The Detention Center
None — LaMoure County has no jail
- Operated byN/A
- Where prisoners goBurleigh Morton Detention Center (Bismarck), Stutsman County Correctional Center (Jamestown), and Barnes County Correctional Center (Valley City)
- 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
- Also sourced toND DOCR inspection report — Barnes County Correctional Center (naming this county as a sending county) — https://www.docr.nd.gov/sites/www/files/documents/jails/Barnes%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 Robert Fernandes
- Runs a jailNo — LaMoure County has no operating jail
- Where prisoners goBurleigh Morton Detention Center, Stutsman County Correctional Center, and Barnes County Correctional Center
- Contact202 4th Ave NE, PO Box 97, LaMoure, ND 58458; rfernandes@nd.gov
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: LaMoure County Sheriff's Office · 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 →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- LaMoure County operates no jail; it is one of 33 North Dakota counties that contract for detention elsewhere.
- The county's own site (lamourecountynd.com) publishes commission minutes, agendas, and budget-meeting notices — real transparency infrastructure — but none of it concerns a jail, since the county has none.
- Its prisoners are booked into Burleigh Morton Detention Center, Stutsman County Correctional Center, and Barnes County Correctional Center per those facilities' own DOCR inspection reports.
- Board of County Commissioners (NDCC 11-11-01). The county's own site publishes commission minutes and agendas, and budget-meeting notices, but does not list individual commissioner names on the pages reviewed here.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in LaMoure 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