The Detention Center
Emmons 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 byEmmons County Sheriff's Office
- Rated capacity1
- GradeGrade four correctional facility
- Inspection dateOctober 1, 2024
- Compliance status"determined to comply with the North Dakota Correctional Facility Standards" — no deficiencies noted
- Where Emmons County's prisoners are actually heldBurleigh Morton Detention Center (Bismarck) and Stutsman County Correctional Center (Jamestown) — confirmed directly: BMDC's own DOCR inspection report lists Emmons among the counties it houses inmates from, and Stutsman's own DOCR inspection report states it has "contracts" with, among others, Emmons County
Source: Emmons County Court Holding — DOCR Inspection Report (Oct 1, 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
- Beds1 (rated capacity of the grade four court holding facility — no overnight stays permitted)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Gary Sanders
- Runs the jailNo county jail — Emmons 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
- Confirmed three waysNamed on the county's own site (emmonsnd.com/departments/sheriff-911/, "Sheriff/911 Coordinator"), on the North Dakota Association of Counties officials directory, and by surname in the DOCR inspection letter ("Attn: Sheriff Sanders," Oct 1, 2024)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Emmons County, ND — Sheriff/911 Department · 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 — South Central Judicial District
- Cynthia M. Feland (Presiding Judge)
- Daniel J. Borgen
- James S. Hill
- Jason Hammes
- Jackson J. Lofgren
- Pamela A. Nesvig
- Lindsey Nieuwsma
- Marina Spahr
- Bonnie L. Storbakken
- Bobbi Weiler
- 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
- Emmons County has no operating adult jail — only a grade four court holding room in Linton, which under NDCC 12-44.1-06 may not hold anyone overnight.
- The Oct 1, 2024 DOCR inspection found the facility in compliance with no deficiencies noted.
- Prisoners are held at Burleigh Morton Detention Center and Stutsman County Correctional Center, confirmed directly from each facility's own DOCR inspection report.
- The county's own website (emmonsnd.com) was located and opened this session. Its Sheriff/911 department page names the sheriff but does not name a jail or holding facility, publish a roster, capacity, budget, deaths, PREA, inspection result, contract, bond, or fee information, so the ten transparency checks are recorded 'no'.
- Board of County Commissioners (NDCC 11-11-01). Commissioners: Dan Materi (Chair, 4th District), Craig Miller (Vice Chair, 1st District), Erin Magrum (2nd District), James Gartner (3rd District), Jim Vander Vorst (5th District); Marlys Ohlhauser is Secretary. Meets the 1st Tuesday of each month at 9:00 a.m. at the Emmons County Courthouse in Linton. Agendas, minutes, and meeting recordings are posted on the county's own site.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Emmons 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