The Detention Center
Not found — no dedicated jail/detention page names the facility; job postings refer only to 'the detention facilities'
- Operated bySanders County Sheriff's Office
- Confirmation a jail existsDetention Commander (Christine Wood) and recurring Jail Commander / Detention Officer job postings found via county site search
- AddressNot confirmed separately from the Sheriff's Office, 1115 Main Street, Thompson Falls, MT 59873
- Beds / year built / cost / fundingNot found
- What was triedhttps://co.sanders.mt.us/212/Sheriffs-Office and a site search for 'jail' / 'detention' (https://co.sanders.mt.us/Search/Results?searchPhrase=jail) — only job postings and a Detention Commander directory listing turned up, no jail information page
Source: Sanders County MT — site search results for 'detention' · 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 Shawn Fielders
- Runs the jailYes — Sheriff's Office operates a detention division (Detention Commander, Jail Commander positions)
- Fees publishedSheriff's Office fee schedule (copies, fingerprinting, concealed weapons permits, civil process, sheriff's sales) as of July 2, 2025
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Sanders County MT — Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Montana district court judges are elected officials of the state judicial district (the 20th Judicial District is comprised of Lake County and Sanders County); Justices of the Peace are also elected and typically set bail at first appearance. Neither is a county administrative employee.
20th Judicial District Court (Lake and Sanders Counties)
- Dept. #1 — Hon. Molly E. Owen
- Dept. #2 — Hon. John A. Mercer
Justice of the Peace
- Douglas S. Dryden
- 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
- Sanders County confirms it runs a detention operation only through job postings (Detention Commander, Jail Commander, Detention Officer) found via site search; there is no county-published jail information page covering any of the ten transparency items.
- The Sheriff's Office fee schedule lists a $25 'Intake Fee' among civil-process and records fees, but this is not a phone/video-visit/commissary rate sheet, so the fees check is recorded as 'no'.
- Montana has no confirmed statutory adult jail inspection agency; state_inspection is recorded as empty for this reason, per research brief.
- Board of County Commissioners: Dan Rowan (District 1), John Holland (District 2), Anthony B. Cox (District 3). Regular sessions held Tuesday-Thursday, 10am-4pm, at the Sanders County Annex Building.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Sanders 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