Coos County, New Hampshire — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Coos County Department of Corrections

Operated byCoos County Department of Corrections
Who runs itBen Champagne — Superintendent of Corrections, Coos County Department of Corrections, appointed by the Board of County Commissioners (RSA 30-B:3); listed as Appointed Staff in the county directory
Jail address168 County Farm Road, PO Box 10, West Stewartstown, NH 03597
Beds61-bed corrections facility (county 'About Us' page)
Population heldPre-trial and sentenced male inmates only
Other agenciesThe county states it may detain individuals from other New Hampshire counties, house inmates from the New Hampshire State Prison and federal agencies, and detain individuals wanted by other states — no contract or rate is published
Note on geographyThe county seat is Lancaster, but the jail, the county administration and the nursing hospital are in West Stewartstown
Daily populationNot found — no average daily population is published in extractable form

Source: Coos County Department of Corrections — About Us · checked 2026-08-23

Transparency rating

2/10Closed

✓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 — 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 Coos County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-23. 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
Beds61

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Keith Roberge

Runs the jailNo — the Corrections Superintendent does
Title as publishedHigh Sheriff
RoleServes all legal writs, provides security in Coos Superior Court and the 1st Circuit Court divisions, transports prisoners, fugitive apprehension and extradition
Office55 School Street, Suite 102, Lancaster, NH 03584

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Coos County — County Directory · checked 2026-08-23

The Judges

Judges in New Hampshire are state judicial officers, not county officials. They are nominated by the Governor and appointed with the approval of a majority of the Executive Council, and hold office until age 70 — they are never elected. New Hampshire has a unified state trial court: the Superior Court and the Circuit Court (district, family and probate divisions) are state courts, and the county pays for and maintains the courthouse but does not choose the judges. The Judicial Branch publishes clerks and deputy clerks for each location but does not publish a judge roster per county, so no presiding judge is named here. Source for the appointment method: https://www.courts.nh.gov/our-courts/superior-court

NH Circuit Court — 1st Circuit, District Division — Lancaster (55 School Street, Suite 201, Lancaster)

Not published per county

NH Circuit Court — 1st Circuit, District Division — Berlin (650 Main Street, Suite 100, Berlin)

Not published per county

NH Circuit Court — 1st Circuit, District Division — Colebrook (17 Bridge Street, Colebrook)

Not published per county

Coos Superior Court (55 School Street, Suite 301, Lancaster)

Not published — Clerk Viktoriya A. Kovalenko is listed, no judge

Still needed

The county's bond schedule
Share of the jail population held pretrial
Median time from booking to first appearance

Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-23

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

Capacity marked no on a split result: the county publishes a bed count (61) on the Corrections About Us page but publishes no daily or average population. The 2025 Annual Report contains a Report of the Superintendent of Corrections at page 34, but that PDF's body pages are scanned images with no extractable text, so any population figures in it could not be read.
Budget marked yes: the 2026 County Appropriations document carries fund 03114230 DOC Expenses with TOTAL DOC Expenses of $3,681,590 plus $25,000 DOC New Equipment, and itemises the Superintendent's salary line at $123,500. https://www.cooscountynh.gov/government/about_us/budgets.php
Contracts marked no: the county states in prose that it may house inmates for other counties, the state prison, federal agencies and other states, but publishes no contract and no per-diem rate.
Fees marked no: the Corrections FAQ explains how to deposit money via Smart Deposit and describes collect calling through Securus, but publishes no phone, video-visit or commissary rate.
Roster, PREA, deaths, inspections and bail-posting guidance: none published. The Corrections 'Helpful Resources' page links only to the NH Association of Counties, the NH Criminal Offender Registry, NH Most Wanted and NH.gov.
New Hampshire has no state agency that inspects county jails and publishes the results the way the Maine Department of Corrections does under 34-A M.R.S. sections 1208 and 1402(13). No state or county inspection report was found for this facility.
Three county commissioners elected by district — Thomas Brady (Chair, District 2), Raymond Gorman (Vice Chair, District 3) and Robert Theberge (Clerk, District 1). The Coos County Delegation, the county's elected state representatives (Arnold Davis chairs), is the legislative branch: it appropriates funds for county operations and approves any sale or acquisition of county real estate. The 2026 budget is adopted as County Appropriations voted by the Delegation.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Coos 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.

These offices are on your ballot

In New Hampshire your town or city clerk runs the checklist and the polling place. Links from vote.gov and USA.gov.

Names verified 2026-08-23 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered