The Detention Center
Nobles County Jail
- Operated byNobles County Sheriff's Office
- Address1530 Airport Road, Suite 100, Worthington, MN 56187
- RosterA live inmate listing with mugshots, names, booking dates and detailed charges (updated 9/17/2026 9:20 PM at the time it was checked) is published at ftp.co.nobles.mn.us, linked from the Sheriff's Office inmate-listing page
- Budget lead not confirmedThe county's own inmate-listing page references a general county transparency portal at noblescountymn.opengov.com/transparency; that domain could not be opened with WebFetch in this session (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED), so no specific corrections/detention budget figure was confirmed
- Capacity, deaths, PREA, inspections, contracts, bond/bail guidance, fee ratesNot found on the pages actually opened
- Also sourced toNobles County Jail — live inmate listing — https://ftp.co.nobles.mn.us/jail/Inmate_listing/inmate_listing.html
Source: Nobles County Sheriff's Office · 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
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Ryan Kruger
- SourceNamed in the Nobles County Sheriff's Office's own 2023 Data Practices Guidelines document, opened directly
- Runs the jailYes — "Responsible for administration and operation of the county jail" per the county's own Sheriff's Office page
- 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: Nobles County Sheriff's Office — Data Practices Guidelines (2023) · 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 — Nobles 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
- Nobles County's own Sheriff's Office page names its jail and links a detailed, actively updated public roster — the strongest disclosure of the two smaller counties opened successfully in this group. Capacity, budget, deaths, PREA, inspection results, contracts and specific fee rates were not found on the pages opened; a county transparency/budget portal (noblescountymn.opengov.com) is referenced but could not itself be opened in this session.
- Not found on an opened page — Minnesota counties are generally governed by an elected Board of County Commissioners; a Nobles County Commission agenda PDF was seen in search results (wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Agenda.pdf) but was not opened.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Nobles 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