The Detention Center
Renville County Jail
- Operated byRenville County Sheriff's Office
- Address104 4th Street S., Olivia, MN 56277
- Opened / capacityOpened in 2008; "a 72-bed facility" — published on the county's own site
- Fees publishedBooking fee $25.00; nurse call $5.00/visit; iPod communication $4.00/month (attorney calls free); text messages $0.09 each; canteen copies $0.25 b/w, $0.50 color; Huber/work-release $27.50/day; private-pay boarder (out-of-county sentenced inmates) $60.00/day
- PREAPREA complaint counts published by year, 2017–2025; PREA audit reports listed for 2016, 2019 and 2022
- Programming contracts namedNew Beginnings Treatment Center (chemical dependency programming); Southwest Adult Basic Education (GED instruction)
Source: Renville County Sheriff — Jail Division · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
6/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✓Who else it holds, and for how much
- ✗How to post bond — not published
- ✓Phone, video and commissary rates
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built2008
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds72
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Scott D. Hable
- Runs the jailYes — elected sheriff, Minn. Stat. 387.11 and 641.14
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term (Minn. Stat. 382.01)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Renville County — Inmate Handbook (signed by Sheriff) · 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
- Chief judge not named on the district's public page; District Administrator Debra Mueske, Deputy District Administrator Joanne Reinert
- 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
- Inspections judged 'no' because the PREA audits (counted under the separate prea check) are the only independent review found on the county's own site; no separate jail-standards inspection result is posted there (the state DOC report is not county publishing).
- Contracts judged 'yes' on the published $60.00/day private-pay boarder rate for out-of-county sentenced inmates, which is a rate for holding other agencies'/jurisdictions' inmates.
- Board of County Commissioners governs the county under Minn. Stat. 641.01; day-to-day jail charge belongs to the elected sheriff.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Renville 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