The Detention Center
Not found — Daniels County does not appear to operate its own jail
- Operated byNot found
- What was triedChecked the Daniels County site's Sheriff/Coroner page (https://www.danielscountymt.gov/sheriff) and its full department list (https://www.danielscountymt.gov/) — neither lists a jail or detention facility, unlike other counties in this group
- Where prisoners goNot confirmed — could not find a published inter-local or contract agreement naming the facility Daniels County uses to hold prisoners
Source: Daniels County, Montana — Departments · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
0/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗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
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Clint Lowe
- TitleSheriff & Coroner
- How the office is filledElected
- UndersheriffListed as "OPEN" on the county's site
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Daniels County, Montana — Sheriff/Coroner · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Montana District Court judges (15th Judicial District, covering Daniels, Sheridan and Roosevelt counties) and the Justice of the Peace are both elected and are not county officials.
15th Judicial District Court
- Hon. Benjamin J. Fosland
Justice Court — Justice of the Peace
- Hon. Jerod J. Nieskels
- 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 left blank per the research brief.
- Daniels County appears to be one of Montana's smaller counties that does not operate its own jail; per the brief's guidance this is recorded as a finding rather than a gap, but the specific facility used to hold its prisoners could not be confirmed from the county's own site, so all ten checks are marked no rather than guessed.
- Board of County Commissioners: Michel Thievin (District 1), Gary Linder (District 2), Tammi Fladager (District 3)
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Daniels 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