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

The Detention Center

Sweetwater County Detention Center

Operated bySweetwater County Sheriff's Office
Built2005. The county calls it the county's only jail, with capacity over 200 inmates.
Address50140 US Highway 191 South, Rock Springs, WY 82901 — in Rock Springs, not the county seat.
JuvenilesOne of only four county facilities in Wyoming with a separate juvenile holding facility.
Federal detaineesThe facility appears on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detention-facility list.

Source: Sweetwater County detention · checked August 21, 2026

Transparency rating

4/10Partial

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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Sweetwater 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 builtApril 2005 — groundbreaking September 2003
Original cost$12 million total project as reported at groundbreaking; the construction contract was $10.336 million
Paid for byA half-cent sixth-penny sales tax approved by voters in November 2001. Collection began February 2002 and by September 2003 had raised about $7.2 million — the commission chairman said the jail would be paid off by the time it was built.
BedsOver 200, per the county; designed for 208, reported as 205 in 2025

Since then

2018 — a separate $20.25 million justice center on the same site: $16.36 million county, $3.89 million state grants. Not a jail expansion.
2025 — dedicated federal detainee beds raised from 15 to 30, an operational change

The Sheriff

Sheriff John Grossnickle

LeadershipThe county states the office is led by Sheriff John Grossnickle and Undersheriff Joe Tomich.

Still needed

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

Source: Sweetwater County Sheriff · 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, 3rd Judicial District

Hon. John Prokos — appointed June 2013; term expires January 2027
Hon. E. Dean Stout — appointed May 2026; term expires January 2029

50140C US Highway 191 South, Suite 200, Rock Springs, WY 82901

District Court, 3rd Judicial District

Hon. Suzannah G. Robinson — appointed October 2019; term expires January 2027
Hon. Clark Stith — appointed April 2026; term expires January 2029

80 West Flaming Gorge Way, Suite 255, Green River, WY 82935

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

Two judges here were appointed within months of this check — District Judge Stith in April 2026 and Circuit Judge Stout in May 2026.
The jail is in Rock Springs while the county seat and district court are in Green River; the circuit court shares the jail's campus.
This is the county that appears on ICE's own detention-facility list, and it publishes the least about that relationship of anything a reader would want.
Commissioner minutes from May 2026 record the sheriff telling the board that ICE-related revenue streams have generated an estimated $1 million for the county. No agreement, no per-diem rate, and no bond information appear anywhere on the county site.
No deaths-in-custody reporting, despite in-custody deaths at this facility reported by news outlets.
This is where the ICE revenue was disclosed. The archive is split: April 2023 to now is on the meeting portal linked here; everything earlier — including older detainee-revenue discussions — is on the county's legacy agendas page.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Sweetwater 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 Sweetwater 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