Mellette County

The Detention Center

Not found

• Operated byMellette County Sheriff's Office
• Jail operationsThe Sheriff's Office page states after-hours dispatch coverage '24/7 begins at 7:30am (CT), at the jail,' but does not give the facility a proper name, address, or bed count
• 2020 Census snapshotNo Mellette County jail facility appears in the Prison Policy Initiative's republished Census correctional facility file
• What was triedhttps://mellettecounty.org/departments/sheriffs-office/ and https://mellettecounty.org/ fetched; no address, capacity, budget, or transparency information found

Source: Mellette County — Sheriff's Office · 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 Mellette 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 Lafe Gildemaster

• Runs the jailSheriff's office page states after-hours coverage '24/7 begins at 7:30am (CT), at the jail,' indicating the sheriff's office operates jail functions; SDCL 24-11-13 makes the sheriff the jail's officer in charge
• How the office is filledElected countywide, four-year term (SDCL 7-7-1.1)
• StaffCounty's own site lists Deputy Sheriffs Thomas Keller and Donte Charging Eagle, and Civil Deputy Shirley Bruning
• Data quality noteThe South Dakota Sheriffs' Association's directory page names a different, earlier sheriff (Trevor Willcuts) for Mellette County; that page also states its own photo/bio content is 'Under Construction.' The county's own site (mellettecounty.org), fetched directly, names Lafe Gildemaster and is treated here as the current and authoritative source.

Source: Mellette County — Sheriff's Office · 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, sec. 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 this county were not located from the sources reviewed 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