The Detention Center
Williams County Correctional Center
- Operated byWilliams County Sheriff's Office, within the Williams County Law Enforcement Center
- Detention commandJeremy Mohl — Deputy Jail Administrator
- Address223 E Broadway, Williston, ND 58801
- Rated capacity231
- Population on inspection day71 (Sept 3-4, 2025)
- GradeGrade 1 — holds inmates up to one year
- ComplianceCompliance with 107 standards, non-compliance with 0, 1 non-applicable, 108 total
- PREAThe county's Correctional Center page states Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) resources are listed on the site; the page opened did not show a specific audit result
- BondThe county's Correctional Center page states bond posting is available through their system; specific fees were not detailed on the page
- RecordsCrash reports must be requested through the ND Dept. of Transportation, not the Sheriff's Office, effective Aug. 1, 2021; fingerprinting offered Wednesdays 4-6 pm
Source: Williams County, ND — Correctional Center · checked 2026-08-25
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓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 — not published
- ✗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
- Beds231 (DOCR rated capacity)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Verlan Kvande
- Runs the jailYes — Williams County Sheriff's Office; NDCC 11-15-03(1)(f)
- TermElected, four-year term (NDCC 11-10-02)
- Chief DeputyKevin Simmons, per williamsnd.com/departments/sheriff/
- Contact(701) 577-7700; sheriff@co.williams.nd.us
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Williams County, ND — Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-25
The Judges
North Dakota district judges are elected on a nonpartisan ballot to six-year terms; a midterm vacancy is filled by the governor from a judicial nominating committee's list, or by special election (ND Constitution Art. VI §13). A presiding judge may instead appoint a magistrate to hold initial appearance and set bail under N.D. Sup. Ct. Admin. R. 20. Which of North Dakota's eight judicial districts covers Williams County, and the names of its sitting judges, were not established from a source read here.
District Court (specific judicial district and judges not established from a source read here)
- Not found
- 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
- The Correctional Center page references an inmate roster portal and a case-search system, and the County Information page references a 'County Budget' section, but neither the roster page nor the budget page itself was opened and read, so 'roster' and 'budget' are marked 'no' rather than guessed at.
- The DOCR inspection report is the state publishing the facility's information, not the county; Williams County's own site does not itself post the inspection report, so 'inspections' is marked 'no'.
- North Dakota has no statute requiring a jail to report a death in custody to a state agency; the state's federal Death in Custody Reporting Act plan says so directly.
- Board of County Commissioners, 5 members by district. Williams County operates under a Home Rule Charter (NDCC ch. 11-09.1). Chairman: Cory Hanson (District 3); Vice Chairman: Beau Anderson (District 1); Steve Kemp (District 2); Chris Walstad (District 4); Barry Ramberg (District 5). Meets first and third Tuesdays monthly at 8:00 AM.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Williams 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