The Detention Center
McKenzie County Correctional Facility (MCCF)
- Operated byMcKenzie County Joint Powers Board
- Who runs itRobert Werlinger — Correctional Facility Administrator
- Answers tothe McKenzie County Joint Powers Board
- Why this is differentThe elected county sheriff does not run this jail.
- Address1201 12th St. SE, Suite C, Watford City, ND 58854
- Rated capacity135 (DOCR inspection, Feb 13–14, 2026)
- Population at inspection97
- GradeGrade 1 (DOCR)
- ComplianceAll 107 applicable standards marked compliant; Standards 033, 039 and 093 initially showed non-compliance but were resolved after MCCF submitted accepted corrective action plans
- Counties/agencies servedMcKenzie, Adams, Williams, Cass, Divide and Ramsey counties, plus overflow from the Southwest Multi-County Correctional Center, per the ND state-layer research (not independently reopened this session — see plains_states.json ND notes)
- Also sourced toMcKenzie County — Correctional Facility department page — https://mckenziecountynd.gov/departments/correctional-facility/
Source: ND DOCR inspection report — McKenzie County Correctional Facility (Feb 13-14, 2026; Joint Powers Board) · checked 2026-08-25
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✓How to post bond
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds135 (DOCR rated capacity)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Matthew Johansen
- Runs the jailNo — the McKenzie County Correctional Facility is run by a hired Correctional Facility Administrator answering to the McKenzie County Joint Powers Board, not the sheriff
- ElectedNDCC 11-10-02, four-year term
- Contact1201 12th Street SE, Suite B, Watford City, ND 58854; (701) 842-6010
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: McKenzie 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 — Northwest Judicial District
- Robin A. Schmidt (Presiding Judge)
- Daniel S. El-Dweek
- Benjamen J. Johnson
- Chas Neff Jr.
- Joshua B. Rustad
- Kirsten M. Sjue
- 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
- McKenzie County is one of only about 20 of North Dakota's 53 counties that operate a jail above grade four, and one of the few run by a joint-powers board rather than the county sheriff.
- The county's own site publishes four years of PREA audit reports (2018, 2021, 2024, 2025) for MCCF at https://mckenziecountynd.gov/prea/ — a genuine own-site transparency finding.
- The county's own inmate-and-visitation page links to VINELink for inmate lookup and to a third-party inmatecanteen.com portal for bond/commissary payment; neither publishes a roster, capacity, or fee schedule directly, so those checks are recorded 'no' even though the county links out to them.
- The DOCR inspection report (the state's own publishing) is not posted by McKenzie County itself on mckenziecountynd.gov, so 'inspections' is recorded 'no' per the group's rule that state publishing does not count as the county publishing.
- Board of County Commissioners (NDCC 11-11-01). The county's own site names an Auditor (Erica Johnsrud) and links to a County Commission page, but individual commissioner names were not confirmed from a page opened this session.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in McKenzie 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