Big Horn County, Montana — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Big Horn County Detention Center

Operated byBig Horn County Sheriff's Office
Address121 3rd Street W, Hardin, MT 59034
Jail CommanderVictoria Olson
Chief Detention OfficerKenny Rogers
PurposeHouses pretrial and sentenced inmates for up to one year; occasionally houses inmates awaiting transfer to other counties
What was triedChecked https://www.bighorncountymt.gov/239/Detention for beds, year built, cost, budget, PREA, inspections, deaths — none published there

Source: Big Horn County, MT · checked 2026-08-24

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 — not published
✗Independent inspection — not published
✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
✓How to post bond
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Big Horn County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-24. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year builtNot found
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
BedsNot found

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Jeramie Middlestead

Runs the jailYes — Big Horn County Detention Center, operated by the Sheriff's Office
How the office is filledElected

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Big Horn County, MT · checked 2026-08-24

The Judges

Montana district court judges and justices of the peace/city judges are elected. The Justice of the Peace typically sets bail at first appearance. Both are state/county judicial officers under the Montana judicial branch, per MCA Title 3.

22nd Judicial District Court Judge (Big Horn, Carbon, Stillwater Counties)

Hon. Matthew Wald

Big Horn County (Hardin) Justice of the Peace

Ernie Bear Don't Walk

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 2026-08-24

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 →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

Montana has no confirmed statutory adult jail inspection agency; state_inspection is recorded as empty per the research brief.
The county's Detention page states the facility 'occasionally house[s] inmates awaiting transfer to other counties' but does not publish a contract or rate schedule, so 'contracts' is recorded as no.
Inmate roster is hosted on a third-party CrimeGraphics system linked directly from the county's own Detention page.
Board of County Commissioners: George Real Bird III (Presiding Officer, District 1), Lawrence "Pete" Big Hair (District 2), Larry Vandersloot (District 3).

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Big Horn 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 2026-08-24 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered