Pennington County

The Detention Center

Pennington County Jail

• Operated byPennington County Sheriff's Office
• Address307 Saint Joseph St, Rapid City, SD 57701
• Capacity662 adult beds plus 53 juvenile detainee spaces, per the county's own jail history page
• HistoryNew $10.2 million jail opened 1989 (236-bed, later reconfigured to 276 beds); a 2006 annex added a further 328-bed section (also described as a $10.2 million project); 2018 renovation replaced 30-year-old kitchen and laundry facilities; the county has operated jail functions since 1878
• AccreditationAmerican Correctional Association (ACA) accredited since 1993, reaccredited 2018; the county's own page states the facility must meet '100% of the applicable mandatory standards and at least 90% of applicable non-mandatory standards' to keep accreditation
• PREACounty's own PREA page lists three completed formal audits — 2017, 2019, and 2022 — plus annual PREA incident tracking data from 2016 through 2025
• Expansion in progressThe 'Pennington County Jail Tower Project' page states the jail 'has been over capacity for nearly a decade'; two public meetings were held in July 2025; cost, added bed count, and completion date were not published on the pages reviewed
• Grant historyIn 2015 the county was a MacArthur Foundation Safety and Justice Challenge finalist and in 2017 was awarded $1.75 million under that program, per the county's own page
• Roster / bail'Current Inmates' roster (hosted at apps.pennco.org, on the county's own pennco.org domain) is normally updated every 15 minutes; as of this research pass the county's own page stated: 'Due to a current cybersecurity incident affecting portions of our network, our current inmate list is unavailable,' with the apps.pennco.org link given as 'THE ONLY INMATE SPECIFIC INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC.' Bail/bond guidance (cash, surety, credit card via courtmoney.com) is published on the county's own Inmate Bail page.

Source: Pennington County — Jail · checked 2026-08-25

• ✓The jail is named
• ✓Who is in custody
• ✓Beds and daily population
• ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
• ✗Deaths in custody — not published
• ✓PREA audits
• ✓Independent inspection
• ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
• ✓How to post bond
• ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Pennington 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 built1989 (jail); 2006 annex
• Original cost$10.2 million (1989 jail); 2006 annex also described as a $10.2 million project
• Paid for byNot found — funding mechanism (bond, sales tax, general fund) not specified on the pages reviewed
• Beds662 adult beds plus 53 juvenile detainee spaces

The Sheriff

Sheriff Brian Mueller

• Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office operates the Pennington County Jail as one of its divisions, under SDCL 24-11-13
• How the office is filledElected countywide, four-year term (SDCL 7-7-1.1)
• Office sizeCounty's own site: the Sheriff's Office serves roughly 100,000 residents across 2,776 square miles with 'over 400 employees with an annual budget of approximately $30 million' across Addiction Services, Jail, Western SD Juvenile Services Center, and Law Enforcement divisions; 118 deputies in the Patrol Division

Source: Pennington 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