The Detention Center
Butte County Jail
- Operated byButte County Sheriff's Office
- Mailing addressP.O. Box 130, Arco, ID 83213 (per Idaho Sheriffs' Association directory); the county contacts page lists no separate jail address
- What was triedhttps://buttecountyid.us/, https://buttecountyid.us/officials/, https://buttecountyid.us/departments/, https://buttecountyid.us/butte-county-contacts/, https://www.idahosheriffs.org/jail-services/directory-of-idahos-jails/ — none of the county's own pages checked name or describe the jail
Source: Idaho Sheriffs' Association jail directory · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
0/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✗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
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Dave Hansen
- Runs the jailYes, per the Idaho Sheriffs' Association directory listing a Butte County Jail
- How the office is filledIdaho Sheriffs' Association lists him as appointed 2018
- Office location256 W. Grand Ave., Arco, ID 83213 — (208) 527-8553 ext. 0
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Butte County Idaho — Elected Officials & Department Heads · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Idaho judges are state officers, not county officials. District Court judges serve the judicial district; Magistrate Court judges are appointed by a district magistrates commission and then face retention election. No judge names were found on sources checked for this county.
- 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
- Butte County's own site (buttecountyid.us) does not list a jail/detention department separately from the Sheriff's Office; no jail-specific page was found on the county's own domain in this session.
- Commissioner meetings are held the 2nd and 4th Mondays of each month per the county's own commissioners page.
- District 1: Blake Van Etten; District 2: M.H. "Hootie" Langseth; District 3 (Chair): Brian Harrell
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Butte 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