The Detention Center
Cass County Jail (CCJ)
- Operated byCass County Sheriff's Office / Cass County Corrections Department
- Detention commandAndrew Frobig — Captain / Jail Administrator, Cass County Jail
- Address450 34th Street South, Fargo, ND 58103
- Rated capacity540 (DOCR inspection, Feb 17-18, 2026)
- Population on inspection day369
- GradeGrade one — up to a one-year hold
- ComplianceFull compliance with all 107 applicable standards; two standards (032 Inmate Observation, 038 Inventory of Equipment) showed initial non-compliance during inspection but were resolved through accepted corrective action plans
- Booking volume (per inspection report)4,919 males and 1,877 females booked in 2025; average length of stay 17 days
- Counties/agencies sending inmates (per the inspection report)Traill, Barnes and Ransom counties, plus the U.S. Marshals Service, Bureau of Prisons, DOCR Parole and Probation, and the cities of Fargo and West Fargo
- Separate grade-four facilityCass County Court Holding — grade four, rated capacity 27, inspected Feb 13, 2025, no standard recorded as failed
Source: Cass County Jail — DOCR Inspection Report (Feb 17-18, 2026) · checked 2026-08-25
Transparency rating
6/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗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
- Beds540 (DOCR rated capacity, Feb 2026 inspection); separate 27-bed grade-four Court Holding facility
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jesse Jahner
- Runs the jailYes — statutory keeper of the Cass County Jail under NDCC 11-15-03(1)(f); day-to-day operation delegated to a jail administrator
- ElectedYes — NDCC 11-10-02, four-year term (term expires 2026 per county elected-officials page)
- Office211 9th Street S, Fargo, ND 58103; Sheriff's Office main (701) 241-5800
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Cass County, ND — Elected Officials in Cass 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. Cass County's own court-locations page names Daniel Gast as the county's Magistrate — under ND Supreme Court Administrative Rule 20, magistrates are appointed by the presiding judge and may be delegated authority to hold initial appearances and set bail under NDCC ch. 29-08.
District Court — East Central Judicial District
- Steven E. McCullough (Presiding)
- Susan Bailey
- Reid A. Brady
- Cherie L. Clark
- Constance L. Cleveland
- Scott O. Diamond
- Stephanie Hayden
- Stephannie N. Stiel
- Tristan J. Van de Streek
- Wade L. Webb
- Ryan Younggren
- 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 →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- The county's own 'List of Inmates in Cass County Jail' page (casscountynd.gov/departments/corrections/inmates-in-custody) is on the county's own domain, not a third-party aggregator — recorded roster=yes on that basis, though the live listing itself renders via JavaScript and its current contents could not be read directly.
- 'Paying Bail' page (casscountynd.gov) states cash is accepted 24/7 via lobby kiosk, bail bonds are eligible for some offenses, and credit-card bail carries 'an 8% fee charged for all credit card bail transactions.'
- Inmate Telephone Services page states 'Inmate phone calls are now billed at a rate of $0.05 per minute.'
- The Corrections page names a contract with the West Central Regional Juvenile Center (Moorhead, MN) for juvenile detention, but that is Cass County placing its own juveniles elsewhere, not a contract to hold other agencies' adult prisoners with rates — so 'contracts' is recorded no.
- PREA section on the Corrections page names a coordinator and references audit/annual reports 2018-2025 as downloadable documents, without a dedicated standalone URL confirmed open; recorded prea=yes on the corrections page itself.
- 'capacity' and 'inspections' are recorded no — rated capacity and inspection results are published by DOCR, not reposted on casscountynd.gov.
- 5-member Board of County Commissioners (NDCC 11-11-01), elected to four-year terms by district: Tim Flakoll (Dist. 1), Tony Grindberg (Dist. 2), Jim Kapitan (Dist. 3), Duane Breitling (Dist. 4), Joel Vettel (Dist. 5).
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Cass 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