Dewey County

The Detention Center

Not found

• Operated byNot found
• 2020 Census snapshotA 'Dewey Co. Jail' is listed in the Census facility file cited in the state-layer research, with no population count reported for it — the file's only entry that reports a facility but no count
• County website exists but does not cover the sheriffdewey.sdcounties.org is a live county website (found via search, corrects a prior finding of 'no website'), but its navigation lists only Home, About, Departments (Auditor, Director of Equalization, Emergency Management, Treasurer), and Employment — no Sheriff, Jail, or Commission page or link was found on it
• Tribal jurisdictionPer the Wikipedia county article, 'Almost the entire county lies in the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. The balance of the county, along its extreme northern county line, lies in the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.' Consistent with South Dakota's status as a non-Public Law 280 state, a reservation lying inside the county's boundaries does not put tribal or federal detention matters under the county sheriff. This is not characterized as a gap or failure. No specific tribal or BIA detention facility for Dewey County was confirmed from a source opened in this pass, so none is named here.

Source: Wikipedia — Dewey County, South Dakota · 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 Dewey 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 found
• Original costNot found
• Paid for byNot found
• BedsNot found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Ash Arpan

• Office addressPO Box 340, 702 C Street, Timber Lake, SD 57656
• How the office is filledDewey County is an organized county (unlike Todd and Oglala Lakota counties) with its own elected sheriff, four-year term (SDCL 7-7-1.1)

Source: South Dakota Sheriffs' Association — Dewey County · checked 2026-08-25

The Judges

South Dakota circuit judges are elected in a nonpartisan election for an eight-year term (S.D. Const. Art. V, section 7; SDCL 16-6-3); a mid-term vacancy is filled by the Governor from two or more nominees of the Judicial Qualifications Commission. Magistrate judges, who in practice handle most rural first appearances and bail-setting under SDCL 16-12B-7, are not elected: the presiding judge of the circuit nominates them and the Supreme Court approves or disapproves the appointment (SDCL 16-12B-1.2); full-time magistrates serve four-year terms, part-time magistrates serve at the presiding judge's pleasure (SDCL 16-12B-1.3). Named circuit or magistrate judges for Dewey County were not located from a source opened in this pass.

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