Corson County

The Detention Center

The county publishes no formal name for this facility.

• Operated byNone — Corson County contracts inmate housing with Meade County, SD
• Where prisoners goMeade County, SD, under a jail/inmate housing contract stated on the Corson County Sheriff's own page
• 2020 CensusCorson County does not appear among the 26 South Dakota counties with a facility in the 2020 Census correctional-facility file, consistent with contracting out rather than operating a jail
• Tribal jurisdictionCorson County is one of the six South Dakota counties lying entirely within a reservation (Standing Rock). South Dakota is a non-Public Law 280 state; a reservation inside a county's boundaries does not put detention there under the county sheriff. This is a jurisdictional fact, not a gap or a failure. No tribal or BIA detention facility name specific to the Standing Rock area on the South Dakota side was located in the sources reviewed this session — none of the tribal facilities named in the state-layer research (Cheyenne River, Lower Brule, Rosebud, Sisseton-Wahpeton, Oglala Sioux/Pine Ridge) is a Standing Rock facility, and no Standing Rock facility was independently found or confirmed.

Source: Corson County, South Dakota — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-25

• ✗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 Corson County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-25. 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 applicable — no county-operated jail
• Original costNot applicable
• Paid for byNot applicable
• BedsNot applicable

The Sheriff

Sheriff Alan Dale

• JailCorson County has no jail of its own; the office 'currently maintains a jail/inmate housing contract with Meade County, SD'
• Also servesPrimary law enforcement agency for the City of McLaughlin, SD
• How the office is filledElected countywide, four-year term (SDCL 7-7-1.1)

Source: Corson County, South Dakota — Sheriff · 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.

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 →