The Detention Center
Adams County Court Holding (grade four — no overnight stays). A grade-four facility may not hold anyone overnight, so the ten disclosure checks are not applied to it.
- Operated byAdams County Sheriff's Office
- Rated capacityNot specified in the DOCR inspection report
- Grade"grade four correctional facility under N.D.C.C. section 12-44.1-06"
- Inspection dateSeptember 16, 2024
- Compliance status"not in compliance with the North Dakota Correctional Facility Standards" — the report states the facility was "under construction" at the time and that "a facility inspection must be completed prior to holding any person"
- Where Adams County's prisoners are actually heldSouthwest Multi-County Correctional Center (Dickinson, Stark County) — confirmed directly: that facility's own DOCR inspection report states it "maintains verbal and contractual agreements to house inmates from different jurisdictions including U.S. Border Patrol, United States Marshal Service, and the DOCR Parole and Probation as well as the counties of Adams, McKenzie, Billings, Bowman, Dunn, Golden Valley, Hettinger, Slope and Stark"
- Also named as a destination in ND state-layer research (not independently reopened this session)McKenzie County Correctional Facility and Burleigh Morton Detention Center — see plains_states.json ND notes
Source: Adams County Court Holding — DOCR Inspection Report (Sep 16, 2024) · checked 2026-08-25
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 specified (grade four court holding — no overnight stays permitted)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jordan Fisher
- Runs the jailNo county jail — Adams County operates only a grade four court holding facility with no overnight stays
- ElectedYes — NDCC 11-10-02 requires each county to have an elected sheriff, four-year term
- Contact604 Adams Ave, Hettinger, ND 58639; jordfisher@nd.gov
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: North Dakota Association of Counties — County Officials Directory (Adams County) · checked 2026-08-25
The Judges
North Dakota district judges are elected on a nonpartisan ballot to six-year terms (ND Constitution Art. VI, Sec. 1). Midterm vacancies are filled by the Governor from a list submitted by a judicial nominating committee, unless the Governor instead calls a special election (ND Constitution Art. VI, Sec. 13). District judges are state judicial officers, not county officials. Under ND Supreme Court Administrative Rule 20, a presiding judge may appoint a magistrate with delegated authority to hold initial appearances and set bail under NDCC ch. 29-08.
District Court — Southwest Judicial District
- William A. Herauf (Presiding Judge)
- Rhonda R. Ehlis
- James D. Gion
- Dann E. Greenwood
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-25
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
- Adams County has no operating adult jail — only a grade four court holding room, which under NDCC 12-44.1-06 may not hold anyone overnight.
- The Sep 16, 2024 DOCR inspection recorded the Hettinger court holding facility as not in compliance because it was under construction; the report requires a new inspection before it can hold anyone.
- No official Adams County government website domain (as opposed to the ND Association of Counties directory) was located within this session's search budget, so the ten transparency checks could not be evaluated against the county's own site and are recorded as 'no' rather than assumed.
- Board of County Commissioners (NDCC 11-11-01). No official Adams County website domain was located this session, so individual commissioner names, a board page, and a minutes page could not be confirmed from a source opened here.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Adams 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 2026-08-25 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered