The Detention Center
None — Liberty County has no operating county jail
- Operated byNot applicable
- Where prisoners goA third-party jail directory (jailexchange.com) states the Liberty County Jail is closed and that arrestees are taken to the Hill County Detention Center or Chouteau County Detention Center — this could not be independently confirmed on Liberty, Hill, or Chouteau County's own government site
- What was triedlibertycountymt.gov (sheriff, elected officials, our-community, commissioners, justice-of-the-peace, clerk-of-court pages) — none named a Liberty County jail or an inter-county holding arrangement
Source: Liberty County Jail (third-party directory) · checked 2026-08-24
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot applicable — no county jail
- Original costNot applicable — no county jail
- Paid for byNot applicable — no county jail
- BedsNot applicable — no county jail
Since then
- Not applicable — no county jail
The Sheriff
Sheriff Nick Erickson
- Runs the jailNo county jail; the Sheriff's Office page and county elected-officials page make no mention of a detention facility
- Address111.5 East Adams Ave, Chester, MT 59522
- How the office is filledElected
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Liberty County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Montana district court judges and justices of the peace are elected. The Justice of the Peace usually sets bail at first appearance. Both are state/county judicial officers, not county administrative officials.
Liberty County Justice Court — Justice of the Peace
- Christopher Case
- 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
- Liberty County is one of the smaller Montana counties that does not operate its own jail; this is recorded as a finding, not a gap, per the research brief.
- Montana has no confirmed statutory adult jail inspection agency; state_inspection recorded empty per the research brief.
- Board of County Commissioners: Justin Wickum (South District One), Joette Woods (Joplin District Two), Larry Hendrickson (West District Three).
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Liberty 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