The Detention Center
None — Golden Valley County has no jail
- Operated by
- Where Golden Valley County's prisoners are actually heldSouthwest Multi-County Correctional Center / Dickinson Adult Detention Center (Stark County) — confirmed directly: the facility's own DOCR inspection report names Golden Valley as one of the seven member counties on its governing board, "a board of seven (7) county commissioners with each county represented" (Billings, Bowman, Dunn, Golden Valley, Hettinger, Slope, Stark)
- Golden Valley's roleNot merely a customer — a co-governing member county of the joint-powers board that runs the facility, under NDCC 12-44.1-02(1)(c)
Source: Southwest Multi-County Correctional Center — DOCR Inspection Report (Aug 27-28, 2025) · 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 Dey Muckle
- Runs the jailNo county jail in Golden Valley County
- ElectedYes — NDCC 11-10-02 requires each county to have an elected sheriff, four-year term
- Contact(701) 872-4733
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Golden Valley County, ND — Departments/Contacts · 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
- Golden Valley County has no jail of its own. This is not a gap: it is a co-governing member county of the Southwest Multi-County Correctional Center's seven-county joint-powers board, confirmed directly from that facility's own DOCR inspection report.
- Only the county contacts page of goldenvalleycounty.org was opened this session; no jail, roster, budget, or other transparency-check content was found there.
- The DOCR inspection of Southwest Multi-County covers the shared regional facility, not Golden Valley County specifically, so state_inspection is recorded empty for this county entry per the group's instructions.
- Board of County Commissioners (NDCC 11-11-01). Commissioners: Adam Smith (Chairman), Rory Farstveet, Robert "Bob" Schmeling.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Golden Valley 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