MoBetta South Dakota — Every County. A Jail, a Sheriff, a Judge.

Every one of these counties has a jail, a sheriff, and a judge.

That is the one thing every county in America has in common. The jail belongs to the people of the county and is paid for out of their taxes. The sheriff who runs it is elected. The judge who decides who sits in it is elected or appointed. Three offices, enormous power, and almost nobody watching.

How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?

The JailWho it holds, what it costs the county, and who dies in it.

The SheriffElected. Runs the jail. Sets its budget request and its culture.

The JudgeSets bond — which decides who waits in that jail and who goes home.

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. The Justice Department is required to count deaths in custody and does not do it properly — a Senate investigation found it failed to identify more than 990 such deaths in a single year. MoBetta is building the county-by-county record instead.

South Dakota — county records in progress. Hover any county above; the pages open next.

We Decide. We Lead. We Vote.

Every one of these counties has a jail, a sheriff, and a judge.