The Detention Center
Benton County Jail
- Operated byBenton County Sheriff's Office
- Licensed capacity (DOC inspection report)102 beds
- Jail Administrator (title under the sheriff, per DOC report)Sharlene Novak
- What was triedco.benton.mn.us homepage opened but showed only general county news; the Sheriff's Office staff directory (Directory.aspx?DID=11), site map, and several AgendaCenter minutes links returned robots.txt/connection timeout errors on every attempt; jail.co.benton.mn.us redirected off the county's own domain to a third-party vendor, correctionsrecordssearch.com, which was not opened or counted as county publishing
Source: MN DOC inspection report (Benton County, 05/08/2026) · checked 2026-09-18
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
- Beds102 beds per MN DOC inspection report; not confirmed on the county's own site
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Troy Heck
- Runs the jailYes — elected sheriff has charge and custody of the county jail under Minn. Stat. 387.11 and 641.14 (MN state layer)
- How the office is filledElected countywide to a four-year term under Minn. Stat. 382.01 (MN state layer)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: MN DOC inspection report (Benton County, 05/08/2026) · checked 2026-09-18
The Judges
Minnesota district judges are elected on a nonpartisan ballot to six-year terms, but most first reach the bench by gubernatorial appointment to a mid-term vacancy. Bail at first appearance is set by the court under Minn. R. Crim. P. 6.02.
Minnesota District Court (judicial district covering Benton County)
- 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
- Benton County's own site was reachable at its homepage but nearly every specific page attempted (staff directory, site map, jail roster subdomain, commissioners' minutes) either timed out on robots.txt or redirected off the county's own domain to a third-party corrections-records vendor. None of the ten checks could be confirmed 'yes' from a page actually opened on the county's own domain within this budget.
- This is a case of a partially-blocked site rather than a fully unreachable one, so checks are recorded as 'no' rather than left as an empty object.
- Benton County Board of Commissioners
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Benton 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