Herkimer County, New York — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Herkimer County Correctional Facility

Operated byHerkimer County Sheriff's Office
Jail address711 Middleville Rd., Herkimer, NY 13350 (county's own page)
Address on state listNYS Commission of Correction list gives 11 Middleville Road, Herkimer, NY 13350
Rated capacity130, with room for future expansion
SizeAbout 74,000 square feet
LayoutThree housing pods, kitchen, medical suite, visiting area and jail administration
Phone providerGTL
Segregated confinementCounty reports show zero individuals in segregated confinement in 2026
Jail AdministratorDoug Barnes, Chief Deputy (Corrections)

Source: Herkimer County — Correctional Facility · checked 2026-09-20

Transparency rating

4/10Partial

✓The jail is named
✗Who is in custody — not published
✓Beds and daily population
✓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
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Herkimer County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-20. 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 — county photos show construction in March and July 2020
Original costNot found
Paid for byCounty bond: the 2025 adopted budget lists 'Herkimer County Correctional Facility 2018' as debt outstanding with a $1,395,000 balance at 3.25%
Beds130 rated capacity

Since then

Facility described as built with room for future expansion

The Sheriff

Sheriff Scott Scherer

Runs the jailYes — the Herkimer County Sheriff's Office runs the Herkimer County Correctional Facility
How the office is filledElected county sheriff (NY County Law art. 17)
Corrections commandChief Deputy, Corrections — Doug Barnes

Still needed

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

Source: Herkimer County — Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-20

The Judges

New York's county and supreme court justices are state judicial officers, not county officials; city, town and village justices also set bail for people arrested in their areas.

Herkimer County Circuit Court

Not found

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 2026-09-20

The County Legislature or Board of Supervisors

They pay for the jail. In most counties the sheriff runs it.

What they controlThe jail budget, the building itself, and the agreements that rent its beds to other agencies. Several counties also have an elected County Executive. In Westchester a county Department of Correction runs the jail rather than the sheriff.
What they don'tDay-to-day operations, and state oversight. The sheriff is separately elected and keeps the jail in most counties (NY Correction Law art. 20), while the State Commission of Correction sets the standards, inspects the facility and investigates every death in custody. The five New York City counties have no county sheriff jail at all — the city Department of Correction runs them.
Note17-member County Legislature; agendas, minutes, rules and charter are posted.
The boardHerkimer County Legislature →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

One of the fuller records in this group: the county publishes the facility's rated capacity (130), size, layout, visitation rules, commissary and bail arrangements.
The sheriff's page posts monthly Jail Population reports back to June 2023 (for example https://www.herkimercountyny.gov/download/document.php?docid=6342, March 2026) plus a 'Jail Projection Update'.
Bail posting guidance is published: 24/7, cash, credit card or bail bond.
The 2025 Adopted Budget on the county site carries 'Department 3110 - Sheriff' and 'Department 3150 - Jail', and a 'Department 3150A - Correctional Facility Fnd' revenue line.
No PREA, inspection, death-in-custody or contract material was found on the county domain.
What was tried: the supplied URL https://www.herkimercounty.org/government/sheriff.php 404s; the herkimercounty.org root redirects to herkimercountyny.gov, the right New York county.
No searches were spent on this county.
State inspection/oversight: New York's State Commission of Correction oversees every local correctional facility in the state, sets the minimum standards they must meet, inspects them, and investigates every death in custody.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Herkimer 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 legislators who pay for it.

Names verified 2026-09-20 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered