The Detention Center
Crittenden County Detention Center
- Operated byCrittenden County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address350 Afco Road, West Memphis, AR 72301 (the county seat is Marion; the jail is in West Memphis)
- Beds published by the countyNot published
- Daily populationNot published
- VisitationBy appointment only, call (870) 702-2052 each week; one 15-minute visit per week; video visitation through City Tele-Coin at booths or remotely; no rates published
- Commissary depositsOnline via Tiger Commissary, lobby kiosk (card or cash), or money order by mail; commissary line 870-702-2096; no fees or prices published
- BondPublic lobby open 24/7 for payments and bonds; the page links a PDF directory of licensed Crittenden County bail bond companies from the Arkansas Professional Bail Bond Licensing Board, and says the office does not recommend any company
- RosterThe sheriff's roster page links a live roster hosted for the sheriff by its vendor (myr2m.com/crittcoroster2)
- What was triedSheriff home, roster, bond, visitation and deposit pages; county home, county judge, quorum court, announcements and county-audits pages. The 2024 county audit PDF and the 15 Sept 2026 quorum court agenda PDF redirect to a Wix file host (filesusr.com) and the redirect was refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED), so neither could be read.
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryHolds: Male, Female & Juvenile; capacity 307; jail phone (870) 702-2080; jail administrator Jeffrey Thomas. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/crittenden-county-sheriff/
Source: Crittenden County Sheriff's Office - home page · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓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
- ✗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
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Mike Allen
- Runs the jailYes - the Crittenden County Sheriff's Office operates the Crittenden 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.
- Office address350 Afco Road, West Memphis, AR 72301
- PhonesNon-emergency dispatch 870-702-2000; administrative offices 870-702-2010
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryLists Mike Allen ('Elected in 2011'); office 350 AFCO Road, West Memphis, AR 72301, phone (870) 702-2010. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/crittenden-county-sheriff/
Still needed
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Crittenden 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 judgeWoody Wheeless — 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 →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
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.
- The sheriff runs its own domain, crittcoso.com; the county's domain is crittendencountyar.org. Both are first-party and both were read.
- Roster check rests on the sheriff's roster page, which links to a vendor-hosted roster (myr2m.com); the vendor page itself was not opened.
- Bond check met on the sheriff's bond page: 24/7 lobby for bonds and a linked directory of licensed bail bond companies. No cash-bond amounts or methods beyond that are stated.
- Fees check is no: video visitation and commissary channels are named but no phone, video or commissary rates are published.
- The 2026 quorum court agendas are posted, which is where an inspection report or its discussion could surface under A.C.A. § 12-26-108, but every agenda and audit PDF redirects to a Wix file host that was refused, so none could be examined.
- No beds, population, budget, deaths, PREA or boarding contract were found on either domain.
- Commercial inmate-lookup sites in search results (crittendencountyjailar.org, crittendencountyjailsar.org, thepublicindex.org and similar) were not used. A result at crittendencountydetention.com/InmateList.html could not be opened (HTTPS-to-HTTP redirect loop), so its ownership was not established and it is not cited.
- County Judge Woody Wheeless (the county's chief executive; 100 Court Square, Marion; source https://www.crittendencountyar.org/county-judge) and an 11-member Quorum Court. The quorum court page, headed 2023-2024, lists Vickie Robertson (D1), Albert Marconi (D2), Stacy Allen (D3), Tamara Hood (D4), Marco McClendon (D5), Thomas Dill (D6), Rickey McCauley (D7), Sidney Harden (D8), Kenneth Cross (D9), Brad Moore (D10), Lisa O'Neal (D11); the roster may be dated. Meetings are held on the 3rd Tuesday of every month at 9am. The page posts 2026 agenda PDFs (1/20 through 9/15/2026) but they could not be opened; no minutes are listed. County audits for 2017-2024 are posted at https://www.crittendencountyar.org/county-audits.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Crittenden 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