The Detention Center
Kandiyohi County Jail
- Operated byKandiyohi County Sheriff's Office
- Approved capacity190 beds, Secure Coed (MN DOC inspection report)
- Population on inspection dayNot found in the 2024 DOC report
- Public rosterA live "In Custody" roster (name, MNI number, booking details, charges, bail/bond status) was viewed on the sheriff's own site, dated September 17, 2026, listing roughly 50+ people in custody
Source: Kandiyohi County Jail custody roster · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗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
- Beds190 approved (MN DOC inspection report, 2024)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Eric Tollefson
- Runs the jailYes — the elected sheriff, statewide pattern under Minn. Stat. 387.11 and 641.14
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term (Minn. Stat. 382.01), statewide pattern
- Source of nameConfirmed on the county's own site and consistent with the MN DOC's 2024 inspection report
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Kandiyohi County — Officials page · 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.
Eighth Judicial District — District 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 2026-09-18
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 →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- The roster shows bond amounts set per individual case, which is case data, not general public guidance on how to post bail — so 'bond_info' is scored no.
- A dedicated 'jail' department page at kcmn.us (departments/sheriff/departments/jail/) returned a 404 error when fetched; the working, first-party source for naming and the roster was the custody-roster page itself.
- County Board of Commissioners exists with its own meeting portal; individual member names were not confirmed within this research's page views.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Kandiyohi 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