The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byNot found
- What was triedgarfieldcountymt.gov/.org/.com, garfieldcounty.mt.us, co.garfield.mt.us, co.garfield.mt.gov, garfieldcountymontana.com, garfieldcomontana.gov, jordanmt.org/.com, jordanmontana.gov — all failed to resolve; garfieldco.us resolved but is an unrelated parked/placeholder page; the Montana Association of Counties county directory (mtcounties.org) returned a bot-protection CAPTCHA wall
- Judicial district address on fileGarfield County Clerk of District Court is listed at P.O. Box 8, Jordan, MT 59337-0008
Source: Montana Judicial Branch — 16th Judicial District · 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 Not found
- Statutory frameworkUnder MCA Title 7, Chapter 32, the county sheriff runs the county jail statewide in Montana
- Website searchNo resolvable official Garfield County government website was found (domain guesses returned DNS failures or a parked/placeholder page; the Montana Association of Counties directory was blocked by a bot-protection CAPTCHA)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Not found · 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.
16th Judicial District Court (Carter, Custer, Fallon, Garfield, Powder River, Rosebud, and Treasure Counties)
- Hon. Michael Hayworth
- Hon. Rennie Wittman
- 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 →
Notes on the record
- No official Garfield County government website could be located despite reasonable effort (multiple domain patterns tried; the state counties association directory is behind a CAPTCHA). All checks are therefore recorded as no/blank — this reflects an inability to find county-published material, not a confirmed absence of a jail.
- Whether Garfield County operates its own jail, and if not where its prisoners are held, could not be confirmed from any source opened during this research. Garfield County is one of Montana's smallest counties by population (seat: Jordan), consistent with the brief's note that many of the smallest Montana counties contract elsewhere for detention.
- Montana has no confirmed statutory adult jail inspection agency; state_inspection recorded as empty per the research brief.
- Board of County Commissioners (statutory Montana county governing body); no official Garfield County website could be located to source current board membership, agendas, or minutes.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Garfield 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