The Detention Center
Sherburne County Jail
- Operated bySherburne County Sheriff's Office
- Address13880 Business Center Drive, Elk River, MN
- Capacity732 beds, secure coed, per the county's Corrections (Jail) page — the same page's meta-description separately describes it as a 667-bed facility, "the 2nd largest county facility in the state"; both figures are reproduced as published, the discrepancy is not resolved here
- National accreditation"On August 21, 2017, the Sherburne County Jail became the 2nd jail in the state of Minnesota to be awarded national accreditation" — published on the county's own site
- Federal populationHouses ICE, U.S. Marshal, Bureau of Indian Affairs and other agencies' detainees; the county's site states the facility "generates revenue... by housing more than 500 federal detainees/inmates on average per day," without publishing the per diem rate
- RosterPublic inmate search / jail database published online, with a separate referral to the federal ICE detainee locator system for ICE-held individuals
- StaffingFacility employs "over 160 people"; offers Huber (work release), Sentence to Serve, commissary accounts, video/professional visitation, and inmate phone/email/mail services
Source: Sherburne County — Corrections (Jail) · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓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 — not published
- ✓Independent inspection
- ✗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
- Beds732 (also given elsewhere on the same page as 667 — see jail.facts)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Joel Brott
- 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: Sherburne County — About Us (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.
Tenth Judicial District — District Court
- Chief Judge Elizabeth H. Strand
- 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 'yes' on the county's own published claim of 2017 national accreditation (a form of independent third-party review of the jail), distinct from and in addition to the state DOC's own inspection regime.
- Contracts judged 'no': the county discloses that it houses ICE/U.S. Marshal/BIA detainees and that this generates revenue, but does not publish the per diem rate for doing so, which the check requires.
- PREA judged 'no': a PREA-compliance information page is referenced but no specific audit result was found published.
- Fees judged 'no': commissary accounts and inmate phone/email services are mentioned but no rate schedule was found published on the pages examined; a 'Jail Fees & Features' link exists but was not reachable.
- Board of County Commissioners governs the county under Minn. Stat. 641.01; day-to-day jail charge belongs to the elected sheriff. Housing federal detainees is a significant revenue source for the county, per the county's own Corrections (Jail) page.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Sherburne 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