Roberts County

The Detention Center

Jail/Juvenile Detention Center (as described on the county's own site; no separate proper name was found)

• Operated byRoberts County Sheriff's Office
• County's own site, on the facility"the County built a $7,000,000 Jail/Juvenile Detention Center which opened in April of 2008" — quoted directly from the county homepage's history section
• Year built / cost2008; $7,000,000 (original construction cost, per the same sentence)
• 2020 Census correctional facility file"Roberts Co. Jail" recorded a census-day (April 1, 2020) population of 40
• Budget — jail expenditures (county audit)$1,469,839.45 (2020); $1,511,589.48 (2019), per the "Statement of Revenues, Expenditures and Changes in Fund Balances," Public Safety section
• Budget — sheriff department expenditures (county audit)$465,304.96 (2020); $502,628.87 (2019), same audit
• Audit findingThe same independent audit (covering the two years ended December 31, 2020) reported internal control deficiencies in the Sheriff/Jail Department regarding record keeping, cash counts, meal reconciliation, and evidence room procedures, noting the finding had recurred "in the sixth consecutive audit report" — reported here as what the audit recorded, not characterised further
• Roster / capacity / deaths / PREA / inspections / contracts / bond / feesNo page on the county's own site publishing any of these was found this session

Source: Roberts County, South Dakota — Homepage (facility history) · checked 2026-08-25

• ✓The jail is named
• ✗Who is in custody — not published
• ✗Beds and daily population — not published
• ✓What it costs taxpayers
• ✗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 Roberts 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 built2008
• Original cost$7,000,000
• Paid for byNot found
• BedsNot found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Tyler Appel

• ElectedYes — SDCL 7-7-1.1, four-year term
• Contact11924 BIA Hwy 700, Sisseton, SD 57262; (605) 698-7667; fax (605) 698-7386; robertscoso@venturecomm.net
• Runs the jailAs the county's officer in charge of the jail under SDCL 24-11-13; no separate jail administrator page was found on the county's own site

Source: Roberts County, South Dakota — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-25

The Judges

South Dakota circuit judges are elected in a nonpolitical election to eight-year terms (SD Constitution Art. V §7; SDCL 16-6-3); a midterm vacancy is filled by the Governor from Judicial Qualifications Commission nominees. Many first appearances go instead to an appointed magistrate judge (SDCL 16-12B-1.2) or a clerk magistrate working off a bond schedule (SDCL 16-12C-10), neither of whom is elected. All are state judicial officers, not county officials.

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 →