state publication under CRS 17-26-118 and does not count as the county publishing.
- Board of County Commissioners: Austin Lashley (Chair, District 1), Scott Fetchenhier (District 2), Pete Maisel (District 3). Meets the second Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. and fourth Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the County Courthouse, 1557 Greene Street, Silverton. No dedicated jail tax found.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in San Juan 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