The Detention Center
Not scored. The county's own website was not reachable in the session that produced this record, so its disclosures were never examined. This is a gap in the research, not a finding about the county.
- Operated byWinona County Sheriff's Office
- Day-to-day jail administrator named in 2024 DOC reportSteve Buswell — an internal role under the elected sheriff, not a separate county department, so jail_administrator is recorded as null per the sheriff-is-jailer rule
- Licensed capacity, 2024 DOC inspection74 beds
- New facility capacity reported by local press80 inmates, versus the prior facility's 83 beds
- New facility cost$28 million, per the Winona Post, reporting the facility was "on track to open by October" (2023)
- Previous facilityBuilt in 1978; MN DOC ordered it closed by September 30, 2021, citing doorways too narrow, lack of controlled entries for high-risk inmates, outdated locks, non-compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and failure to meet state fire codes and state corrections program standards, per the Star Tribune's 2019 reporting on the DOC enforcement action
- Replacement cost, as originally estimated$18 million to $21 million (Star Tribune, 2019); the facility that was ultimately completed cost about $28 million per the Winona Post
- Current facility statusA Winona Daily News headline ("All inmates moved back into new Winona County Jail") indicates the new jail was in use by the time of that report; the article's full text could not be read (see audit.notes)
- What was triedWinona County's own site was attempted at both http://www.co.winona.mn.us/314/Jail and its successor https://www.winonacounty.gov/307/Sheriff, plus several sub-pages (FAQ, staff directory, document center) and the bare domain roots for both co.winona.mn.us and winonacounty.gov. Every attempt failed — the domain root returned a 403 client error, and every other page returned a robots.txt fetch timeout — across repeated retries. Per the brief's rule, Winona County's own site could not be opened, so audit.checks is recorded as an empty object rather than ten unverified "no" answers.
- Also sourced toWinona Post — "New jail nears completion" — https://www.winonapost.com/news/new-jail-nears-completion/article_091d8742-2b40-11ee-89f6-c3bee4745009.html
- Also sourced toStar Tribune — "Three Minnesota counties must rebuild old jails, with more to follow" — https://www.startribune.com/three-minnesota-counties-must-rebuild-old-jails-with-more-to-follow/565933602
- Also sourced toWinona Daily News — "All inmates moved back into new Winona County Jail" (headline only; article body not readable) — https://winonadailynews.com/news/local/crime-courts/article_1bbf9f0a-e14a-11ee-84ff-1f7f19a797cc.html
Source: MN DOC — Winona County Jail Facility Inspection Report (2024 inspection) · checked 2026-09-18
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNew facility completed and occupied by 2023-2024 (Winona Post, Winona Daily News); the previous facility dated to 1978 (Star Tribune, 2019)
- Original cost$28 million for the new facility (Winona Post); the previous, 1978 facility's original cost was not found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds74 beds per the June 6, 2024 MN DOC inspection report; 80 inmates per the Winona Post's account of the new facility; the prior facility held 83 beds per the Star Tribune
Since then
- Full replacement facility built to succeed the 1978 jail after a DOC closure order effective September 30, 2021
The Sheriff
Sheriff Ron Ganrude
- Runs the jailYes — the elected sheriff, per Minn. Stat. 387.11 ("shall have the charge and custody of the county jail") and 641.14 ("responsible for the operation and condition of the jail")
- How the office is filledElected to a four-year term (Minn. Stat. 382.01); named as sheriff in the June 6, 2024 MN DOC inspection report for the Winona County Jail
- Source of nameMN DOC inspection report is the only source that named the sheriff — Winona County's own site could not be opened (see audit.notes) to independently confirm currency as of September 2026
Still needed
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: MN DOC — Winona County Jail Facility Inspection Report, issued for the June 6, 2024 inspection · checked 2026-09-18
The Judges
Minnesota district judges run in nonpartisan elections to six-year terms, but a large share first reach the bench by gubernatorial appointment to a mid-term vacancy rather than a contested race (river_states.json, MN, judges_elected, citing MN House Research's Guide for Legislators and Ballotpedia). Bail at first appearance is set by "the court" under Minn. R. Crim. P. 6.02, subd. 1, after weighing the 13 factors in subd. 2.
Third Judicial District (covers Winona County)
- Not found — the Minnesota Judicial Branch's judicial-district finder confirms Winona County sits in the Third Judicial District, but its judge directory is a JavaScript search tool that could not be queried for named judges within the search budget
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
- Winona County's own website could not be opened despite repeated attempts at two different domains (co.winona.mn.us and its successor winonacounty.gov) and multiple page paths, so audit.checks is left empty rather than scored — see jail.facts "What was tried" for the full list of attempts.
- The 2019 Star Tribune reporting relied on by river_states.json describes a DOC closure order for the Winona County Jail; the 2024 DOC inspection report and 2023-2024 local news coverage show a replacement facility was built and occupied, so the closure order described in the state layer's notes appears to have been resolved by construction of a new jail rather than by the county going without one. This was not independently reverified against a current DOC license record beyond the June 2024 inspection report found here.
- Do not read the 2024 DOC report's list of standards recorded as not met (orientation documentation, emergency-procedure review documentation, annual health inspection documentation, well-being check pacing, daily and weekly lock inspections, medical screening completeness, medication refrigerator logs, weekly sanitation inspections, CPR training, monthly security inspections and equipment inventory, unsigned post orders, and weekly fire inspections) as a finding of a violation; they are recorded here exactly as the inspection report characterized them, as standards not met, per the brief's instruction not to characterize anything as a violation.
- Winona County is governed by a Board of County Commissioners, the standard Minnesota county-board structure that funds the jail under Minn. Stat. 641.01 while the elected sheriff runs it day to day (river_states.json, MN, operator). The board's own page and its agenda/minutes URL could not be located because Winona County's site could not be opened (see jail.facts, "What was tried").
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Winona 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