Boyd County

The Detention Center

Not found

• Operated byBoyd County Sheriff's Office
• No confirmed active jailThe county's own site describes a jail built c. 1915-1916 with two cells (4 persons each) that "remained in use until 1983"; it is now open for historical tours through the Clerk's Office. No page on the county's own site was found describing a currently operating detention facility.
• Where prisoners are held nowNot established from the sources reviewed. Boyd County participates in a "Boyd-Holt Counties Joint E911" dispatch arrangement per a 2019 state PSAP contact list, which suggests regional cooperation with neighboring Holt County, but no source confirms a jail-housing contract.
• What was triedBoyd County's own site (boydcounty.ne.gov and its sheriff-office and about-our-county pages) was fetched but does not state where inmates are currently held; the Nebraska Crime Commission's jail-standards pages (ncc.nebraska.gov) contain no facility-by-county directory.

Source: Boyd County, NE — homepage · 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 Boyd 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 built1915-1916 (historic jail, no longer in active use)
• Original costNot found
• Paid for byNot found
• BedsNot found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Matt McHale

• Runs the jailSheriff's Office page says it "manage[s] the county jail", but the county's own site elsewhere states the county's jail building was in use only until 1983
• How the office is filledElected countywide (Neb. Rev. Stat. 32-520 — partisan ballot, four-year term), per Nebraska's state-layer research

Source: Boyd County, NE — Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-25

The Judges

Nebraska uses merit selection with retention elections for every level of court, including the county court judges who set bail at first appearance. Under Nebraska Constitution Article V, section 21, the Governor fills a vacancy from a list of at least two nominees from a judicial nominating commission; if the Governor does not act within 60 days the Chief Justice appoints. An appointed judge later faces an uncontested retention vote. Trial courts are the District Court (general jurisdiction, felony trials) and the County Court (misdemeanors, small claims, probate, most first appearances and bail-setting). Judges are state judicial officers, not county officials.

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 →