The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byEmery County Sheriff's Office
- Sheriff's Office address (per county site)1850 North Des Bee Dove Road, Castle Dale, Utah 84513
- Jail service agreementOctober 15, 2024 Emery County Commission meeting agenda includes 'Discuss/Approve/Deny Jail Service Agreement Amendment between Emery County and TurnKey'
- Inmate medical careApril 4, 2023 Emery County Commission meeting agenda includes an agreement for Emery County Jail inmate medical care with named providers
- What was triedemery.utah.gov site, department directory, and full site sitemap checked — no dedicated jail/corrections page exists on the county's own site; third-party inmate-lookup sites gave contradictory, unverifiable bed counts (20/72/136) and were not used
Source: Utah.gov Public Notice Website — Emery County Commission Meeting, Oct. 15, 2024 · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
0/10Closed- ✗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
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 Tyson Huntington
- Runs the jailSheriff's Office operates the Emery County Jail (per Emery County Commission public meeting agendas referencing a jail service agreement and inmate medical care contract); no dedicated jail page is published on the county's own site
- How the office is filledElected
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Utah Sheriffs Association — Sheriff Directory, Sheriff Tyson Huntington · checked 2026-08-24
The Judges
Utah judges are appointed by the Governor through a nominating commission, then face retention election. They are state judicial officers, not county officials.
Seventh District Court — Presiding Judge
- Don M. Torgerson
Emery County Justice Court
- Jon Carpenter
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-24
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
- Emery County's own website (emery.utah.gov) has no dedicated jail/corrections page; existence and operator of the jail were confirmed only through Emery County Commission meeting agendas hosted on the state's Utah.gov Public Notice Website, not the county's own domain — so the 'named' check is scored 'no' per the brief's instruction that only what the county itself publishes counts.
- Numerous third-party inmate-lookup sites (jailexchange.com, utahinmates.org, statecourts.org, etc.) publish wildly inconsistent bed counts (20, 72, 136) and at least one clearly fabricated claim (that the jail is 'closed' and inmates are sent to North Dakota); none were used as sources.
- Three-member elected Emery County Commission: Keven Jensen (Chairman), Jordan Leonard (Vice Chairman), Dennis Worwood.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Emery 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 2026-08-24 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered