Lander County

The Detention Center

Not found. Neither the county nor the Sheriff's Office names the jail

• Operated byLander County Sheriff's Office
• Where the Sheriff's Office is50 State Route 305, Battle Mountain, NV 89820 - the same address as the county administration and the Argenta Justice Court. Sheriff's phone 775-635-1100
• The Sheriff's website is a shelllanderso.org redirects to landerso.gov, which announces: 'Welcome to the Lander County Sheriff's Office website. Please bare with us while we make changes and update our site to reflect our services and information'
• The detention pages are emptyThe Detentions menu carries four pages - Bail & Bonds, Inmate Funds, Contacting Inmates and Inmate Visitation - and each one returns a page with a title and no content at all. The same is true of About, Other Fees, Reports and Public Records. This was checked both in the rendered page and through the site's own WordPress content API, which returns empty content for every one of those pages
• Spam on the front pageThe Sheriff's Office home page carries several paragraphs of injected replica-watch marketing text between its own Quick Links, and an outbound link to a replica watch retailer
• What the Quick Links do offerA CrimeGraphics link at laso.citizenrims.com, described as providing 'current and historical information from the Lander County Sheriff's Office data systems' - it returned an empty page - plus VINELink, Nevada S.A.V.E. at save.nv.gov, crash reports through crashdocs.org and the state sex offender registry
• County moneyThe county's Finance Department document centre publishes Lander County Final Budgets back to 2019-20 and Annual Audit Reports back to 2015-16, plus quarterly disbursements. The FY2027 and FY2026 final budget PDFs are scanned images with no extractable text, so no corrections or detention line could be read from either
• What was triedlanderso.gov - home, About, Bail & Bonds, Inmate Funds, Contacting Inmates, Inmate Visitation, Other Fees, Reports, Public Records - both as rendered pages and through the site's WordPress REST API; landercountynv.org - the full site map, the Government index, Commissioners, Justice Court, Finance Department and the agendas and minutes pages; and the FY2027 and FY2026 Lander County final budget PDFs. No jail name, no address, no bed count, no daily population, no roster, no bail guidance, no fee schedule, no death in custody, no PREA audit result and no inspection result is published anywhere

Source: Lander County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-23

• ✗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 Lander 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. The county publishes final budgets back to 2019-20 on its Finance Department page, but the FY2027 and FY2026 documents are scanned images with no extractable text
• BedsNot found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Ron Unger

• Runs the jailYes. The Lander County Sheriff's Office site carries a Detentions menu covering Bail & Bonds, Inmate Funds, Contacting Inmates and Inmate Visitation, and its footer reads 'Copyright 2026 - Lander County Sheriff's Office, Battle Mountain Nevada'
• How the office is filledElected. NRS 248.010 provides for a sheriff elected in each county; NRS 211.030 makes the sheriff the custodian of the county jail
• Where the name comes fromThe Nevada Association of Counties 2026 Lander County directory, revised 20 February 2026, lists 'Sheriff - Ron Unger, 635-1100, sheriffunger@landerso.org'
• Not confirmed on the county's own siteLander County's own website has no Sheriff page at all - the department does not appear in the county site map or on the Government index, which lists only Commissioners, District Attorney and County Manager
• Not confirmed on the Sheriff's own site eitherlanderso.gov has an About page, but it renders empty. The Sheriff is not named anywhere on his own website

Source: Nevada Association of Counties - 2026 NACO Directory, Lander County (rev. 20 February 2026) · checked 2026-08-23

The Judges

Nevada District Court judges are elected in nonpartisan district-wide races to six-year terms, and Justices of the Peace are elected to six-year terms in their township. Both are state judicial officers under Article 6 of the Nevada Constitution, not county officials, although the county pays for the Justice Court. At first appearance it is normally the Justice of the Peace who sets bail; the Justice Court also holds preliminary examinations in felony and gross misdemeanour cases. Mid-term vacancies are filled by appointment - by the Governor for a District Court seat, by the board of county commissioners for a Justice of the Peace - and the appointee then stands at the next election. NRS 211.030 makes the sheriff the custodian of the county jail and NRS 248.050 makes the sheriff responsible for the prisoners in it, so the judge who sets bail and the officer who holds the prisoner are answerable to different electorates. Lander County shares its district court with Mineral and Pershing counties, and the single district judge, Bryce Shields, took office on 5 January 2026 into a term that expires on 3 January 2027 - a seat filled mid-term. The county has two justice courts, Argenta at Battle Mountain and Austin, ninety miles apart; the Argenta Justice Court sits at 50 State Route 305, the same address as the Sheriff's Office.

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 →