Saunders County

The Detention Center

Saunders County Corrections

• Operated bySaunders County Sheriff's Office
• Location387 N Chestnut, Suite 4, Wahoo, NE 68066
• Jail Director (day-to-day)Brian Styskal, per the Sheriff's Office page — the Sheriff remains the statutory jailer
• VisitationScheduled 24 hours in advance; on-site video visitation weekday mornings/early afternoons; off-site paid visitation through Securus Technologies
• Fingerprinting fee$25, Tuesdays and Thursdays by appointment
• What was triedhttps://saunderscounty.ne.gov/corrections/, https://saunderscounty.ne.gov/corrections/detention-commissary/ — no bed count, year built, cost, contract/rate, roster, or phone/commissary rate figures found on the county's own site

Source: Saunders County Corrections · checked 2026-08-25

• ✓The jail is named
• ✗Who is in custody — not published
• ✗Beds and daily population — not published
• ✓What it costs taxpayers
• ✗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 — not published
• ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Saunders County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-25. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

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

The Sheriff

Sheriff Chris Lichtenberg

• Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office runs 'Saunders County Corrections' as part of the Sheriff's Office; day-to-day the facility has its own Jail Director, Brian Styskal, but the jail is a division of the Sheriff's Office per Neb. Rev. Stat. 47-105 and 23-1703, not a separate county corrections department
• How the office is filledElected countywide on a partisan ballot, four-year term (Neb. Rev. Stat. 32-520)
• Chief DeputyKyle Coughlin

Source: Saunders County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-25

The Judges

Nebraska district and county court judges are merit-selected: on a vacancy a judicial nominating commission (four lawyers chosen by the Nebraska State Bar Association, four non-lawyers appointed by the Governor, and a nonvoting Supreme Court justice as chair) sends the Governor at least two qualified nominees; the Governor appoints, or the Chief Justice does if the Governor does not act within 60 days. Judges then face a nonpartisan retention vote at the next general election more than three years after appointment, and every six years thereafter (Neb. Const. Art. V §21). Saunders County's own court pages name only the Clerk Magistrate (Chris Thalken), not a sitting judge. Seward County's own site, in listing the Fifth Judicial District's county court judges, names Andrew R. Lange of Wahoo — Wahoo is the Saunders County seat — but Saunders' own site does not confirm this assignment, so no judge is recorded here as confirmed.

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 →