The Detention Center
Craighead County Detention Center
- Operated byCraighead County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address901 Willett Road, Jonesboro, AR 72401 - the jail sits in the Jonesboro (Western District) seat
- Phone(870) 933-4556 automated; (870) 933-7719 booking
- Jail administrator (sheriff's staff)Todd Harrell, (870) 933-4526, per the sheriff's jail page
- Beds - sheriff's page346 inmates, 360 after a 2007 expansion; juvenile facility 62 beds (32 male, 28 female, 2 isolation)
- Beds - county's sheriff pageAdult 381 beds; juvenile 62 beds (the two first-party figures differ)
- Daily populationNot published as a figure; the vendor roster showed 23 booked in the last 48 hours on 18 Sept 2026
- VisitationNo in-person visitation; video visits via JailATM.com at $0.35/minute ($10.50 for 30 minutes)
- MessagingJailATM.com, $0.50 per message
- PhonesCollect calls only; no per-minute rate published
- CommissaryTiger Correctional Services; orders Monday/Thursday, delivery Tuesday/Friday; no prices published
- BondOnline (ncourt / craigheadjail.com), lobby kiosk ($100, $20, $10, $5 bills), card terminal with 7% fee, or money order/cashier's check to "Craighead County"; no personal checks
- Jail sales taxCounty ordinance list includes 2024-16, "Ordinance calling and setting date for special election county sales and use tax for jail"; the ordinance text and election result were not opened
- Housing feesOrdinance list includes 2021-37 "Ord to increase and set jail fees for housing inmates" and 2023-24 (juvenile inmates); the rates themselves were not opened
- What was triedSheriff's home, jail and roster pages; county home, departments, sheriff, quorum court, office-locations, Lake City courthouse and how-do-i pages. The 12 May 2025 quorum court agenda packet PDF (craigheadcountyar.gov) was refused twice (robots.txt / SSL certificate failure).
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryHolds: Male, Female & Juvenile; capacity 433; jail phone (870) 933-4526; jail administrator Todd Harrell. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/craighead-county-sheriff/
Source: Craighead County Sheriff's Office - Jail · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗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
- ✗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 - a 2024 ordinance called a special election on a county sales and use tax for the jail (ordinance list only; outcome not confirmed)
- Beds346 (sheriff's jail page; 360 after 2007 expansion) / 381 (county's sheriff-department page); juvenile 62
Since then
- 2007 expansion to 360, per the sheriff's jail page
The Sheriff
Sheriff Marty Boyd
- Runs the jailYes - the Craighead County Sheriff's Office operates the Craighead County Detention Center
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff (Ark. Const. art. 7, § 46), four-year term
- Statutory basisA.C.A. § 12-41-502 gives the county sheriff the custody, rule, and charge of the jail within the county and all prisoners committed in the county.
- OfficesWestern District Office, 901 Willett Road, Jonesboro; Eastern District Office, 107 Cobean Blvd., Lake City (county office-locations page)
- Staffing published by county29 deputies, 5 bailiffs, 2 transport officers and 5 secretaries across two districts
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryLists Marty Boyd ('Elected in 2013'); office 901 Willett Road, Jonesboro, AR 72401, phone (870) 933-4551 ext 5810. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/craighead-county-sheriff/
Still needed
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Craighead 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.
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 judgeMarvin Day — 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 courtQuorum court page →
Notes on the record
- 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.
- Craighead has two county seats, Jonesboro and Lake City. The sheriff's jail page puts the detention center at 901 Willett Road, Jonesboro; the sheriff also keeps an Eastern District office in Lake City.
- The sheriff runs its own domain, craigheadso.org, separate from craigheadcountyar.gov; both are first-party. The roster check rests on the sheriff's roster page, which links to a live roster hosted for the sheriff by its vendor (myr2m.com/craigheadroster), showing bookings from 16-18 September 2026.
- The capacity check is met on published beds; the two first-party bed figures disagree (346/360 vs 381) and no daily population is published.
- Fees check recorded as no: the video-visit ($0.35/min) and messaging ($0.50) rates are published, but no phone rate or commissary prices are.
- The 12 May 2025 quorum court agenda packet could not be opened, so no inspection report could be sought there. No budget document, death in custody, PREA audit or boarding contract with rates was opened.
- Commercial inmate-lookup sites in search results (craigheadcountyjailar.org, inmatedeposits.com, arkansasprisonroster.org and similar) were not used.
- Two county seats. The Association of Arkansas Counties page for this county lists the Jonesboro courthouse first, as the main seat, and the Lake City courthouse second (checked 18 September 2026).
- Arkansas county judge (chief executive) and a 13-member Quorum Court: Brad Noel (D1), Garrett Barnes (D2), Barry Forrest (D3), Linda Allison (D4), Rick Myers (D5), Darrel Cook (D6), Richard Rogers (D7), David Tennison (D8), Josh Longmire (D9), Steve Cline (D10), Dan Pasmore (D11), Terry Couch (D12), Kevin Williams (D13). The County Judge's name was not found on any county page opened, so none is recorded. The members page lists 2024 and 2025 meeting schedules but no minutes; a 12 May 2025 full agenda packet was located by search but refused on fetch.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Craighead 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