The Detention Center
Keith County Jail
- Operated byKeith County Sheriff's Office
- Address103 East 5th St, Ogallala, NE 69153
- Year built1978
- CapacitySingle-cell capacity of 14 inmates plus two holding cells
- Service areaServes Keith, Perkins, and Arthur counties
- StaffingOne chief jailer/lieutenant, one sergeant, up to five full- and part-time jailers
- StandardsPage states the facility follows Nebraska Jail Standards and PREA
Source: Keith County Jail · checked 2026-08-25
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗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 built1978
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds14 single-cell capacity plus two holding cells
Since then
- A "New Justice Center Project" is referenced as a page link on the jail site, but no detail on it was opened
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jeff Stevens
- Runs the jailYes — Keith County Sheriff's Office operates the Keith County Jail
- How the office is filledElected on a partisan ballot to a four-year term (Neb. Rev. Stat. 32-520)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Keith County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-25
The Judges
Nebraska judges are state judicial officers, not county officials, chosen by merit selection: the Governor appoints from a judicial nominating commission's list, then the judge faces a retention election. The county court judge sets bail at first appearance. Specific current judges for Keith County's district were not located within the search budget for this group.
- 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 jail page lists page sections for "Current Inmate Roster," "Bonding Information," "Visiting Inmates," "Mail Information," "Telephone Information," and PREA/Nebraska Jail Standards compliance; roster, bond_info and prea are marked yes because the county's own jail page names and hosts these as its own sections.
- The jail serves Keith County plus contracted Perkins and Arthur counties, per the jail's own page.
- Board of Commissioners, confirmed on the county's own site. Not on the Nebraska Blue Book's 2008 list of 27 township-organization (Board of Supervisors) counties.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Keith 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