The Detention Center
None — Hettinger County has no jail
- Operated by
- Where Hettinger 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 Hettinger 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)
- Hettinger County'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)
- Named on the county's own siteThe county's own Sheriff department page (hettingercountynd.com) links to and names the Southwest Multi-County Correction Center, confirming the county itself, not just the state, publishes where its prisoners are held
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 Sarah Warner
- Runs the jailNo county jail in Hettinger County
- ElectedYes — NDCC 11-10-02 requires each county to have an elected sheriff, four-year term
- Confirmed twiceNamed on the county's own Sheriff department page and on the North Dakota Association of Counties officials directory
- Note on a common mix-upHettinger County (seat: Mott) is a different place from the city of Hettinger, which is the county seat of neighboring Adams County. The Adams County Court Holding inspection report is for the Adams County facility located in the city of Hettinger — it is not about Hettinger County and is not cited in this entry
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Hettinger County, ND — Sheriff · 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
- Hettinger 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.
- Do not confuse Hettinger County (seat: Mott) with the city of Hettinger, which is the county seat of Adams County and the site of the separate Adams County Court Holding facility.
- The county's own Sheriff department page (hettingercountynd.com/nav/new_page/sheriff/index.php), opened and read this session, names the sheriff and links to the Southwest Multi-County Correction Center, so 'named' is recorded yes; it does not publish a roster, capacity, budget, deaths, PREA, inspection result, contract, or bail/bond guidance beyond a 24/7 Sobriety Program fee schedule unrelated to jail commissary or phone fees.
- The DOCR inspection of Southwest Multi-County covers the shared regional facility, not Hettinger County specifically, so state_inspection is recorded empty for this county entry.
- Board of County Commissioners. Commissioners: Todd Lutz (Chair), Devan Laufer, Tom Geerts.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Hettinger 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