The Detention Center
Johnson County Detention Center
- Operated byJohnson County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address301 Porter Industrial Road, Clarksville, AR 72830 (office of the Detention Center listing)
- Named on the county pageGrant Nicely, Chief Deputy, listed under Detention Center
- Beds published by the countyNot published on the page opened
- What was triedSheriff's site jcsoar.us (home and inmate search) refused by robots.txt; johnsoncosheriff.com roster pages failed (robots.txt/DNS). A vendor-hosted page at myr2m.com titled 'Johnson County Sheriffs Office - List Inmates' showed only inmates booked in the last 48 hours; it is not on a county domain and is not counted.
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryHolds: Male & Female; capacity 96; jail phone (479) 754-2200; jail administrator Samantha Smith. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/johnson-county-sheriff/
Source: Johnson County, Arkansas - Departments · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗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
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 Grant Nicely
- Runs the jailYes - the county lists a Detention Center department alongside the Sheriff's Office
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff, four-year term
- Statutory basisA.C.A. § 12-41-502 gives the county sheriff the custody, rule, and charge of the county jail and all prisoners committed in the county
- Office phone479-754-2200
- How confirmedConfirmed by phone with the Johnson County Sheriff's Office on 18 September 2026; the Association of Arkansas Counties directory agrees. An earlier reading of the county's departments page in this research recorded Tom Hughes.
- Earlier page readingThe county's own site was also seen listing Grant Nicely as Chief Deputy; the sheriff's office confirmed by phone that he is the sheriff.
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryLists Grant Nicely ('Elected in 2026'); office 301 Porter Industrial Rd, Suite 1, Clarksville, AR 72830, phone (479) 754-7724. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/johnson-county-sheriff/
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Confirmed by phone with the Johnson County Sheriff's Office, 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.
- 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 judgeHerman Houston — 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
- The county's own domain is johnsoncounty.arkansas.gov; its departments page confirms Arkansas and Clarksville.
- Only the county departments page could be read. The sheriff's own sites (jcsoar.us, johnsoncosheriff.com) refused every fetch, so the roster, bond, fees and PREA checks are recorded as no on the county page alone, not after an examination of the sheriff's site.
- The sheriff's name comes from the county's departments page, which is undated.
- Search results were dominated by commercial inmate-lookup sites (for example arkansasprisonroster.org, arkansassheriffsassociation.com, arkansasinmateroster.org); none was opened as a source, cited or counted.
- 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.
- Arkansas county judge and quorum court. The county's departments page names Herman H. Houston, County Judge (479-754-2175), and lists a Quorum Court department, but directs readers to a separate directory for district names; no justices of the peace were named on the page opened and no minutes, agendas or budget were linked.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Johnson 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