The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byNot found
- Whether the county operates its own jailNot found — Keya Paha is Nebraska's least populous county and no county page located describes a jail facility, capacity, or a contract with another county
- What was triedhttps://keyapahacountyne.gov/webpages/sheriff/sheriff.html; https://keyapahacountyne.gov/webpages/links/office_services.html — neither mentions a jail facility or where prisoners are held
Source: · 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 Jeff Kirsch
- Runs the jailStatutory role only — the sheriff's page states the sheriff has "charge and custody of the jail and its prisoners, except in counties where a county board of corrections exists"; no facility details were found
- 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: Keya Paha County Sheriff · 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 Keya Paha 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
- Keya Paha's county-level officials page (contacts.html) lists a single person, Suzy Wentworth, holding the Assessor, Clerk, Clerk of the District Court, Election Commissioner, and Register of Deeds offices simultaneously — common in Nebraska's smallest counties, recorded here as a fact rather than a gap.
- Whether Keya Paha operates its own jail or contracts with a neighboring county was not established from sources reviewed; this is recorded as "Not found," not assumed either way.
- Board of Commissioners, confirmed on the county's own contacts page. Not on the Nebraska Blue Book's 2008 list of 27 township-organization (Board of Supervisors) counties. Current members: Corey Nilson, Anthony Tiefenthaler, John Frederick.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Keya Paha 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