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

The Detention Center

Lawrence County Detention Center

Operated byLawrence County Sheriff's Office
Jail address501 West Elm, Walnut Ridge, AR 72476
Jail line(870) 886-2525 or (870) 886-2922
RosterThe page says it provides information on individuals currently in custody, with name, booking number, booking date and charges, via sheriff.aceone.io/inmates
What was triedOnly the sheriff's roster page was returned by search; no county government site was found
Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryHolds: Male & Female; capacity 100; jail phone (870) 759-0629; jail administrator Amanda Pickney. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/lawrence-county-sheriff/

Source: Lawrence County Sheriff's Office - Inmate Roster · 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 Lawrence 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 Tony Waldrupe

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 address501 West Elm, Walnut Ridge, AR 72476
NoteThe sheriff's roster page lists a contact email for Tony Waldrupe but gives no title, so no sheriff is named
Source of the nameName from the Association of Arkansas Counties directory, not a county page; checked 18 September 2026
Office phone (directory)(870) 886-2525
Also checkedLawrence County Sheriff's Office - Inmate Roster — https://lawrencecountysheriffoffice.com/inmate-roster (did not print the sheriff's name)
Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryLists Tony Waldrupe ('Elected in 2023'); office 501 West Elm #15, Walnut Ridge, AR 72476, phone (870) 886-2525 ext 4. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/lawrence-county-sheriff/

Still needed

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

Source: Association of Arkansas Counties — Lawrence County page (statewide directory, checked 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.

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 judgeGary Barnhill — 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 courtNo quorum court page was found on the county's own site

Notes on the record

The sheriff's site lawrencecountysheriffoffice.com (maintained by AceOne Technologies for the county) confirms Arkansas and Walnut Ridge.
The county seat is recorded as Walnut Ridge but was not confirmed as the seat on any page opened; the sheriff's address there is the only support.
Only the sheriff's roster page was read; bond, fees, PREA, budget and capacity were not found there.
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. No county government page was found, so no names are recorded.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Lawrence 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