The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byNot found
- FindingNo jail, detention center, or inmate-roster page appears anywhere in Golden Valley County's site navigation or on the Sheriff's page
- What was triedReviewed the county's full published navigation menu (sheriff, county commissioners, commissioner meetings, justice of the peace, clerk and recorder, county attorney, road crew, disaster/emergency services, public health, towns of Ryegate and Lavina, public notices) — none reference a jail or detention facility
Source: Golden Valley County, MT — Sheriff · 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 Robert Pallas
- TitleSheriff/Coroner
- Office107 Kemp Street, Ryegate, MT 59074
- Phone406-568-2321
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Golden Valley County, MT — Sheriff · 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.
14th Judicial District Court (Golden Valley, Meagher, Musselshell, and Wheatland Counties)
- Hon. Adam Larsen
Golden Valley County (Ryegate/Lavina) — Justice of the Peace
- Brandon B. Carpenter
- 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
- Golden Valley County's own website shows no jail, detention center, or inmate roster. Per the research brief, this is treated as a real finding for one of Montana's smallest counties (per the brief, many of the smallest Montana counties hold no one and contract to a neighbor) rather than a transparency gap.
- Where Golden Valley County's prisoners are held, if not in a county-run facility, was not stated on the county's site and could not be confirmed via other sources opened during this research; recorded as Not found rather than assumed.
- Montana has no confirmed statutory adult jail inspection agency; state_inspection recorded as empty per the research brief.
- County Commissioners: Tony Schaff (District One), Kevin Wineteer (District Two), Russ Pearce (District Three). Meetings held the first and third Tuesday of each month at the courthouse.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Golden Valley 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