The Detention Center
Garland County Detention Center
- Operated byGarland County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address3564 Albert Pike Road, Hot Springs, AR 71913; 501-651-7804
- Opened2015, a $42 million project on 57 acres, 'made possible by the County's 3/8 cent sales tax'
- Building168,000 sq ft; eight housing units, alternative sentencing unit, health services, courtroom, video visitation, booking
- Designed capacity495 (2021 PREA final audit report)
- Average daily population358 over the 12 months before the May 2021 PREA audit
- VisitationOn-site and remote video visits; remote visits charged, rates only on the vendor's site
- CommissaryVia inmatecanteen.com; no prices on the county site
- RosterCounty page links an Inmate Roster at findtheinmate.com/garland; that link was refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED) and not retried
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryHolds: Male, Female & Juvenile; capacity 495; juvenile capacity 10; jail phone (501) 760-7801; jail administrator Steven Elrod. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/garland-county-sheriff/
Source: Garland County, AR - Detention Center · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built2015 (opened)
- Original cost$42 million
- Paid for byCounty's 3/8 cent sales tax, per the county's Detention Center page
- Beds495 designed capacity (2021 PREA final audit report)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Mike McCormick
- Runs the jailYes - the Garland County Detention Center is a Sheriff's Office division on the county site
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff, four-year term (Ark. Const. art. 7, § 46; Amendment 95)
- Statutory basisA.C.A. § 12-41-502: the county sheriff has the custody, rule and charge of the jail within the county and all prisoners committed in the county.
- Tenure publishedCounty's Meet the Sheriff page: elected November 2014, took office 1 January 2015
- Office address525 Ouachita Avenue, Hot Springs, AR 71901; 501-622-3660
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryLists Mike McCormick ('Elected in 2015'); office 525 Quachita Avenue, Hot springs, AR 71901, phone (501) 622-3660. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/garland-county-sheriff/
Still needed
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Garland County, AR - Meet 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. No circuit number was confirmed from a page that was opened.
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 judgeDarryl Mahoney — 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
- The county publishes PREA material on its own domain: annual reports for 2017-2024 and PREA final audit reports for 2018 and 2021. The 2021 final report (audit 17-18 May 2021, report 27 August 2021, auditor Christy Slauson-Vincent) records 4 standards exceeded, 39 met and 0 not met, with a 90-day corrective action period on standards 115.41, 115.67 and 115.83.
- Capacity is recorded as met from the 2021 PREA final report on the county's domain (designed capacity 495, average daily population 358); both figures date from 2021 and no current population is published.
- The roster check is recorded as no: the county's Detention Center page links a roster on findtheinmate.com, but that URL was refused and could not be confirmed.
- The budget check is recorded as no: the quorum court agenda packets opened (July and August 2026) carry a statement of operations and an overtime report whose Detention Facility Fund overtime line totals $64,805.41 through July 2026, but no detention department budget was located and confirmed. The July 2026 agenda amends the 2026 budget ordinance O25-25; that ordinance was not opened.
- The fees check is recorded as no: the county names commissary and video vendors and says remote visits carry a charge, but publishes no rates. No bond guidance, housing contract, inspection report or in-custody death was found.
- garlandcountysheriff.com appeared in search; it is a commercial offender-lookup site, not the Garland County Sheriff's Office, and is not cited or counted. Other commercial results (garlandcountyarrests.org, garlandrecords.us, arkansassheriffsassociation.com, arkansasjailroster.com, thepublicindex.org) are likewise excluded.
- 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.
- A.C.A. § 12-12-315 requires anyone with knowledge of a death in jail custody to notify the county coroner, the prosecuting attorney and the sheriff; it is a notification duty to officials, not a public-reporting law, and no public Arkansas list or dataset of jail deaths was located.
- County Judge Darryl Mahoney (chief executive; presides over the Quorum Court without a vote but with a veto), named on the county home page and the July 2026 quorum court agenda. Thirteen-district Quorum Court: D1 Micah Braughton, D2 Thomas Anderson, D3 Susan Garner Jones, D4 Jimmy Young, D5 Ralf Bailes, D6 Ben Hooten, D7 Dayton Myers, D8 Alan Floyd, D9 Dr. Brian Peters, D10 Debbie McGrew, D11 Ronald (Nub) Hunter, D12 Jeremy Brown, D13 Ralph Edds, per the county's Government page. The full court meets the second Monday of each month; agendas and minutes, including monthly statements of operations and overtime reports, are in the county Agenda Center.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Garland 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