The Detention Center
No county jail identified
- Operated byNot found
- County siteMoody County's own Sheriff's Department page describes deputies transporting inmates to and from court but does not name a jail or detention facility, nor a neighboring county used for detention
- 2020 Census snapshotNo Moody County jail facility appears in the Prison Policy Initiative's republished Census correctional facility file
- What was triedhttps://www.moodycounty.net/ and https://www.moodycounty.net/sheriffs-department/ fetched and searched for 'jail,' 'detention,' and neighboring-county references (Minnehaha, Lake, Brookings); none found. Where Moody County's prisoners are housed was NOT established from the sources reviewed.
Source: Moody County — Sheriff's Department · checked 2026-08-25
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 Troy Wellman
- Runs the jailNo county jail was found; the Sheriff's Office page states deputies 'transport inmates to and from court hearings' but does not identify a county-operated detention facility
- How the office is filledElected countywide, four-year term (SDCL 7-7-1.1); county and South Dakota Sheriffs' Association sources agree he was elected in 2006 and has served since 2007
- StaffCounty's own site states the office 'consists of the Sheriff, five full time deputies, and four full time 911 dispatchers'
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Moody County — Sheriff's Department · 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.
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
- Moody County is not among the roughly 26 South Dakota counties the state-layer research lists as operating a jail. No jail was found on the county's own site and none appears in the 2020 Census correctional facility file. This is not treated as a gap — SDCL 24-11-3 lets a county without a jail send prisoners to a neighboring county under written agreement — but which county Moody uses was not established from the sources reviewed.
- Board of County Commissioners, five members by district (SDCL 7-8-2): Jerry Doyle (Chair, District 1), Kendra Eng (District 2), Dave Reker (Vice-Chair, District 3), Randy Hemmer (District 4), Doug Entringer (District 5).
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Moody 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