The Detention Center
Davison County Jail
- Operated byDavison County Sheriff's Office (Sheriff Steve Harr)
- Location1015 S Miller Ave, Mitchell, SD 57301 — the Public Safety Building, a former Methodist hospital purchased in the early 1990s; the jail has operated there since 1996 (Mitchell Republic)
- CapacityMaximum 72 inmates; realistic operating capacity about 60 (Mitchell Republic, quoting Sheriff Harr)
- ConditionSheriff Harr, quoted by the Mitchell Republic: 'We're very well known in South Dakota amongst law enforcement and inmates that we have the worst jail in South Dakota'; the paper also reports pieces of concrete coming off the walls
- Replacement plansDiscussed at a May 27 [2026] county budget review; no cost was set as of that report. Commissioners cited Mitchell High School's $70 million project only as an informal cost reference point, with disagreement over whether a new jail would cost more or less (Mitchell Republic)
- Jail Services (county's own directory)The county's own 2020 Directory of Services PDF lists a distinct 'Jail Services' line with its own 24/7 desk, control room, and general jail contacts
Source: Mitchell Republic — Davison County board, sheriff discuss long-term need for a new county jail · checked 2026-08-25
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtFacility in use since 1996 (former Methodist hospital, purchased early 1990s) — per Mitchell Republic, not the county's own site
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsMaximum 72; realistic operating capacity about 60 — per Mitchell Republic, not the county's own site
Since then
- A replacement facility is under discussion as of the county's 2026 budget cycle; no cost or funding source set as of the source reviewed
The Sheriff
Sheriff Steve Harr
- Chief DeputyTim Reitzel
- Jail staffGrant Lanning, listed as 'Jail Admin/Deputy Sheriff'
- 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: Davison 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.
- 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 →
Notes on the record
- capacity/budget/deaths facts above come from the Mitchell Republic, a newspaper — not the county's own domain — so they are recorded as background facts only and do not count toward the 'yes' transparency checks, which require a county-domain source.
- 2020 Census custodial population for the Davison County Jail: 41 people on April 1, 2020 (a one-day snapshot, not a bed count) — https://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/data/prisons2020/SD/ (pre-authorised state-layer source).
- South Dakota has no state agency that inspects adult county jails. See the state-layer entry in plains_states.json.
- Board of County Commissioners. The county's own 2020 Directory of Services PDF lists Brenda Bode (Chair, Dist. 3), Kim Weitala (Vice Chair, Dist. 1), Randy Reider (Dist. 2), Dennis Kiner (Dist. 4) and John Claggett (Dist. 5) — but that document is dated July 2020 and may be stale. The Mitchell Republic's 2026 reporting names Chris Nebelsick, John Claggett and Denny Kiner as current commissioners discussing the jail; Nebelsick does not appear in the 2020 directory, so the board's exact current composition beyond Claggett and Kiner is not fully confirmed from a source opened this session.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Davison 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