Richland County, Montana — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Richland County Jail

Operated byRichland County Sheriff's Office
CapacityHolds up to 40 inmates
Staff trainingJail staff attend the Correction/Detention Officer Basic Course at the Montana Law Enforcement Academy in Helena; staff also cook meals and handle custodial duties at the Law Enforcement Center

Source: Richland County Montana - Detention Centers · checked 2026-08-24

Transparency rating

2/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✗Who is in custody — not published
✓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 — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Richland County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-24. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year builtNot found
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds40

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff John K. Dynneson

Runs the jailYes — the Richland County Jail
Address300 12th Ave. NW, Sidney, MT 59270

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Montana courts.mt.gov Richland County resource guide (Sheriff's Office listing) · checked 2026-08-24

The Judges

Montana district court judges and justices of the peace are state/county judicial officers elected independently of the sheriff and commissioners, not administrative county employees. The Justice of the Peace typically sets bail at first appearance.

7th Judicial District Court — Judge (Richland-based)

Hon. Scott Herring

Justice of the Peace / Sidney City Court

Luke Savage

Still needed

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

The 'Fees' and 'Inspection Information' pages found in the county's site navigation are for the Building/Planning department (building permits and inspections), not the jail; they were checked and do not apply to detention transparency.
No commissioners' meeting minutes or agendas page was found on richland.org.
Commissioners: Loren Young, Chairman, District One (term expires Dec 31, 2026); Shane Gorder, District Two (expires Dec 31, 2028); Duane Mitchell, District Three (expires Dec 31, 2030).

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Richland 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