Wheeler County

The Detention Center

Not found

• Operated byWheeler County Sheriff's Office
• What the county saysThe Sheriff's Office page states the office 'manage[s] the county jail' but gives no facility name, address, capacity, or administrator.
• Not in state jail-data reporting listWheeler County does not appear in the Nebraska Crime Commission's jail record submission status table (66 reporting agencies, 2016-2020), unlike neighboring York County. This suggests Wheeler's facility, if any, is a short-term (Type I/II) holding arrangement rather than a Type III reporting detention facility, but that inference was not confirmed on the county's own site.
• What was triedwheelercounty.ne.gov board/board-meeting pages did not mention jail contracts; a general web search for 'Wheeler County Nebraska jail contract' returned only commercial inmate-search aggregators, which are excluded as sources.

Source: Wheeler County, NE — Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-25

• ✗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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Wheeler 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 Tim Larby

• Runs the jailYes — the elected sheriff has charge of the county jail under Neb. Rev. Stat. 47-105 and 23-1703
• Office contactCell 402-340-0498, office 308-654-3232, fax 308-654-3442; 301 Third Street, Bartlett, NE 68622
• Source conflict notedA separate, older page on the same domain (wheelercounty.ne.gov/webpages/sheriff/sheriff.html) named a different person ('Dale A. King') with different contact details. That URL now returns generic homepage-style content rather than a distinct sheriff bio, so it appears to be a stale/legacy page rather than current. The sheriff-office/ page, reached from the county site's current navigation menu, is treated as the live source.

Source: Wheeler County, NE — Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-25

The Judges

Nebraska judges are merit-selected and are state, not county, officials: the Governor appoints from a judicial nominating commission list, and appointees then face retention elections (Neb. Const. Art. V §21). The county court judge sets bail at first appearance. No named district or county court judge for Wheeler County was located from a source opened in this pass; the Wheeler County Court and Clerk of District Court pages give only clerk contacts (Bert Meschke; Cara Snider), not judge names.

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 →