The Detention Center
Lincoln County Detention Center
- Operated byLincoln County Sheriff's Office
- Jail addressPO Box 570, 225 Justice Way, Pioche, NV 89043. Telephone 775-962-5151. Inmate mail goes to PO Box 570 with the inmate number on the address line
- Visiting'All inmate visitation is done via video through NCIC.com. No in-person visitation at this time except for legal and religious purposes.' Video visit terminals are also available at the Detention Center. No price is published
- MoneyThe county links an 'On-Line Inmate Deposits' service at deposits.jailatm.com. No deposit fee schedule is published
- What the county passes on'No personal items, nor information will be passed on from Detention Center staff to inmates. All materials MUST be sent via mail or provided by legal counsel'
- It is an enterprise fundThe county's audited financial statement for the year ended 30 June 2025 describes fund 064: 'The Detention Center fund is used to account for the activities of the Lincoln County Detention Center, providing detention services for local governments within Nevada.' The notes add that 'The Detention Center Fund receives revenue for housing prisoners of other governments'
- What that fund showsFor the year ended 30 June 2025 the Detention Center Fund took charges for services of $787,640 against total operating expenses of $1,766,219 - salaries and wages $888,328, employee benefits $476,512, services and supplies $332,045, depreciation $69,334 - an operating loss of $978,579. The General Fund transferred in $1,085,000, leaving a change in net position of $106,421
- The fund carries a deficitThe statement records a deficit net position of $2,211,251 for the Detention Center Enterprise Fund, attributed to the fund's proportionate share of pension and OPEB liabilities
- Operating revenue is rising'The Detention Center Fund, a major fund, had operating revenues increase by $63,427, or 8.76%, due to an increase in inmate fees'
- What was triedThe Sheriff's Office and Detention Center pages, the Courts pages and their three subpages, the Commissioners and Board of Commissioners pages, the Financial Information page and the audited financial statement for the year ended 30 June 2025, and the Meetings page. The county publishes no roster, no bed count, no daily population, no death in custody, no PREA audit result, no inspection result, no bail guidance and no phone, video or commissary price list
Source: Lincoln County, Nevada Government - Detention Center · 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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found for construction. For operations, the Detention Center is a county enterprise fund (064) funded by charges for services of $787,640 in the year ended 30 June 2025 plus an operating transfer in from the General Fund of $1,085,000
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Derek Foremaster
- Runs the jailYes. The Lincoln County Detention Center sits under the Sheriff's Office on the county's own site, as a child page of the Sheriff's Office, and the office recruits 'Corrections Deputies' alongside patrol deputies
- How the office is filledElected. Nevada sheriffs are elected under NRS 248.010; nothing on the county site suggests an appointment or an acting capacity here
- UndersheriffDarrin Woodworth, named on the Sheriff's Office page
- OfficePioche Main Station, 225 Justice Way, PO Box 570, Pioche, NV 89043. Dispatch 775-962-5151, answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Fax 775-962-5384
- SubstationsAlamo Substation, 121 Joshua Tree, PO Box 449, Alamo, NV 89001; Caliente Substation, 100 Depot Ave Suite 2, Caliente, NV 89008
- Cross-checkThe Nevada Association of Counties 2026 county directory also lists Derek Foremaster as Sheriff of Lincoln County, at dforemaster@lincolncountynv.gov
- A caution on the county's web addressThe NACO 2026 directory prints the county's address as www.lincolncountynv.org, which serves a bare IIS default page to this researcher. The live county site is https://lincolncountynv.org (no www). The domains lincolncountynv.gov and www.lincolncountynv.gov both serve a Nexcess hosting placeholder
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Lincoln County, Nevada Government - Sheriff's Office · 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 answer to different electorates. Lincoln County has two justice courts sitting on different days in different towns - Meadow Valley at Pioche on Tuesdays, Pahranagat Valley at Alamo on Wednesdays - and the district court sits in Pioche only twice a month, on the second and fourth Fridays. The City of Caliente runs a separate municipal court, which is not a county bench. Note the live discrepancy on Department 2 of the Seventh Judicial District: the county's own court page names Gary D. Fairman where the Nevada Judicial Directory of 17 March 2026 names Dylan Frehner, in office since 11 April 2025.
