Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest and crime counts are the ones each agency reported to the FBI, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site between September 24, 2026 and October 4, 2026.
Prairie County, Montana, has about 1,100 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). In Montana the public criminal record is the court file, kept by the Clerk of District Court; the statewide criminal history kept by the Montana Department of Justice is open to anyone who asks. This guide says where each record of a criminal case from Prairie County is kept and how it is seen.
This guide covers the court file, the statewide record, local arrest records, the crimes behind the records, the prosecutor, sex offender registry, records requests and common questions.
Related guides: Prairie County public records, Prairie County arrest records, Prairie County warrants, Prairie County court records, Prairie County police reports, Montana arrest records and Montana inmate search.
Criminal Cases in the Prairie County District Court
A criminal case from Prairie County is filed in the Prairie County District Court or the Justice Court, which takes misdemeanors, traffic cases and small claims, and the court file, kept by the Clerk of District Court, is the record of it that the public may see.
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at courts.mt.gov/Courts/portals (page title: Montana Public Access Portal(s)), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 24, 2026.
Montana has no single public index of every trial court case; each court's records are looked up through that court.
The Montana Criminal History and Your Own Copy
Montana is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: the CHOPRS service lets anyone search public criminal history online by name, through the Montana Department of Justice. The result is the repository record, what agencies reported to the state, which is wider than one county's court index but can lag it.
Arrest Records Kept Locally in Prairie County
The Prairie County Sheriff's Office keeps the arrest records in Prairie County: the report and the booking record of each arrest stay with the agency that made it, separate from the court file and from the state repository.
The Prairie County Sheriff's Office reported 6 arrests to the FBI for 2025; how each case ended is in the court file, not in the arresting agency's.
The agencies and their counts, year by year, are in Prairie County arrest records.
The Crimes Behind the Records: Prairie County in 2025
The one agency in Prairie County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2 violent and 4 property crimes to the FBI that year; the same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 6 crimes in 2025 against 2 in 2024. Each reported crime is a report on file with the agency that took it, and each arrest that follows is the start of a criminal record.
The full crime section, agency by agency, is on the Prairie County public records guide.
The County Attorney for Prairie County
The County Attorney decides which arrests in Prairie County become charges and files them in the Prairie County District Court or the Justice Court; the office answers questions about pending prosecutions, and the case files themselves are court records.
The office's page SearchSystems verified is at prairiecounty.org/attorney (page title: County Attorney | Prairie County), phone 406-635-4529, 217 Park St W PO Box 564 Terry, MT 59349-0126, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 30, 2026.
The Sex Offender Registry for Prairie County
Registered sex offenders living in Prairie County are listed on the Montana Sexual or Violent Offender Registry, run by the Montana Department of Justice at dojmt.gov/sexual-or-violent-offender-registry. Sexual and violent offenders are both listed.
Registration itself is done in person with the local agency where the registrant lives: the sheriff's office, or the city police in a city with its own department.
Asking an Agency in Prairie County for a Record
An arrest report, a booking record or a local criminal history letter comes from the agency that holds it, not from the court.
Under the Montana Public Records Act a county office must answer a request in a timely manner; the statute sets no number of days, and it may charge the actual cost of fulfilling the request.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are criminal records public in Prairie County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Montana Department of Justice: the CHOPRS service lets anyone search public criminal history online by name. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Montana Public Records Act.
Can I search Prairie County criminal cases online?
The court records page SearchSystems verified for the county is at courts.mt.gov/Courts/portals (page title: Montana Public Access Portal(s)).
How do I get my own Montana criminal history?
Through the same name-based search, run on yourself.
Who prosecutes crimes in Prairie County?
The County Attorney, reached at 406-635-4529, which files its cases in the Prairie County District Court or the Justice Court.
Is this the official Prairie County website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.