The Detention Center
None — Oliver County operates no jail
- Operated byN/A
- Where Oliver County's prisoners are heldMercer County Jail, Stanton — confirmed directly from Mercer County Jail's own DOCR inspection report, which lists Oliver among the counties/agencies it holds
- Mercer County Jail statsGrade one, rated capacity 52, population 21 (Jul 29, 2025 DOCR inspection)
- Confirmed on Oliver's own siteNot confirmed — olivercountynd.org's County Administrators page is blocked by robots.txt for automated fetching this session, so this could not be verified from Oliver's own site
Source: Mercer County Jail — DOCR Inspection Report (Jul 29, 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 — Oliver County operates no jail
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff David L. Hilliard
- Runs the jailNo county jail — Oliver County has no jail; per Mercer County Jail's own DOCR inspection report, Oliver is among the counties it holds inmates from
- ElectedYes — NDCC 11-10-02, four-year term
- OfficeNot confirmed from a source opened this session — olivercountynd.org's County Administrators page is blocked by robots.txt for automated fetching
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: North Dakota POST Board — Sheriffs Departments directory · 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 — South Central Judicial District
- Cynthia M. Feland (Presiding Judge)
- Daniel J. Borgen
- James S. Hill
- Jason Hammes
- Jackson J. Lofgren
- Pamela A. Nesvig
- Lindsey Nieuwsma
- Marina Spahr
- Bonnie L. Storbakken
- Bobbi Weiler
- 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
- Oliver County operates no jail; its prisoners are held at the Mercer County Jail in Stanton, confirmed directly from that facility's own DOCR inspection report.
- olivercountynd.org's County Administrators page returned a robots.txt block for automated fetching both times it was tried this session; no other Oliver County page was located, so all ten checks default to no rather than being assumed.
- What was tried: https://olivercountynd.org/countyadministrators (ROBOTS_DISALLOWED); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_County,_North_Dakota (opened — confirmed county seat and founding history only, no sheriff or jail detail).
- Board of County Commissioners (NDCC 11-11-01). olivercountynd.org's County Administrators page is blocked by robots.txt for automated fetching this session, so member names could not be confirmed.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Oliver 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