The Detention Center
Grant County Jail
- Operated byGrant County Sheriff's Office
- Address210 E 5th Avenue, Milbank, SD 57252
- PurposeThe Sheriff's Office page states it "operates a detention facility for pre-trial hold, locally sentenced prisoners and work release prisoners," adding that "[a]s space permits, the facility serves other jurisdictions" — no rate schedule for that arrangement is published
- 2020 Census snapshot"Grant Co. - Milbank Det. Ctr." held 6 people on April 1, 2020 — a point-in-time count, not a capacity figure (Prison Gerrymandering Project's republished Census facility file, cited in the state-layer research)
Source: Grant County, SD — Sheriff / Grant 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 builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jeremy Steffensen
- Runs the jailYes — the elected sheriff is the jail's officer in charge under SDCL 24-11-13
- How the office is filledElected countywide, four-year term (SDCL 7-7-1.1)
- StaffingSheriff's Office page describes six full-time deputies, an administrative assistant, and a team of five full-time and part-time dispatchers and jailers
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Grant County, SD — Sheriff · 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 Grant County were not located from any source opened.
Circuit Court — Third Circuit
- Not found
Magistrate Court
- 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
- The county's own site names its jail ("Grant County Jail") and gives its address, which is the only one of the ten checks that passes. Agendas and minutes for the Commission are posted at the same domain but no dedicated budget document was found linked.
- The Sheriff's Office page states the jail "serves other jurisdictions" as space permits, but publishes no rate schedule or contract terms, so the contracts check is scored "no."
- State-layer finding applies: no state agency inspects adult county jails in South Dakota (SDCL ch. 24-11 has no inspection section); the only outside check is a circuit judge's discretionary visitation power under SDCL 24-11-27.
- Board of County Commissioners, five members (SDCL ch. 7-8): William Tostenson (term ends 2026), Mike Mach (2026), William Street (2028), Doug Stengel (2028), Roger Hoff (2026). Individual districts were not specified on the page opened. To request placement on the agenda, contact County Administrator Kevin Owen.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Grant 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