Los Alamos County

The Detention Center

Los Alamos Detention Center (Los Alamos Police Department Detention Center)

• Operated byLos Alamos Police Department, a department of the Incorporated County of Los Alamos
• Who runs itDino Sgambellone — Chief of Police, Los Alamos Police Department — the department that operates the Los Alamos Detention Center. The FY2026 adopted budget organisation chart shows a Jail Administrator / Detention Administrator (1 FTE) reporting through the Chief; that post-holder is not named by the county.. Reports to: Chief of Police, Los Alamos Police Department (a County Manager department)
• Jail address2500 Trinity Drive, Los Alamos, NM 87544
• Detention control phone505-662-8235
• Staffing16 full-time detention officers; the FY2026 adopted budget lists 1 Detention Administrator, 4 Detention Sergeants, 9 Detention Officers and 2 Detention Corporals (16 regular FTEs)
• OperationsMaster control centre monitors inmates and also the police station and the court complex; three meals prepared daily on site
• ProgramsAnger management, church services, correspondence Bible studies, GED programs and tutoring, jail-based drug rehabilitation
• BedsNot found — the county publishes no capacity figure

Source: Los Alamos County — Detention Center · checked 2026-08-24

• ✓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 Los Alamos County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-24. 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 Jason Wardlow Herrera

• Does the county have an elected sheriffYes — the county's own page states 'we have seven Councilors, two judges, an assessor, a clerk, and a sheriff as elected positions'
• ElectedNovember 2022 general election; term ends 31 December 2026
• Runs the jailNo — the Los Alamos Police Department operates the Detention Center
• Statutory limitCounty Code art. III §304.4: the Sheriff has the powers and duties assigned to sheriffs by state statute, but shall not duplicate or perform duties assigned or delegated to the County's Police Department
• What the office doesSex Offender Registry (Offender Watch); civil process is served by the Los Alamos Police Department
• OfficeLos Alamos Justice Center, 2500 Trinity Drive, Suite B, Los Alamos, NM 87544 (by appointment)

Source: Los Alamos County — Jason Wardlow Herrera, Sheriff · checked 2026-08-24

The Judges

New Mexico district and magistrate judges are state judicial officers, not county officials: a judge is initially appointed by the Governor from a judicial nominating commission list, then stands in the next partisan general election, and thereafter faces non-partisan retention elections. Los Alamos County is in the First Judicial District (with Rio Arriba and Santa Fe counties); all eleven district judge divisions sit in Santa Fe or Tierra Amarilla. Los Alamos is unusual in also electing its own Municipal Court judge and Probate Court judge at county level.

Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-24

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 →