The Detention Center
None — Kidder County has no jail
- Operated byN/A
- Where prisoners goBurleigh Morton Detention Center (Bismarck) and Stutsman County Correctional Center (Jamestown)
- What was triedNo official Kidder County government website could be confirmed within this session's search budget; https://www.kiddercountynd.gov was attempted and returned PROVENANCE_REQUIRED (not fetchable without a search result establishing it)
- Also sourced toND DOCR inspection report — Stutsman County Correctional Center (naming this county as a sending county) — https://www.docr.nd.gov/sites/www/files/documents/jails/Stutsman%20County%20Inspection.pdf
Source: ND DOCR inspection report — Burleigh Morton Detention Center (naming this county as a sending 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 Barry Vannatta
- Runs a jailNo — Kidder County has no operating jail
- Where prisoners goBurleigh Morton Detention Center (Bismarck) and Stutsman County Correctional Center (Jamestown), per those facilities' own DOCR inspection reports
- ElectedNDCC 11-10-02 requires each county to have an elected sheriff, four-year term
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: North Dakota Court System — Kidder County court location page · 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 — Southeast Judicial District
- Daniel D. Narum (Presiding Judge)
- Bradley A. Cruff
- James D. Hovey
- Troy J. LeFevre
- Jay A. Schmitz
- James T. Shockman
- Nicholas D. Thornton
- 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
- Kidder County operates no jail; it is one of 33 North Dakota counties that contract for detention elsewhere.
- Its prisoners are booked into Burleigh Morton Detention Center and Stutsman County Correctional Center per those facilities' own DOCR inspection reports.
- No Kidder County official government website (as opposed to court and association pages) was located within this session's search budget, so the ten transparency checks default to 'no'.
- Board of County Commissioners (NDCC 11-11-01, 3-5 members). No official Kidder County government website was located this session, so individual commissioner names, a board page, and a minutes page could not be confirmed from a source opened here.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Kidder 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