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

The Detention Center

Cross County Jail and Detention Center

Operated byCross County Sheriff's Office
Jail address1600 South Falls Blvd, Wynne, AR 72396
Jail administrator (sheriff's staff)L.N. Hagler
PREA coordinatorMatthew Howell
Staffing10 dispatcher/matrons and 14 jailers full-time
HousingSeparate areas for low/medium security males, high security males and females, plus isolation and temporary holding cells
Beds published by the countyNot published
Current population on roster84, shown on the sheriff's live roster when opened on 18 Sept 2026 (bookings 30 Aug - 18 Sept 2026)
Commissary / depositsThrough City Tele-Coin (external link); no rates published
What was triedSheriff jail, contact, quorum-court, message, FAQ and roster pages; county officials, quorum court, meeting-documents, 2023 meeting pages (Jan, Sept, Oct), budget/audit index, 2023 budget fund totals (image PDF, no readable text) and the 18 Sept 2023 minutes.
Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryHolds: Male & Female; capacity 143; jail phone (870) 318-7349; jail administrator L.N. Hagler. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/cross-county-sheriff/

Source: Cross County AR 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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Cross 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 builtNot found
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
BedsNot found

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff David West

Runs the jailYes - the Cross County Sheriff's Office operates the Cross County Jail and 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.
Name confirmationSigned message on the sheriff's site (David West); county officials page lists Sheriff D. West; 18 Sept 2023 quorum court minutes refer to Sheriff David West
Non-emergency870-238-5700
Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryLists David West ('Elected in 2019'); office 1600 Falls Blvd S., Wynne, AR 72396, phone (870) 238-5707. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/cross-county-sheriff/

Still needed

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

Source: Cross County AR Sheriff's Office - Message from the Sheriff · 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 judgeLynn Blake — 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, crosscountysheriff.org; the county's is crosscountyar.org. Both are first-party and both were read.
Capacity check is no: the live roster shows a current count (84 on 18 Sept 2026) but no bed capacity is published.
Budget check is no: the county posts budget fund totals, but the 2023 file is an image PDF with no readable text, so no jail or detention line could be confirmed.
The jail page names a PREA coordinator but publishes no PREA audit, so the prea check is no.
Quorum court documents are posted only for 2022-2023. Three 2023 meeting pages and the 18 Sept 2023 minutes were read; none contained a jail inspection report or discussion of one.
No bond guidance, fee schedule, deaths, or boarding contract was found.
Commercial inmate-lookup sites in search results (arkansasinmates.org and similar) were not used.
County Judge Lynn Blake (the county's chief executive; named in the 18 Sept 2023 quorum court minutes and listed as L. Blake on the current county officials page) and a 9-member Quorum Court, listed on a page headed 2023-2024: Amy Imboden (D1), John (Kyle) Wilson (D2), Anthony Jarrett (D3), Glenda Vance (D4), Gloria Ferguson Aldridge (D5), Kevin Jumper (D6), Carl Loewer (D7), Jay Gahr (D8), Scott May (D9); the list may be dated. Regular meetings at 6:00 P.M. on the third Monday of each month at the courthouse, 705 Union Ave East, Wynne. Meeting documents are posted for 2022 and 2023 only. Budget fund totals (2017-2023) and audits (2015-2019) are posted at https://www.crosscountyar.org/upages.php?id=72. The 18 Sept 2023 minutes record Ordinance 2023-21 appropriating $11,500.00 from the county general fund to the sheriff's department miscellaneous law enforcement fund.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Cross 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