The Detention Center
Cheyenne County Jail
- Operated byCheyenne County Sheriff's Office
- Jail phone(308) 254-5878
- RosterA current inmate roster is posted as a dated PDF (e.g. an "8-25-26 Inmate Roster.pdf"), with a disclaimer that bond amounts and charges shown reflect the initial booking and may change through the court process
- Bond postingCash bonds can be posted in person at the Sheriff's Office 24/7, or with the county/district court clerk during business hours; card payments accepted 24/7 via GovPayNow Services (1-888-604-7888); the page notes bond money is not returned once fines, costs and restitution are paid in full
- Commissary phone cardsPrepaid phone cards sold in $5 or $10 amounts through commissary; the page otherwise links out to inmatesales.com and CPC Prepaid Accounts without displaying full video/email fee schedules on-site
- VisitationTuesday 1-3pm (kiosk only) and Friday 1-3pm (visiting room); 30-minute visit per inmate per day, photo ID required
- Capacity, PREA, inspections, deaths, contractsNot published on the pages reviewed
Source: Cheyenne County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-25
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗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
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 Adam Frerichs
- Runs the jailYes, per Neb. Rev. Stat. 47-105 and 23-1703 (no county board of corrections identified for Cheyenne County)
- OfficeCourthouse, 1000 10th Ave., Sidney, NE 69162-0217
- Contact(308) 254-2922; adam.frerichs@cheyennecountysheriff.org
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Cheyenne County government — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-25
The Judges
Nebraska uses merit selection with retention elections for every trial court judge, including the county court judge who sets bail at first appearance. The Governor appoints from a list submitted by a judicial nominating commission (Neb. Const. Art. V, sec. 21); an appointed judge later faces an uncontested retention vote. District Court (general jurisdiction) and County Court (bail at first appearance, misdemeanors, probate, most juvenile matters) are both state courts, not county offices. No sitting judge's name for this county was found on a source opened this session, so judges are recorded as Not found rather than guessed.
District Court
- Not found
County Court
- 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
- cheyennecountyne.net now redirects to cheyennecounty.nebraska.gov, the county's current official domain; the Sheriff's Office runs a separate official domain, cheyennecountysheriff.com, linked from the county government's own Sheriff page.
- The Sheriff's Office site publishes a dated PDF inmate roster, clear bond-posting instructions (in-person cash, clerk's office, or GovPayNow card payment), and a commissary phone-card price ($5/$10) — the only concrete fee figure found, so "fees" is recorded yes on that narrow basis rather than a full fee schedule.
- The county's meeting-notices page (cheyennecounty.nebraska.gov/notices) lists a budget-adoption agenda and minutes but no itemized sheriff/jail budget figure, so "budget" is recorded no.
- Neb. Rev. Stat. 83-4,131 requires Nebraska Crime Commission personnel to inspect the facility and deliver a written report within 30 days to the facility's governing body (the county board), not to the public. No state agency publishes these reports, and the county's own site does not publish one either, so this is recorded as not published rather than as a violation.
- Cheyenne County's own site labels its governing body the "Board of Commissioners." Three members are listed: Philip E. Sanders (Chairman, 3rd District), Randal D. Miller (Vice-Chairman, 1st District), Ryan K. Watchorn (2nd District). Meetings are 8:00am on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month (Tuesday if Monday is a holiday). Cheyenne County is not on the 2008 Blue Book's 27-county supervisor list, and the county's own site confirms commissioner form.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Cheyenne 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