The Detention Center
No county jail
- Operated byN/A — Dunn County contracts out detention under NDCC 12-44.1-02(1)(b)
- Where Dunn County's prisoners are actually heldSouthwest Multi-County Correctional Center (Dickinson Adult Detention Center, Stark County) — per ND state-layer research (not independently reopened this session), Dunn County holds one of the seven seats on the facility's joint-powers governing board alongside Billings, Bowman, Golden Valley, Hettinger, Slope and Stark counties. See plains_states.json ND notes.
- What was trieddunncountynd.gov was found via harvested link but returned PROVENANCE_REQUIRED on fetch and was not retried; sheriff and commissioner names below came from the North Dakota Association of Counties officials-lookup page (ndaco.org) instead
Source: North Dakota Association of Counties — County Officials lookup (Dunn County) · 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 applicable — no county jail
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Gary A. Kuhn
- Runs the jailNo county jail — Dunn County has no operating adult facility of its own
- ElectedYes — NDCC 11-10-02, four-year term
- Office205 Owens St, Manning, ND 58642; (701) 573-4449
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: North Dakota POST Board — Sheriffs' Departments directory · 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. Dunn County's own court-locations page (ndcourts.gov) confirms it sits in the Southwest Judicial District, consistent with its seat on the Southwest Multi-County Correctional Center board alongside other southwest ND counties.
District Court — Southwest Judicial District
- William A. Herauf (Presiding)
- 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
- Dunn County has no jail of its own; per ND state-layer research it is one of the seven counties represented on the Southwest Multi-County Correctional Center (Dickinson) joint-powers board and sends its prisoners there.
- Dunn County's own government website (dunncountynd.gov) could not be opened this session — WebFetch returned PROVENANCE_REQUIRED and, per protocol, was not retried and no search was spent on it. All checks are therefore recorded as no rather than assumed; this is a gap in what this session could confirm, not a finding that the county fails to publish anything.
- 5-member Board of County Commissioners (NDCC 11-11-01), elected at large (ND Association of Counties): Tracey Dolezal (Chair), Craig Pelton (Vice Chair), Allen Heiser, David Olson, Robert Kleemann.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Dunn 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