The Detention Center
Wilkin County Jail (roster page branded "LETG Jail")
- Operated byWilkin County Sheriff's Office
- Jail administrator (staff title, not a separate county department)Aaron Wood, named in the MN DOC's July-August 2024 inspection report; the county's own site does not describe detention as a separate department in the pages opened, so jail_administrator is recorded null per the sheriff-is-jailer default
- CapacityMN DOC's July-August 2024 inspection report lists an approved capacity of 21 secure coed beds, 80% operational capacity (about 16.8 beds)
- Public rosterThe county's own custody page at https://co.wilkin.mn.us/jail/ shows a live roster branded "LETG Jail" listing 9 inmates as of 09-17-2026, with booking information, charges and bail/bond status for each, though it does not give the operator/administrator name, address, capacity, or fee schedule
- What was triedWebSearch allowed_domains=co.wilkin.mn.us (1 of 7-search budget) found a Sheriff's Office page, a jail departments page, the custody roster page, a directory page, an FAQ page, and an officials page. Of these, only https://co.wilkin.mn.us/jail/ (the custody roster) could be opened; https://www.co.wilkin.mn.us/sheriff, https://www.co.wilkin.mn.us/departments/sheriff/jail, https://www.co.wilkin.mn.us/officials and https://www.co.wilkin.mn.us/faq were all refused (robots.txt disallowed). A separate legacy ASP-style URL (index.asp?SEC=51FC931D...) produced a redirect loop that could not be resolved within this session.
- Also sourced toMN DOC Adult Facilities Inspection Report — Wilkin County Jail, July-Aug. 2024 — https://mn.gov/doc/assets/Wilkin%20County%20Jail%202024_tcm1089-640756.pdf
Source: Wilkin County Jail — Custody Roster · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✓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
- Beds21 (secure, coed approved capacity) per the MN DOC's July-August 2024 inspection report
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Tony Harris
- Runs the jailYes — the elected sheriff has charge and custody of the county jail under Minn. Stat. 387.11 and is responsible for its operation and condition under Minn. Stat. 641.14 (MN state layer)
- How the office is filledElected countywide to a four-year term under Minn. Stat. 382.01 (MN state layer)
- SourceNamed as sheriff in the MN DOC's July-August 2024 inspection report of the Wilkin County Jail; the county's own Sheriff's Office page (co.wilkin.mn.us/sheriff) did not name a sitting sheriff in the content this research could extract
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: MN DOC Adult Facilities Inspection Report — Wilkin County Jail, July 25-Aug. 1, 2024 · 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.
Minnesota District Court (judicial district covering Wilkin County)
- 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
- Wilkin County's own custody-roster page (co.wilkin.mn.us/jail/) is a live public roster of current inmates, which is the basis for the 'roster' check — but it does not itself name the jail formally, give an address, or publish capacity, budget, PREA, inspection, contract, bail, or fee information, so those checks are 'no'. Every other county page identified by the domain-scoped search (Sheriff's Office, jail department page, officials, FAQ) was refused by WebFetch (robots.txt disallowed) within this session.
- Not found — Wilkin County's officials page (https://www.co.wilkin.mn.us/officials) was refused by WebFetch within this session (robots.txt disallowed). Minnesota counties are generally governed by an elected Board of County Commissioners.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Wilkin 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