The Detention Center
Not found — McCone County's own site does not name a jail or detention facility
- Operated byNot applicable
- Where prisoners goNot found — could not be confirmed on McCone County's own site or any other county government site. A third-party facility directory (correctionalnetwork.com) claims a detention facility at 905 B Ave, Circle, MT, but this is not corroborated by mcconecountymt.gov and is not used as a citation here
- What was triedmcconecountymt.gov homepage department list (no jail/detention department present), Sheriff/Coroner page (searched explicitly for 'jail', 'detention', 'custody', 'incarcerat', 'holding', 'housed' — none found), Commissioners page and 2026 meeting minutes index
Source: McCone County — Sheriff/Coroner · 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 Paul Skyberg
- TitleSheriff/Coroner
- Runs the jailNo jail/detention department is listed among the county's roughly 30 official departments, and the Sheriff/Coroner page contains no mention of the words jail, detention, custody, or housed
- Under-SheriffJoe Juliano
- Deputy SheriffsNicholas Skyberg and Travis Pew
- 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: McCone County — Sheriff/Coroner · 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 judicial officers, not county officials.
McCone County Justice Court — Justice of the Peace
- Perry Breitbach
- 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
- No jail or detention department appears among McCone County's official department listing, and the Sheriff/Coroner page contains no reference to jail, detention, custody, or housing arrangements; where the county's prisoners are actually held could not be confirmed on any county government site, so this is recorded as Not found rather than assumed.
- Montana has no confirmed statutory adult jail inspection agency; state_inspection recorded empty per the research brief.
- Board of County Commissioners: Lonny Jensen (District 1), Alan Stempel (District 2), Ty R. Taylor (District 3). Board convenes the first four Mondays of every month.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in McCone 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