The Detention Center
Latah County Jail
- Operated byLatah County Sheriff's Office
- LocationBasement of the Latah County Courthouse; entrance on Sixth Street, Moscow
- Year built1972
- Max holding capacity38 individuals (adult male and female)
- Staffing1 Captain, 2 Sergeants, 2 Corporals, 1 Bailiff, 7 Deputies across 2 shifts
- Who it holds forIdaho State Police, Moscow Police Department, U.S. Marshals Service, Bureau of Prisons, Idaho Department of Corrections, other counties, and its own agency
Source: Latah County Sheriff's Office — Detention · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓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
- ✓Phone, video and commissary rates
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1972
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds38 (max holding capacity)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Richard Skiles
- Runs the jailYes — the Latah County Sheriff's Office runs the Latah County Jail (Idaho Code Title 20, Chapter 6)
- How the office is filledElected
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Latah County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Idaho has a District Court for the judicial district and a Magistrate Court. District judges are elected in district-wide nonpartisan elections; Magistrate judges are appointed by a district magistrates commission and then face a retention election. Both are state judicial officers, not county officials. Latah County's own page says it is one of five counties in Idaho's Second Judicial District and names one resident District Judge and one resident Magistrate, but does not publish their names; courts.idaho.gov blocked automated access so names could not be confirmed there.
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
- Commissioners identified from the county's Commissioners page: Tom Lamar (Chair, District II), Tony Johnson (District I), Jason Stooks (District III) — https://www.latah.id.us/commissioners/.
- The Latah County Sheriff's Office site publishes a 2018 PREA audit report (opened and confirmed as a genuine 120-page PDF) and an inmate telephone-services sheet that discloses a $1.25 voicemail rate.
- The site's own 'Jail Roster' link (on the Sheriff's Office page) points to https://www.co.nezperce.id.us/Portals/0/Sheriff/InCustody/In%20Custody.pdf — Nez Perce County's roster, not Latah's own. This appears to be a template/copy error rather than Latah publishing its own roster, so 'roster' is recorded as no.
- The Jail Inspections page describes being inspected by the Fire Marshal, Health Department, U.S. Marshals/Bureau of Prisons, and the Idaho Sheriffs' Association, but publishes no actual inspection results or reports.
- Board of County Commissioners (three-member, elected by district)
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Latah 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