The Detention Center
Adams County Justice Center
- Operated byAdams County Sheriff's Office
- Address1335 West M St, Hastings, NE 68901
- Phone(402) 461-7164
- Named on county's own siteThe county's own navigation lists a dedicated 'Adams County Justice Center' page, distinct from the general Sheriff page, confirming the facility's proper name
- Services referencedPage links an inmate commissary through a third-party vendor (JailATM.com) and a CIDNET-based mail/video/voice communication system for families (per the linked jail.pdf, a CIDNET account-setup guide) — neither publishes rates on the county's own domain
- What was triedhttps://adamscountyne.gov/images/PDFS/Sheriff/jail.pdf (confirmed to be a CIDNET communication-platform account guide, not visitation rules, bond information, or a fee schedule)
Source: Adams County, NE — Adams County Justice Center (adamscountyne.gov) · checked 2026-08-25
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✓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 — not published
- ✗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
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff John Rust
- Runs the jailYes — the elected sheriff has charge of the county jail and its prisoners under Neb. Rev. Stat. 47-105 and 23-1703
- How the office is filledElected countywide, four-year term (Neb. Rev. Stat. 32-520)
- Office locationSuite 126, Main Floor, Adams County Courthouse; (402) 461-7181
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Adams County, NE — Sheriff (adamscountyne.gov) · checked 2026-08-25
The Judges
Nebraska judges are merit-selected, not county officials: the Governor appoints from a judicial nominating commission's list, and the judge then faces an uncontested retention vote at the next general election after three years, and every six years thereafter (Neb. Const. Art. V, sec. 21). The County Court judge sets bail at first appearance; the District Court has general/felony jurisdiction. Adams County's own County Court page names Michael P. Burns, Natalie G. Nelsen-Pacey and Michael O. Mead as County Court judges of the 10th Judicial District; the county's District Court page names only clerk staff (Amanda Bauer, Clerk of District Court; Jodi McLaughlin, Chief Deputy), not the presiding District Court judge(s).
District Court
- Not found
County Court — 10th Judicial District
- Michael P. Burns
- Natalie G. Nelsen-Pacey
- Michael O. Mead
- 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
- Budget: the county's own fiscal-year budget page (https://adamscountyne.gov/board-of-commissioners/105-fiscal-year-s-budget) does not host a budget document itself; its only content is a single outbound link, 'Click here for fiscal year's budget,' to the Nebraska State Auditor's reporting system (nebraska.gov/auditor), which is not the county's own domain, so 'budget' is recorded as 'no' under the rule that only the county's own domain counts.
- State-layer finding applies: Neb. Rev. Stat. 83-4,131 requires the Nebraska Jail Standards Board (via Crime Commission staff) to inspect this jail and deliver a written report to the county's governing body within 30 days, but no state agency publishes the report and none was found published on the county's own site.
- Adams County's own site headlines its governing body 'Board of Commissioners' with seven members elected by district — Michael Stromer (Dist. 1), John Rostvet (Dist. 2), Lee Hogan (Dist. 3, Chairman), Harold Johnson (Dist. 4), Tim Reams (Dist. 5), Charles Neumann (Dist. 6, Vice Chairman), Joe Patterson (Dist. 7). Both 'board-of-commissioners' and legacy 'board-of-supervisors' URL paths exist on the site for the same board. This updates the 2008 Nebraska Blue Book, which listed Adams among the 27 township counties governed by a seven-member Board of Supervisors — the county's current site uses 'Commissioners' as the primary label despite the seven-member/district structure historically associated with supervisor counties.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Adams 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