The Detention Center
Flathead County Detention Center
- Operated byFlathead County Sheriff's Office
- Address920 South Main Street, Suite 100, Kalispell, MT 59901
- Current capacity154 beds, expanded in 2018 from the original 63-bed facility opened in 1987
- Phone(406) 758-5617
- New facilityVoters approved a $105 million bond in November 2025; $95 million in bonds sold April 2026; $3.9 million spent on a 115-acre site; groundbreaking June 2026; anticipated opening 2029
Source: Flathead County, MT — Detention Center · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1987 (original facility); expanded 2018 to 154 beds
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNew Public Safety Facility: $105 million voter-approved bond (November 2025); $95 million in bonds sold (April 2026); $3.9 million for a 115-acre site
- Beds154 (current facility, as of this research)
Since then
- 2018 expansion to 154 beds
- New Public Safety Facility under construction as of mid-2026, anticipated opening 2029
The Sheriff
Sheriff Brian Heino
- TitleSheriff
- Runs the jailYes — the Flathead County Detention Center is a division of the Sheriff's Office
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Flathead County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Montana District Court judges (elected, serving a multi-county judicial district) and county Justices of the Peace (elected countywide) are the judicial officers who handle bail; neither is a county administrative official. The Justice of the Peace typically sets bail at first appearance.
11th Judicial District Court
- Hon. Amy Eddy (Dept. A)
- Hon. Paul Sullivan (Dept. B)
- Hon. Heidi J. Ulbricht (Dept. C)
- Hon. Dan Wilson (Dept. D)
- Hon. Danni Coffman (Dept. E)
Flathead County Justice Court — Justices of the Peace
- Tim Wenz
- Eric Hummel
- 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 recorded as empty per the research brief.
- The county's FY2025 budget message (https://flatheadcounty.gov/department-directory/commissioners-office/public_information_office/article/8562) reports $13.8 million saved toward the future detention facility, but no itemized corrections/detention operating budget was found published on the county's site, so the 'budget' check is recorded as no.
- News coverage (not the county's own site) discusses a Sheriff's Office agreement with ICE; per the brief only the county's own publications count for the transparency checks, so 'contracts' is recorded as no.
- Board of County Commissioners: Brad Abell (District 1), Pamela Holmquist (District 2), Randy Brodehl (District 3); six-year terms, elected countywide.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Flathead 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