The Detention Center
Blaine County Detention Center
- Operated byBlaine County Sheriff's Office
- Address1650 Aviation Drive, Hailey, ID 83333
- Size / capacity36,000 sq. ft. facility with 90 total inmate beds: 66 general-population beds across 4 pods (minimum/medium/maximum), 20 work-release beds, and 4 segregated juvenile holding beds
- Who is heldCounty site states the facility holds arrestees, pretrial detainees, sentenced offenders, juveniles up to 48 hours, inmates awaiting IDOC transfer, and inmates from other jurisdictions that require housing
- Housing fees$25/day for Blaine County inmates (per Idaho state law) and $35/day for out-of-county inmates, plus in-custody medical expenses
Source: Blaine County, ID — Detention Center · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
7/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓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
- ✓How to post bond
- ✓Phone, video and commissary rates
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byCounty (Blaine County Sheriff's Office)
- Beds90 (66 general population + 20 work release + 4 juvenile holding); 36,000 sq. ft. facility
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Morgan Ballis
- Runs the jailYes — the Blaine County Sheriff's Office operates the Blaine County Detention Center
- How the office is filledElected; Idaho Code Title 20 Ch. 6 makes the sheriff jailer
- Office/jail location1650 Aviation Drive, Hailey, ID 83333
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Blaine County, ID — Official Website (elected officials list) · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Idaho's District Court serves the judicial district (Blaine is in the Fifth Judicial District, with Camas, Cassia, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, Minidoka, and Twin Falls counties) and Magistrate Court judges are appointed by a district magistrates commission and then face retention election. Both are state judicial officers, not county officials.
Fifth Judicial District Court — Administrative District Judge
- Hon. Eric J. Wildman
- 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
- The Detention Center page describes the facility's IPREA (Idaho Prison Rape Elimination Act) reporting policy in detail, but does not publish actual PREA audit results, so 'prea' is marked no.
- The $35/day out-of-county inmate housing fee published on the Fees & Bonding page is the clearest published rate for holding other agencies' prisoners found for this group; it does not name specific partner agencies.
- Idaho has no confirmed statutory adult jail inspection agency; the Idaho Sheriffs' Association runs a voluntary jail standards/inspection program whose reports are not public.
- Blaine County Commissioners — three members: Muffy Davis, Angenie McCleary, Lindsay Mollineaux
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Blaine 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