Walworth County

The Detention Center

Walworth County Jail

• Operated byWalworth County Sheriff's Office (inferred — no separate department page found on the county's own site)
• County's own siteWalworth County's own site (walworth.sdcounties.org) lists 16 departments, including Sheriff, but no separate Jail department page; no jail information was found there.
• 2020 Census correctional facility file"Walworth Co. Jail" appears with a census-day (April 1, 2020) population of 17.
• Third-party capacity figure (not confirmed on the county's own site)The South Dakota Sheriffs' Association profile for Walworth County lists jail capacity as "32 beds (under construction)" — undated relative to the 2020 census figure above, and not corroborated by any Walworth County source opened this session.
• What was triedwalworthco.org, identified via the SD Association of County Officials directory as Walworth County's own domain, was refused by the fetch tool for lack of provenance.

Source: Prison Gerrymandering Project — South Dakota correctional populations, Census 2020 vintage · 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 Walworth 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 on the county's own site — see jail facts for third-party figures

The Sheriff

Sheriff Duane Mohr

• ElectedYes — SDCL 7-7-1.1, four-year term
• StaffChief Deputy Sheriff Thomas Jeans; Deputy Sheriff Jeremiah Paul
• ContactPO Box 326, 4308 4th Ave, Selby, SD 57472; (605) 649-7600; dmohr@walworthco.org
• Source discrepancy — resolved in favor of the county's own siteThe South Dakota Sheriffs' Association's county directory names a different person, Josh Boll, as Walworth County sheriff. Walworth County's own site (opened this session) names Duane Mohr. Per protocol, a sheriff who has left office is worse than "Not found," so the county's own current page is used here rather than the association listing.

Source: Walworth 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); vacancies are 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 →