Seventh Judicial District Court (Eureka, Lincoln and White Pine Counties) - district court days are the second and fourth Fridays of every month at the Lincoln County Courthouse, 181 North Main Street, Suite 208, Pioche
- Steven L. Dobrescu - Department 1. The Nevada Judicial Directory of 17 March 2026 records him elected or appointed 13 March 2001, in office the same day, term expiring 3 January 2027. Chambers PO Box 151597, Ely, NV 89315; secretary Carol Fielding, 775-293-6550
- Department 2 - the county's own page names 'Honorable Gary D. Fairman, Department 2', secretary Wendy Lopez, 775-293-6560. The Nevada Judicial Directory of 17 March 2026 instead records Dylan Frehner in Department 2, in office since 11 April 2025. Both are recorded here rather than choosing between them; the county page appears to be out of date on this seat
Meadow Valley Township Justice Court, PO Box 36, Pioche - court days every Tuesday
- Mike D. Cowley - Justice of the Peace. Elected 7 November 2006, took office 1 January 2007, term expires 7 January 2031. Court clerk Brenda Cole. Telephone 775-962-8059
Pahranagat Valley Justice Court, PO Box 449, Alamo - court days Wednesday at the Alamo Annex
- Nola A. Holton - Justice of the Peace. Elected 4 November 1986, took office 5 January 1987, term expires 7 January 2031 - the longest-serving judicial officer in this group. Court clerk Melinda Davis, deputy clerk Ashlee Perez. Telephone 775-962-8082
- 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
- The most substantial thing Lincoln County publishes about its jail is not on the Sheriff's pages at all - it is in the audited financial statement. The Detention Center is run as a major enterprise fund, fund 064, and the notes say plainly that it 'receives revenue for housing prisoners of other governments' and provides 'detention services for local governments within Nevada'. The two web pages the Sheriff's Office devotes to the facility say nothing about that.
- contracts is marked no. The county publishes the fact that it houses other governments' prisoners and publishes what that earned - $787,640 in charges for services for the year ended 30 June 2025 - but it does not publish the agreements or any per-day rate.
- budget is marked yes on the strength of the audited financial statement, which sets out the Detention Center Fund line by line. The Financial Information page also carries the Lincoln County Final Budget for 2025-2026 and quarterly auditor's reports of expenditures under NRS 244.225.
- The detention fund does not pay for itself and the county does not hide it: operating expenses of $1,766,219 against charges for services of $787,640, an operating loss of $978,579 covered by a $1,085,000 transfer from the General Fund, and a deficit net position of $2,211,251 driven by the fund's share of pension and OPEB liabilities.
- capacity, roster, deaths, prea, inspections, bond_info and fees are all marked no. Nothing on the county site gives a bed count, a daily population, a list of people in custody, a death in custody, a PREA audit, an inspection result, guidance on posting bail, or a price for a phone call, a video visit or commissary.
- A practical finding for anyone trying to reach this county: the address printed in the Nevada Association of Counties 2026 directory, www.lincolncountynv.org, serves a bare IIS default page. The working site is https://lincolncountynv.org without the www.
- Board of County Commissioners, five members elected from districts A to E, meeting the first and third Mondays of each month at the Lincoln County Courthouse, 181 N. Main St., Pioche. Janine Woodworth (District B) is Chair and Mike Reese (District D) Vice Chair; the others are Diane Path (District A), Lisa Poulsen (District C) and Keith Pearson (District E). Contact PO Box 90, Pioche, NV 89043, 775-962-8072. There is no jail district and no dedicated jail tax; the Detention Center is run as a county enterprise fund (fund 064) supported by an operating transfer from the General Fund - $1,085,000 in the year ended 30 June 2025. At the time of research the board was advertising for letters of interest for the position of Lincoln County District Attorney.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Lincoln 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.
The county clerk or registrar of voters runs the election in Lincoln County and prints the ballot the sheriff’s name is on. Links from USA.gov and vote.gov.
Names verified 2026-08-23 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered