Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Lac qui Parle County Jail

Operated byLac qui Parle County Sheriff's Office
Jail Administrator (title under the sheriff, per DOC report)Brian Benck
Licensed capacity14 beds (secure, coed), per DOC report
Custody rosterLac qui Parle County publishes an 'In Custody' roster (booking #, name, sex, age, intake date, charges, bail/bond) at mail.lqpco.com
Also sourced toMN DOC inspection report (Lac qui Parle County, 06/12/2026) — https://mn.gov/doc/assets/Lac%20Qui%20Parle%206%20month%20Inspection%202026_tcm1089-757623.pdf

Source: Lac qui Parle County custody roster · checked 2026-09-18

Transparency rating

1/10Closed

✗The jail is named — not published
✓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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Lac qui Parle County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-18. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year builtNot found
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds14 (secure, coed), per MN DOC inspection report; not independently published by the county

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Allen Anderson

Runs the jailYes — per Minn. Stat. 387.11/641.14 (MN state layer); also named as sheriff in the MN DOC inspection report
How the office is filledThe county's own site states Anderson was appointed by the county board in 2017, then elected in 2018 and 2022 — consistent with elected sheriffs under Minn. Stat. 382.01

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Lac qui Parle County — Sheriffs 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.

Minnesota District Court (judicial district covering Lac qui Parle County)

Not found

Still needed

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

Lac qui Parle County's main website (lqpco.com) states it is under construction ('the full county website once it is completed'); only the homepage and a custody-roster subpage (mail.lqpco.com/letg/custody.html) were reachable within budget. The homepage names a 'Sheriff's Office/Jail' located in Madison but does not give the facility a formal name, so 'named' is recorded as 'no' rather than stretched from that generic reference.
The custody roster (mail.lqpco.com) is the basis for the one 'yes' check; no other transparency item (capacity, budget, deaths, PREA, inspections, contracts, bond, fees) was found published on the county's own site within budget.
Lac qui Parle County Board of Commissioners — not confirmed; the county's main site (lqpco.com) states it is not yet complete, and no board page was reachable within budget

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Lac qui Parle 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