Natrona County, Wyoming — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Natrona County Detention Center

Operated byNatrona County Sheriff's Office
Address1100 Bruce Lane, Casper, WY 82601.
Also hereThe county runs a separately listed Juvenile Detention Center.

Source: History of the Detention Center, natronacounty-wy.gov · checked August 21, 2026

Transparency rating

5/10Partial

✓The jail is named
✗Who is in custody — not published
✓Beds and daily population
✓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
✓Phone, video and commissary rates

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Natrona County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked August 21, 2026. 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 built1996 — 211 beds in six pods at 1100 Bruce Lane
Original costNot found. The only construction figure the county publishes is $4,000, for an 1892 town-and-county jail.
Paid for byA standing Detention Facility Joint Powers Board exists to jointly finance and construct a regional jail, but no bond, tax or dollar figure is published.
Beds476, with published average daily head counts of 220 in 2019, 218 in 2020 and 231 in 2021

Since then

2006 — four new housing pods, capacity 211 → 476; cost not published

The Sheriff

Sheriff John Harlin

Where the name appearsThe county's own staff directory lists the sheriff as John Harlin.

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Natrona County Sheriff, natronacounty-wy.gov · checked August 21, 2026

The Judges

Wyoming splits the bench. Circuit Court handles initial appearances — the first place bond is set. District Court takes felonies after bindover.

Circuit Court, 7th Judicial District

Hon. Nichole Collier — appointed July 2022; term expires January 2029
Hon. Kevin D. Taheri — appointed September 2023; term expires January 2029
Hon. Cynthia K. Sweet — appointed March 2025; term expires January 2027

115 North Center Street, Suite 400, Casper, WY 82601

District Court, 7th Judicial District

Hon. Catherine E. Wilking — appointed February 2011; term expires January 2031
Hon. Dan Forgey — appointed August 2013; term expires January 2027
Hon. Kerri M. Johnson — appointed January 2019; term expires January 2027
Hon. Joshua Eames — appointed July 2022; term expires January 2031

115 North Center Street, Suite 100, Casper, WY 82601

Still needed

The county's bond schedule
Share of the jail population held pretrial
Median time from booking to first appearance

Source: the state judiciary · checked August 21, 2026

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

The state's own county-officials directory still names a previous sheriff for Natrona County. The county's live pages govern here.
Natrona publishes the best jail history in the state — back to 1890, with bed counts at every move — and almost none of the costs.
The published population table stops at 2021.
Federal agencies publish this county's detainee agreements; the county does not.
Regular meetings, special meetings and work sessions are filed in separate categories; material before 2014 is linked separately.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Natrona 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.

The sheriff is on your ballot

In Wyoming the county clerk runs the election in Natrona County and prints the ballot the sheriff’s name is on. Links from the Wyoming Secretary of State and vote.gov.

Names verified August 21, 2026 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered