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

The Detention Center

The county publishes no formal name for this facility.

Operated byTeton County Sheriff's Office, Support Services Division
What the county saysThe sheriff's office calls it only “the Detention Center” — no fuller proper name appears on its pages.
SizeCompleted 1986 at 35 beds, expanded 2003 to 45 beds. 175 S. Willow Street, Jackson, WY 83001.
Holds for othersThe sheriff's office lists seven agencies: its own, Jackson Police, Wyoming Highway Patrol, Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks, Wyoming Game and Fish, and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Federal detaineesThe office's FAQ confirms the facility holds people for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Source: Teton County Sheriff — Detention Center · checked August 21, 2026

Transparency rating

4/10Partial

✓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 — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Teton 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 built1986
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds45

Since then

2003 — ten beds added, 35 → 45; cost not published
FY2020–21 — a $250,000 locker-room remodel, a $526,000 building automation system and $167,500 of HVAC work, from the county's own capital budget
2026–28 — a roughly $120 million replacement justice center, $88 million of it from a voter-approved sales tax. Groundbreaking was May 2026.

The Sheriff

Sheriff Matt Carr

Where the name appearsThe signature block on the sheriff's office welcome page.

Still needed

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

Source: Teton County Sheriff's Office · 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, 9th Judicial District

Hon. Erin E. Weisman — appointed August 2024; term expires January 2027

250 E. Simpson Avenue, Jackson, WY 83001

District Court, 9th Judicial District

Hon. Melissa M. Owens — appointed January 2022; term expires January 2031

250 E. Simpson Avenue, Jackson, WY 83001

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

No proper name is published for this jail, so none is invented here.
The formal name “Teton County Detention Center” appears only in a mailing address. Every narrative page calls it “the Detention Center.”
The sheriff lists seven agencies it holds prisoners for. ICE is not among them — ICE appears only in a FAQ answer directing callers to the Cheyenne ICE office.
Voters rejected a $53 million justice center in 2008 and a $2 million planning measure in 2019 before approving the current project.
The county also posts meeting video and staff-written action reports.

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