The Detention Center
Valley County Detention Center (also referred to on the county's site as Valley County Jail / Valley County Detention Facility)
- Operated byValley County Sheriff's Office
- Address501 Court Square #10, Glasgow, MT 59230 (same building as the Sheriff's Office)
- Mission statement"The primary mission of the Valley County Detention Facility is detention and discipline...to ensure safe custody, decent living conditions, and fair treatment for all inmates"
- VisitationSunday 1-3 PM, Tuesday and Thursday 6-8 PM; 15-minute limit per visit
- Phone cards$10 per card, purchased through commissary or a family member
- What was triedChecked https://www.valleycountymt.gov/1289/Jail-Information and https://www.valleycountymt.gov/1288/Jail-Roster for beds, year built, cost, budget, PREA, inspections, deaths — none published there
Source: Valley County, MT · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗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
- ✓Phone, video and commissary rates
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 Tom Boyer
- TitleSheriff
- Administrative AssistantNicole Cole
- How the office is filledElected
- Runs the jailYes — Valley County Detention Center/Facility, operated by the Sheriff's Office
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Valley County, MT · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Montana district court judges and justices of the peace/city judges are elected. The Justice of the Peace typically sets bail at first appearance. Both are state judicial officers under the Montana judicial branch (MCA Title 3), not county officials.
Valley County (Glasgow) Justice of the Peace / City Judge
- Christina Hillman (Justice of the Peace; also City Judge, Fort Peck and Nashua)
- Tasha Morehouse-Mix (Glasgow City Judge)
- 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
- The county's Jail Information page links a state 'Bail Bondsmen in Montana' PDF as bail guidance and states phone cards cost $10; no commissary or video-visit rate list was found.
- The Jail Roster page is generated by dispatch on a best-effort basis and archives back to 2017, but publishes no bed count or capacity figure.
- Montana has no confirmed statutory adult jail inspection agency; state_inspection is recorded as empty per the research brief.
- Board of County Commissioners: Paul Tweten (Chairman), John Fahlgren, Jeff Alsberg.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in 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