Marshall County

The Detention Center

Marshall County Jail

• Operated byMarshall County Sheriff's Office (Sheriff Samuel R. Swanson)
• Age and sizeThe South Dakota Sheriffs' Association county page describes "a six bed jail built in 1908" but attributes it to "Sheriff Elsen" — a predecessor, not the current sheriff — so this text reads as stale and the building description is reported with that caveat, not as confirmed current
• 2020 Census custodial population3 people at "Marshall Co. Jail" on April 1, 2020, per the Prison Gerrymandering Project's republication of the Census correctional facility file (a one-day snapshot, not a bed count) — see plains_states.json
• What was triedMarshall County's own site, https://marshall.sdcounties.org/, was fetched along with its sheriff page (https://marshall.sdcounties.org/sheriff/); the sheriff page gives contact and accident-report information but does not mention a jail, jail address, bed count, or year built.

Source: South Dakota Sheriffs' Association — Marshall County · 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 Marshall 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 built1908, per the South Dakota Sheriffs' Association (not the county's own site, and attributed to a predecessor sheriff's tenure — not counted toward the checks above)
• Original costNot found
• Paid for byNot found
• Beds6, per the South Dakota Sheriffs' Association (not the county's own site — not counted toward the checks above)

The Sheriff

Sheriff Samuel R. Swanson

• Contact911 Vander Horck, PO Box 9, Britton, SD 57430; 605-448-5181
• In office sinceSworn in as Marshall County Sheriff in July 2021, per the South Dakota Sheriffs' Association
• How the office is filledElected countywide, four-year term (SDCL 7-7-1.1)
• CircuitFifth Judicial Circuit (SDCL 16-5-1.2)

Source: South Dakota Sheriffs' Association — Marshall County · 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); a mid-term vacancy is filled by the Governor from two or more names put forward by the Judicial Qualifications Commission. Full-time magistrate judges are nominated by the circuit's presiding judge and approved by the Supreme Court, not elected (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 →