The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byNot found
- What was triedhookercountyne.gov's sheriff page and board pages were opened; neither names a distinct jail facility or gives a jail address
- State reporting dataHooker County does not appear among the reporting agencies in the Nebraska Crime Commission's jail record submission table (agencytable.pdf) or in the facility list of the Jail Data Query tool (jaildata.cgi) — both state sources, not the county's own site, so this is supporting context, not proof. Hooker is Nebraska's least populous county
- Where prisoners go if no jail is operatedNot established from a source opened this session
Source: What was tried above; no county-published jail page found · checked 2026-08-25
Transparency rating
0/10Closed- ✗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
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 Todd Yost
- Runs the jailPer Neb. Rev. Stat. 47-105 and 23-1703 (no county board of corrections identified for Hooker County); the sheriff's own page states he has "charge and custody of the jail and its prisoners, except in counties where a county board of corrections exists"
- DeputiesThe sheriff may employ deputies, who under the same page may not simultaneously hold the office of treasurer, clerk, register of deeds, or surveyor
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Hooker County 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). No sitting judge's name for Hooker County was found on a source opened this session.
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
- The county's website redirects from co.hooker.ne.us to hookercountyne.gov; both were treated as the same official county site.
- No dedicated jail page, budget document, or transparency content of any kind was found on hookercountyne.gov during this session.
- Neb. Rev. Stat. 83-4,131 requires Nebraska Crime Commission personnel to inspect a covered facility and deliver a written report within 30 days to the facility's governing body, not to the public. No state agency publishes these reports, and no Hooker County jail page was found to check for county-side publication.
- Hooker County's own site labels its governing body the "Board of Commissioners," meeting the 2nd Thursday of each month at 3:30 PM. Members: Bryan Crisp (Chair), Julie Kraye (Vice-Chair), Thad Emerson. Hooker 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 Hooker 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