The Detention Center
Baxter County Detention Center
- Operated byBaxter County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address904 Hwy 62 W., Mountain Home, AR 72653
- Jail Administrator (sheriff's staff)Lieutenant Tabitha Maze
- HousingLow/medium security males, high security males, females, isolation and temporary holding cells; pre-trial detainees and sentenced inmates, including those awaiting transport to the Arkansas Department of Corrections
- 2025 figures (sheriff's page)2,008 bookings; 73% misdemeanor, 27% felony; high population 131, low 83; recidivism rate stated as 70%
- Beds published by the countyNot published
- RosterCurrent-inmate roster with bond amounts; showed 88 inmates when opened on 18 September 2026
- Inspection statementThe page states the Detention Center 'operates in full compliance with guidelines set forth by the Arkansas Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee and is routinely inspected by members of that committee'; no report or date is published
- ExpansionThe sheriff's newsletter page mentions 'Jail Expansion Construction Completed' (a reprinted item) with no date, cost or beds
- What was triedSheriff's home, jail, administration, message/newsletter and current roster pages opened. The county government site www.baxtercountyar.gov, linked from the sheriff's site, was refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED) and not retried
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryHolds: Male and Female; capacity 165; jail phone (870) 321-1671; jail administrator Lt. Tabitha Maze. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/baxter-county-sheriff/
Source: Baxter County Sheriff's Office - Jail · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsNot found
Since then
- A jail expansion is mentioned as completed on the sheriff's newsletter page; no date, cost or bed count given
The Sheriff
Sheriff John Montgomery
- Runs the jailYes - the sheriff's office site carries the Detention Center page and the inmate roster
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff, four-year term (Ark. Const. art. 7, § 46; Amendment 95)
- Statutory basisA.C.A. § 12-41-502 gives the county sheriff the custody, rule, and charge of the jail and all prisoners committed in the county
- Name as published'Sheriff John Montgomery' on the sheriff's home page; no tenure dates published there
- Office904 Hwy 62 W., Mountain Home, AR 72653; 870-425-7000 (24-hour non-emergency)
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryLists John Montgomery ('Elected in 2005'); office 904 Hwy 62 W, Mountain Home, AR 72653, phone (870) 425-7000. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/baxter-county-sheriff/
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Baxter County Sheriff's Office - home page · checked 2026-09-18
The Judges
Arkansas circuit judges are elected on a nonpartisan ballot to six-year terms; the governor fills a mid-term vacancy by appointment until the next general election. They are state judicial officers, not county officials. Under Ark. R. Crim. P. 8.1 an arrested person goes before a judicial officer without unnecessary delay; depending on the court, that may be a circuit judge or a magistrate. Arkansas's "county judge" is the county's chief executive, not a judicial officer, and does not set bail. No page opened names the county's judicial circuit or a judge.
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-18
The County Judge and Quorum Court
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- County judgeKevin Litty — the county’s chief executive, not a judicial officer; named in the Association of Arkansas Counties directory, checked 2026-09-18
- What they controlThe county judge and quorum court fund and build the jail: the detention budget, the building itself, and any dedicated jail sales tax.
- What they don'tCustody of the jail. Under A.C.A. § 12-41-502 the elected sheriff has “the custody, rule, and charge” of the jail and its prisoners.
- The quorum courtNo quorum court page was found on the county's own site
Notes on the record
- The sheriff's own domain, baxtercountysheriff.com (Mountain Home, Arkansas), is first-party and was read. The county's own site, baxtercountyar.gov, was refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED), so budget, quorum court minutes and any inspection report considered under A.C.A. § 12-26-108 are unexamined rather than confirmed absent.
- The jail page names the Baxter County Detention Center and the roster lists current inmates with bond amounts. Bond amounts are not guidance on how to post bail, so bond_info is no.
- The capacity check is no: the jail page publishes the 2025 high (131) and low (83) population counts but no bed count and no daily population.
- The jail page asserts compliance with the Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee's guidelines and routine inspection, but publishes no inspection report, so inspections is no and state_inspection is blank. The claim is the sheriff's own statement, recorded as such.
- County seat recorded as Not found: no page opened states it (the county site was refused). The sheriff's office and jail are in Mountain Home.
- Commercial inmate-lookup sites and privately owned sites in the search results (baxtercourt.us, arkansassheriffsassociation.com, arkansasprisonroster.org, thepublicindex.org, govbackgroundchecks.com) are not cited.
- Arkansas law requires each county jail to be inspected at least annually by a governor-appointed district criminal detention facility review committee (A.C.A. § 12-26-107), against mandatory state minimum standards. The written report goes to the district's administrative judge and to the county judge; state law does not require it to be published, and no public state repository of the reports was located.
- County seat from CCCarto's Arkansas county-seat list (https://www.cccarto.com/countyseats/arkansas/), checked 18 September 2026; it names ten two-seat counties, including Franklin (Ozark and Charleston).
- Arkansas form: an elected County Judge (chief executive) and a Quorum Court (legislative body). The county government site (baxtercountyar.gov) was refused before it could be read, so no County Judge or justice of the peace is named and no minutes were examined.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Baxter 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 justices of the peace on the quorum court who pay for it.
Names verified 2026-09-18 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered