The Detention Center
Not scored. The county's own website was not reachable in the session that produced this record, so its disclosures were never examined. This is a gap in the research, not a finding about the county.
- Operated byNot found
- JailNot found - no county page could be opened. Commercial sites refer to a 'Calhoun County Detention Center' in Hampton, but they are not sources and are not relied on
- Where prisoners goNot found
- What was triedThe county's own site, calhoun.ark.org/departments, was returned by search but refused on both http and https (robots.txt could not be fetched); arcounties.org/counties/calhoun/ was refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED). Neither was retried. The rest of the search results were commercial inmate-lookup sites (jailexchange.com, hamptoncityjailar.org, arkansassheriffsassociation.com, countyjailroster.net, arkansasprisonroster.org, arkansasinmateroster.org, garlandcountysheriff.com, govbackgroundchecks.com), none cited. The group's search budget was then exhausted
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryHolds: Male & Female; capacity 28; jail phone (870) 798-2323; jail administrator Shenna Clary. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/calhoun-county-sheriff/
Source: · checked 2026-09-18
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
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Vernon Morris
- Runs the jailNot established - no county page could be opened
- 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
- Source of the nameName from the Association of Arkansas Counties directory, not a county page; checked 18 September 2026
- Office phone (directory)(870) 798-2323
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryLists Vernon Morris ('Elected in 2019'); office 449 9th Street, Hampton, AR 71744, phone (870) 798-2323. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/calhoun-county-sheriff/
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Association of Arkansas Counties — Calhoun County page (statewide directory, checked 18 September 2026) · 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 judgeFloyd Nutt — 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
- Calhoun County, Arkansas's own site (calhoun.ark.org) refused every automated attempt, and no sheriff's own site was found. The ten checks are left empty because the county was not examined - this is not a finding that it publishes nothing.
- No sheriff, jail, county seat or official is recorded because none could be confirmed from a page that opened.
- 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's site could not be opened, so no officials are named and no minutes were examined.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Calhoun 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