The Detention Center
Swift County Jail
- Operated bySwift County Sheriff's Office
- County's own site describes the office as'responsible for the administration and operation of the County jail'
- Licensed capacity12 beds (secure, coed), per 09/25/2025 DOC report
- Jail administrator named in DOC reportTracy Koosman
- NoteSwift County's site migrated from swiftcounty.com to swiftcounty.gov; the old domain returned robots.txt disallowed errors on every path tried, the new domain worked.
- Unrelated contract found on the siteThe Sheriff's Office 'provide[s] law enforcement services under contract to the City of Kerkhoven and Murdock' — a patrol-services contract, not a prisoner-boarding contract
Source: Swift County Sheriff · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓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 — 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
- Beds12 (secure, coed, per 09/25/2025 DOC report)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff John Holtz
- Runs the jailYes — elected sheriff is jailer under Minn. Stat. 387.11 and 641.14
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term (Minn. Stat. 382.01)
- NoteThe county's own sheriff page (swiftcounty.gov/sheriff) does not itself name the sheriff; this name comes from the state DOC inspection report.
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: MN DOC — Swift County Jail Inspection Report, 09/25/2025 · 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.
- 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' credit rests on the Departments page (https://swiftcounty.gov/departments) listing 'In Custody List' as a live sub-section under the Sheriff department; the exact URL of that sub-page could not be resolved within this county's search budget, so the departments listing page is cited instead.
- Swift County Board of Commissioners — a specific current board/agenda URL was not confirmed; older board-packet PDFs (2017-2019) were found via search but a current standing minutes page was not located within budget.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Swift 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