Traill County

The Detention Center

Traill County Jail

• Operated byTraill County (Sheriff's Office)
• Grade / rated capacity / population on inspection dateNot established — the DOCR inspection PDF posted for this facility contains no machine-readable text and could not be read (confirmed directly this session)
• Likely short-hold onlyTraill also appears as a sending county to the Cass, Grand Forks, Burleigh Morton, and Barnes county facilities in those facilities' own DOCR inspection reports, per plains_states.json state-layer research — suggesting its own facility holds people only briefly
• What was triedhttps://www.docr.nd.gov/sites/default/files/documents/jails/Traill%20County%20Jail%20Inspection.pdf (fetched; no machine-readable text); https://www.co.traill.nd.us/181/Sheriffs-Department and https://www.co.traill.nd.us/directory.aspx?did=13 (robots.txt / connection errors); https://www.co.traill.nd.us/ (thin homepage content, no jail information); https://traillcountynd.gov/181/Sheriffs-Department and https://traillcountynd.gov/ (provenance refused); https://www.hattonnd.com (robots.txt disallowed)

Source: Traill County Jail — DOCR inspection report (posted PDF contains no readable text) · checked 2026-08-25

• ✗The jail is named — not published
• ✗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 — not published
• ✗Independent inspection — not published
• ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
• ✗How to post bond — not published
• ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Traill County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-25. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

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 found (posted DOCR inspection PDF is unreadable)

The Sheriff

Sheriff Steve Hunt

• Runs the jailTraill County operates a jail (Traill County Jail); grade and capacity could not be confirmed — see jail entry
• ElectedNDCC 11-10-02 requires each county to have an elected sheriff, four-year term
• ContactTraill County Courthouse, 114 W Caledonia Ave, Hillsboro, ND 58045

Source: North Dakota Court System — Traill 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.

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 →