Boone County, Arkansas — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Boone County Jail and Detention Center

Operated byBoone County Sheriff's Office
AddressSheriff's office and detention center contact: 5800 Law Drive, Harrison, AR 72601 (roster page)
Beds103 - the jail page says the county 'moved from a 36 bed facility in downtown Harrison to a new 103 bed facility on the south edge of Bellefonte'
Built2009, per the jail page ('the building of a new jail')
Jail Administrator (sheriff's staff)Nathan Jenkins; staff of an assistant administrator, 4 sergeants, 4 corporals, 10 full-time detention officers and two part-time employees
VisitationTuesday, Wednesday and Saturday, 9:00 a.m.-4:45 p.m.; immediate family only, photo ID, scheduled 24 hours ahead
MailSince 8 September 2025, inmate mail goes to 4506 Marlena St, Unit 35, Bossier City, LA 71111 for electronic processing
Commissary and phonesKiosk deposits (cash, debit, credit), commissarydeposit.com, or money orders to the Boone County Sheriff's Department; 'all calls made are COLLECT'; no rates published
RosterThe roster page read 'Inmate Roster Offline for Maintenance' when opened
What was triedSheriff's home, jail, roster, roster-choose, administration, message and contact pages opened; the press page returned a server error. No Boone County, Arkansas government site was returned by search
Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryHolds: Male and Female; capacity 149; jail phone (870) 741-8404; jail administrator Nathan Jenkins. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/boone-county-sheriff/

Source: Boone County Sheriff's Office (Arkansas) - Jail · checked 2026-09-18

Transparency rating

1/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✗Who is in custody — not published
✗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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Boone County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-18. 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 built2009
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds103

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Roy Martin

Runs the jailYes - the sheriff's site carries the Boone County Jail and Detention Center page and the detention center 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 Roy Martin' on the sheriff's home page, in press items dated 3 January 2026 and 11 August 2026, and as signer of the 'Message from Sheriff' page
Office5800 Law Drive, Harrison, Arkansas 72601; 870-741-8404 (24 hours)
Chief DeputyTim Roberson
Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryLists Roy Martin ('Elected in 2023'); office 5800 Law Drive, Harrison, AR 72601, phone (870) 741-8404 ext 1. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/boone-county-sheriff/

Still needed

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

Source: Boone County Sheriff's Office (Arkansas) - 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.

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 2026-09-18

The County Judge and Quorum Court

They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.

County judgeMItchell Archer — 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, boonesheriff.com (5800 Law Drive, Harrison, Arkansas), is first-party and was read; every page cited is Boone County, Arkansas, not Boone County, Missouri.
The jail page names the Boone County Jail and Detention Center and publishes 103 beds, the 2009 build, visitation rules and commissary channels. Capacity is no because no daily population is published; fees is no because no commissary, phone or video rates are given.
The roster check is recorded as no: the sheriff runs a roster, but it was offline for maintenance when opened (the message page links an external roster host, myr2m.com, which was not opened).
No bond guidance, PREA material, housing contract, in-custody death or budget was found. No county government site was located, so budget, quorum court minutes and any inspection report considered under A.C.A. § 12-26-108 are unexamined rather than confirmed absent.
County seat recorded as Not found: no page opened states it. The sheriff's office is in Harrison.
Wikipedia and commercial inmate-lookup sites in the search results (arkansassheriffsassociation.com, cleburnecountysheriff.com, cityofeurekasprings.org) 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). No Boone County, Arkansas government website was returned by search, 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 Boone 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