The Detention Center
None — Rock County operates no jail
- Operated byN/A
- Where prisoners go"Rock County contracts with the Nobles County Sheriff's Office for Jail services" — per Rock County's own Sheriff's Office page. Nobles County (seat Worland/Worthington) operates the receiving jail.
- What was triedFetched Rock County's Sheriff Office, County Board, Auditor-Treasurer and General Information pages on co.rock.mn.us; none names a Rock County jail, consistent with the county running none
Source: Rock 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 Matthew Sorenson
- Runs the jailNo — Rock County has no jail of its own; the elected sheriff still holds custody authority over anyone arrested in the county until transported
- 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: Rock 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 — District Court
- Chief judge not named on the district's public page
- 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
- Rock County runs no jail; this is a finding, not a gap. All ten checks are 'no' because there is no county-operated facility for the county to publish jail data about. The county's own site does disclose, in general terms, that people arrested in Rock County are held under a contract with the Nobles County Sheriff's Office, but does not publish a per-diem rate for that arrangement, so the 'contracts' check (which asks about a county holding OTHER agencies' prisoners, not paying another county to hold its own) is marked 'no' rather than forced to fit.
- No DOC inspection report for a 'Rock County Jail' was found in the state's inspection-report archive (searched via mn.gov-scoped WebSearch), consistent with the county operating no facility of its own to inspect.
- Board of County Commissioners governs the county under Minn. Stat. 641.01. Because Rock County boards prisoners out to Nobles County rather than running a facility, there is no local jail budget line to disclose.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Rock 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