Roseau County, Minnesota — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Roseau County Detention Center

Operated byRoseau County Sheriff's Office
Address604 5th Ave SW, Roseau, MN 56751
Bail guidance publishedBail may be paid at the Court Administration Office (cash only, Mon–Fri 8:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m.) or at the detention center itself; out-of-county bail must be posted directly at the detention center; bail bond agents also accepted
RosterCounty's detention-center page states an inmate/roster listing is published online at inmates.co.roseau.mn.us
Licensed capacity (state DOC report)52 beds approved capacity, Local Adult Detention Facility class
Contract services named (not rates)Video visitation via inmatecanteen.com; phone service via reliancetelephone.com

Source: Roseau County — Sheriff / Detention Center · checked 2026-09-18

Transparency rating

3/10Closed

✓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
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Roseau 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
Beds52 (per state DOC report, not published by the county itself)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Steve Gust

Runs the jailYes — elected sheriff, Minn. Stat. 387.11 and 641.14
How the office is filledElected, four-year term (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: Roseau 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.

Ninth Judicial District — District Court

Chief Judge Jana Austad

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

Roster judged 'yes' on the strength of the county's own detention-center page, which states the roster is published online and links to it; the live roster URL (inmates.co.roseau.mn.us) itself was not separately opened.
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 Roseau 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