The Detention Center
Clearwater County Jail
- Operated byClearwater County Sheriff's Office
- Address150 Michigan Ave, Orofino, ID 83544 (second floor of the Clearwater County Courthouse)
- Beds31 (per Idaho Sheriffs' Association jail directory; not stated on the county's own site)
- Payment feeCredit/debit card payments carry a 3% + $1 processing fee, per the jail page
- Visitation changeSite states in-person visits are being discontinued and moving to electronic video visitation effective August 30, 2026
Source: Clearwater County Sheriff — Jail · 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 — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds31 (Idaho Sheriffs' Association directory, not confirmed on county's own site)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Chris Goetz
- Runs the jailYes — the Clearwater County Sheriff's Office operates the Clearwater County Jail
- How the office is filledElected; Idaho Code Title 20 Chapter 6 places the sheriff in charge of the county jail
- NoteThe county's own Sheriff department page displayed the placeholder name 'John Smith' rather than a real name on two separate visits, so the name here is sourced from the Idaho Sheriffs' Association instead
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Idaho Sheriffs' Association — Meet Idaho's Sheriffs · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Idaho District Court judges and Magistrate judges are state judicial officers, not county officials. Magistrate judges are appointed by a district magistrates commission and then face a retention election. No court page or judicial district number for Clearwater County was located on the county's own site during this research.
District Court
- Not found
Magistrate Court
- 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 2026-08-24
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 jail page links to 'PREA Info / Audit Reports,' counted here as PREA results published; the underlying report content was not independently opened.
- Board of County Commissioners, three members (Vince Frazier, Chairman; Ken Harvey; Mitch Reggear); meets Mondays 8:00 AM–5 PM.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Clearwater 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