The Detention Center
San Juan County Jail
- Operated bySan Juan County Sheriff's Office
- LocationMonticello, UT; Sheriff's Office mailing address is 297 S. Main Street, Monticello, Utah 84535
- PopulationHouses an average of 90 inmates, per the county's own jail page
- State contractDescribed as 'a state contract facility for the housing and treatment of sex offender prisoners' — no dollar rate published
- ProgrammingInmates have access to an education center for a high school diploma and continuing education, and produce crocheted items donated to those in need
- What was triedsanjuancountyut.gov/484/Jail and /485/Bail checked for beds, year built, and cost — not published beyond the average-population figure above
Source: San Juan County — Jail · checked 2026-08-24
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗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
- ✓How to post bond
- ✗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 (county publishes an average daily population of 90 inmates, not a rated bed count)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Not found
- Runs the jailYes — San Juan County Jail, under the Sheriff's Office
- 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: San Juan County — Sheriff · 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. The Seventh Judicial District covers Carbon, Emery, Grand, and San Juan Counties.
Seventh District Court — Presiding Judge
- Don M. Torgerson
San Juan County Justice/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 2026-08-24
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
- Capacity check credited on the published average population figure (90 inmates); no separate rated bed count was found.
- Contracts check credited because the county's own jail page discloses it is 'a state contract facility for the housing and treatment of sex offender prisoners,' but no per-diem or dollar rate is published alongside that disclosure.
- Individual sheriff's name could not be confirmed: the county's Sheriff and Elected-Officials pages describe the office and list a department phone/address but do not name the sitting sheriff in the page content that could be retrieved.
- Three-member elected San Juan County Board of Commissioners: Lori Maughan (Chair), Jamie Harvey (Vice Chair), Silvia Stubbs. Commission meetings are held at the San Juan County Courthouse in Monticello.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in San Juan 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