The Detention Center
Steele County Detention Center
- Operated bySteele County Sheriff's Office
- Licensed capacity154 beds (approved capacity), per 04/13/2022 DOC report
- Jail administrator namedAnthony Buttera (Jail Administrator); Paul Prissel (Assistant Jail Administrator); Greg Huebbe (Training and Programs Coordinator), per the county's own Detention Center page
- NoteSteele County's site migrated from co.steele.mn.us to steelecountymn.gov; the old domain returned SSL certificate errors on every path tried this session and could not be opened, the new domain worked.
Source: Steele County — 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
- ✗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
- Beds154 (approved capacity, per 04/13/2022 DOC report)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Lon Thiele
- Runs the jailYes — the Detention Center is a division of the Sheriff's Office, per the county's own site
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term (Minn. Stat. 382.01)
- Currency of this nameConfirmed current via a southernminn.com news article on Thiele 'seeking a 5th term as Steele County Sheriff' and a report of him being sworn in as president of the Minnesota Sheriffs' Association
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Steele 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.
District Court — Third Judicial District
- 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
- The roster PDF fetched was dated 'September 17, 2026' with 24 records — a genuinely current, live roster.
- The PREA page lists downloadable audit reports for 2023, 2020, 2017 and 2014, satisfying the 'prea' check; the content of the audits themselves was not read (out of scope for this check, which asks only whether results are published).
- Steele County Board of Commissioners; a specific board/agenda URL was not confirmed before the old co.steele.mn.us domain's SSL errors were discovered and the newer steelecountymn.gov domain was found (late in this county's research), so the board page was not separately verified.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Steele 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