The Detention Center
Jefferson County Correctional Facility
- Operated byJefferson County Sheriff's Office
- Detention commandSheri Miller — Jail Administrator
- Jail address1200 W. Grimes Ave, Fairfield, Iowa 52556
- Beds32-bed facility, as published by the county
- Jail phone(641) 472-3967
- Housing fee$35.00 per sentenced day
- Work release fee$10.00 per work day
- Convenience fee$10.00 per 24-hour period
- Out-of-county inmates$65.00 (rate published by the county on its jail page)
- VisitationMonday-Friday, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., 30 minutes per week
- Commissary24/7 kiosk in the jail lobby
Source: Jefferson County Sheriff - Jail Information · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗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
- Beds32 (published by the county as a '32-bed facility')
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Bart Richmond
- Runs the jailYes - Iowa Code 356.2 gives the sheriff charge and custody of the prisoners in the county jail
- How the office is filledElected county office, four-year term (Iowa Code 331.651)
- Sheriff's Office phone(641) 472-3576
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Jefferson County Sheriff - Jail Information · checked 2026-09-18
The Judges
Iowa district judges are merit-selected: a district judicial nominating commission (Iowa Code ch. 46) sends the governor two nominees, the governor appoints one, and the judge then faces a yes/no retention election and six-year terms. There are no contested judicial elections. Bail at first appearance is set by a magistrate under Iowa Code 804.22, and Iowa magistrates are appointed, not elected - Iowa Code 602.6501 puts a magistrate appointing commission in each county (one district judge, three members appointed by the county board of supervisors, and two attorneys elected by the county's attorneys), and Iowa Code 602.6403 has that commission appoint the county's magistrates to four-year terms. The three supervisor appointees are the only voter-accountable link in how the official who sets bail got the job. Judges are state judicial officers, not county officials.
Iowa District Court
- Not found
Magistrate (sets bail at first appearance under Iowa Code 804.22)
- Not found
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-18
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 →
Notes on the record
- The county publishes the bed count (32) but no daily population figure, so the capacity check is recorded 'no' - it asks for beds and daily population.
- The county publishes an inmate fee schedule ($35.00 per sentenced day, $10.00 per work day for work release, a $10.00 convenience fee per 24-hour period) but no phone, video-visit or commissary rates, so the fees check is recorded 'no'. Reliance Telephone is the phone vendor.
- The jail page publishes a $65.00 rate for out-of-county inmates, but no boarding contract or agreement with another agency was found, so the contracts check is recorded 'no'.
- A minutes page exists at https://jeffersoncounty.iowa.gov/supervisors/minutes/ per the supervisors page; it was not opened, so it is not cited.
- Iowa inspects every jail at least annually - the chief jail inspector 'shall visit and inspect each jail within this state at least annually' under Iowa Admin. Code 201-50.3, and Iowa Code 356.43 requires periodic inspections - but Iowa Code 356.43(4) sends the report only to the Iowa Department of Corrections director, the sheriff, the local governing body and the county attorney. Nothing requires anyone to post it, the state does not publish it, and this county does not publish it either. The inspection is therefore happening; the disclosure is not.
- Iowa publishes no statewide dataset of deaths in county jail custody. Two duties exist and neither produces a public number: Iowa Admin. Code 201-50.22(14) requires the state jail inspection unit to be notified within 24 hours of any death, attempted suicide, fire, escape, injury to staff or prisoners from assaults, or use of force and prisoner self-injuries; and Iowa Code 127.3(1) requires an autopsy for a death in a jail or under police custody where no natural disease process accounts for it. The deaths check passes only if this county itself publishes a death in its custody on its own site, and it does not.
- Open records run under Iowa Code chapter 22; the right is at 22.2, 'Every person shall have the right to examine and copy a public record.' There is no blanket response deadline - the only clock is 22.8(4), which caps a delay taken to screen a record for confidentiality at twenty calendar days and says it 'ordinarily should not exceed ten business days.'
- The jail is a county facility funded through county revenues; it is not federally funded.
- Three-member Board of Supervisors serving staggered four-year terms, meeting at 8:30 a.m. on most Mondays on the first floor of the County Courthouse, 51 E Briggs Ave., Fairfield. As published on the county's supervisors page: Lee Dimmitt (Republican, term expires 2026), Susie Drish (Democratic, term listed as expiring 2024) and Joe Ledger (Republican, term expires 2029). The 2024 term date shown for one seat suggests the page is not fully current; the names are recorded exactly as the county publishes them.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Jefferson 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 2026-09-18 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered