The Detention Center
None operating — Murray County contracts with Lyon County
- Operated byLyon County (housing arrangement)
- County's own statement"Murray County partners with Lyon County to house inmates" — stated directly on the Murray County Sheriff's Office page, which also provides a link to "see the current inmate roster" (the roster itself is Lyon County's system; the exact linked URL was not captured)
- MN DOC historyThe DOC's Adult Facilities Inspection Reports index lists a "Murray County Jail" with reports dated 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2019 — indicating Murray County did operate its own licensed jail at least through 2023. None of those PDFs could be opened in this session (refused with a provenance error on the attempts made). Whether/when the county's own jail formally closed was NOT established from a source opened here; the live county site (fetched 2026) describes the Lyon County arrangement as the county's current practice.
- What was triedWebSearch (allowed_domains=mn.gov, combined query covering Nicollet/Nobles/Murray/Norman/Otter Tail) did not surface a Murray-specific DOC PDF as a discrete result; a direct WebFetch of the Murray County Jail 2023 report URL located on the DOC index page (https://mn.gov/doc/assets/Murray%20County%20Jail%202023_tcm1089-598694.pdf) was refused with PROVENANCE_REQUIRED and not retried further given the search budget
- Also sourced toMN DOC Adult Facilities Inspection Reports (index listing for Murray County Jail, 2023/2022/2021/2019, PDFs not opened) — https://mn.gov/doc/about/office-inspector-general/inspection-enforcement-licensing/adult-facilities/adult-facilities-inspection-reports/adultreports.jsp
Source: Murray County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-18
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Heath Landsman
- Runs the jailMurray County does not currently operate its own jail — see jail.facts. The sheriff remains the county's chief law-enforcement officer under Minn. Stat. 387.11/641.14 (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: Murray County Sheriff's Office · 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.
Fifth Judicial District — Murray County 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
Notes on the record
- Murray County is not treated as a county 'with no jail to begin with' — the MN DOC's own inspection archive shows a licensed Murray County Jail as recently as 2023 — but its own current site states it now houses inmates in Lyon County rather than naming an operating facility of its own, so 'named' is recorded 'no.' 'roster' is recorded 'yes' because the county's own Sheriff's Office page itself provides the access point to see who is in custody, even though the underlying roster data lives on Lyon County's system.
- 'contracts' is recorded 'no' rather than 'yes' because that check as defined asks whether the county publishes contracts to hold OTHER agencies' prisoners with rates; the Murray/Lyon arrangement runs the other direction (Murray sending its own prisoners out), so it does not fit that check even though it is a real, disclosed interlocal arrangement — see jail.facts.
- Not found on an opened page — Minnesota counties are generally governed by an elected Board of County Commissioners; Murray County's board/minutes pages were not reached within this session's budget.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Murray 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