The Detention Center
Wheatland County Jail
- Operated byWheatland County Sheriff's Office
- Address203 A Avenue NW, PO Box 757, Harlowton, MT 59036 (same address as Sheriff's Office)
- Current roster (checked 8/17/26)PDF roster posted on the county's own site lists inmates by name, booking date, charge, and bond amount (e.g., a $20,000 cash-only bond) — confirming an active, currently operating jail
- What was triedChecked https://wheatlandcomt.gov/departments/sheriffs-office/ and the linked Inmate Roster PDF for beds, year built, cost, budget, PREA, inspections, deaths — none published on the county's own site
Source: Wheatland County, Montana — Inmate Roster · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓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 — 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 Randy Cameron
- TitleSheriff
- Deputy UndersheriffKevin Froese
- How the office is filledElected
- Runs the jailYes — Wheatland County Jail, 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: Wheatland County, Montana · 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.
14th Judicial District Court Judge (Golden Valley, Meagher, Musselshell, and Wheatland Counties)
- Hon. Adam Larsen
- 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 published Inmate Roster shows individual bond amounts set for specific inmates, but this is not general public guidance on how to post bail, so 'bond_info' is recorded as no.
- County home page links 'Notice of Preliminary Budget' and 'Final Budget Hearing Notice' items, but no detention-specific budget figure was found published in what was reviewed.
- Montana has no confirmed statutory adult jail inspection agency; state_inspection is recorded as empty per the research brief.
- Board of County Commissioners: Adam Jones, Larry Berg, Jeff Sell.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Wheatland 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