The Detention Center
Codington County Detention Center
- Operated byCodington County Sheriff's Office (Sheriff Brad Howell)
- Address14 1st Ave SE, Watertown, SD 57201
- ContractsSite states the facility 'provides inmate housing and care for Codington County and contracts services with multiple nearby counties'; no rates published
- Justice Advisory CommitteeA standing county committee that examines 'issues surrounding the County's legal responsibility to provide adequate jail and court space'
- RosterA current inmate roster PDF is offered on the sheriff's page, with the caveat: 'This is NOT a complete list of inmates. We do not post juvenile information nor mental health holds.'
- Commissary/communicationsDeposits via JailATM.com; onsite lobby kiosk (cash, Visa, Mastercard); video/voice communication via the Prodigy Sales platform — no rate schedule published
- 2020 Census custodial population58 people on April 1, 2020 (a one-day snapshot, not a bed count)
Source: Codington County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-25
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗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
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
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Brad Howell
- FacilityCodington County Detention Center, 14 1st Ave SE, Watertown
- How the office is filledElected countywide, four-year term (SDCL 7-7-1.1)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Codington County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-25
The Judges
South Dakota circuit judges are elected nonpartisan for an eight-year term (SD Const. Art. V §7; SDCL 16-6-3). Full-time magistrate judges are nominated by the circuit's presiding judge and approved by the Supreme Court (SDCL 16-12B-1.2). No county-specific judge names were located from a source opened this session.
Circuit Court — Third Judicial Circuit (14 judges; Codington is one of 14 member counties)
- Not found
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-25
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
- Ignored jailrosters.org as a commercial/aggregator source; not cited.
- 'contracts' check marked no because the site describes contracting with other counties but publishes no rates.
- South Dakota has no state agency that inspects adult county jails. See the state-layer entry in plains_states.json.
- Board of County Commissioners: Troy VanDusen (Chairman, District 4), Randy Schweer (Vice Chairman, District 5), Tyler McElhany (District 2), Myron Johnson (District 3), Lee Gabel (District 1). Meets Tuesdays at 9:00 AM at the County Courthouse.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Codington 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.
Names verified 2026-08-25 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered