The Detention Center
Merrick County Corrections Facility
- Operated byMerrick County Sheriff's Office
- AddressNot separately confirmed beyond the Sheriff's Office address, 1821 16th Avenue, Central City, NE 68826
- Jail administratorNone named separately; sheriff's office operates the facility
- Capacity, year built, costNot found published on merrickcounty.ne.gov
Source: Merrick County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-25
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗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 John R. Westman
- TitleSheriff
- Contact(308) 946-2345, 1821 16th Avenue, Central City, NE 68826
- StaffJake A. Bauer, Captain
- Runs the jailYes — Merrick County Corrections Facility named on the Sheriff's Office page
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Merrick County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-25
The Judges
Nebraska judges are merit-selected: the Governor appoints from a judicial nominating commission's list, then the judge faces periodic uncontested retention elections (Neb. Const. Art. V, sec. 21). The County Court judge sets bail at first appearance and is a state judicial officer, not a Merrick County employee. Merrick County Court's Clerk Magistrate is Maria Rodriguez.
County Court Judge
- Not found
District Court Judge
- 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
- Merrick County publishes board agendas and minutes going back to 2017 and names its jail (the Merrick County Corrections Facility) on the Sheriff's Office page — the one 'named' check that passed anywhere in this group.
- No roster, capacity, budget line item specific to the jail, death, PREA, inspection, contract-rate, bond, or fee information was found published on merrickcounty.ne.gov.
- Nebraska Jail Standards Board inspection reports go to the county governing body, not the public; no publication by Merrick County was found.
- Board of Supervisors, seven members (confirmed as 'Board of Supervisors' on the county's own site, consistent with the 2008 Blue Book township-organization list): Carolyn Kucera (Chairman), Dennis Jarecke, Edward Dexter, Russell Kreachbaum, Janet Placke, Roger Wiegert, Tom Weller. Meets the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month (2nd Monday in May and November).
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Merrick 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