The Detention Center
Not scored. The county's own website was not reachable in the session that produced this record, so its disclosures were never examined. This is a gap in the research, not a finding about the county.
- Operated byNot found
- JailNo page that could be opened names a jail for Montgomery County, Arkansas
- Where prisoners goNot found - no page opened says where arrested persons are held
- What was triedThe sheriff's own site montgomerycountysheriffar.org (Jail page id=8, fullsite and home) returned a redirect loop between https and http and could not be read; the county site montgomery.ark.org/departments failed to resolve; montgomerycosheriff.net was unreachable and its state was not confirmed. None was retried. Commercial lookup sites (jailexchange.com, arkansasinmateroster.org, arkansassheriffsassociation.com, madisoncounty.org, statecourts.org, arkansascountycourt.org) were not used
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryHolds: Male Only; capacity 12; jail phone 870-867-3151; jail administrator Merle Buxton. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/montgomery-county-sheriff/
Source: Association of Arkansas Counties - Montgomery County · checked 2026-09-18
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 Neal Thomas
- Runs the jailNot established from a page opened - the sheriff's own site could not be read, so no page confirms whether the county holds its own prisoners
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff, four-year term (Ark. Const. art. 7, § 46; Amendment 95)
- Statutory basisA.C.A. § 12-41-502 gives the county sheriff the custody, rule and charge of the jail and all prisoners committed in the county
- Also listed asCounty Collector (Association of Arkansas Counties directory)
- Office line(870) 867-3151 (Association of Arkansas Counties directory)
- Source caveatName taken from the Association of Arkansas Counties directory, not a county page; the sheriff's own site could not be opened
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryLists Neal Thomas ('Elected in 2023'); office 225 Fairgrounds Rd, Mount Ida, AR 71957, phone (870) 867-3151. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/montgomery-county-sheriff/
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Association of Arkansas Counties - Montgomery County · 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 court or county page naming the circuit number or a judge could be opened for this county.
- 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 judgeBart Williams — 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
- Checks left empty: the sheriff's own site (montgomerycountysheriffar.org) was stuck in an https-to-http redirect loop and the county's site (montgomery.ark.org) did not resolve, so no first-party page was examined. This county is unexamined, not scored as closed.
- The sheriff, County Judge and justices of the peace are named from the Association of Arkansas Counties directory, a secondary source; none is counted toward any check.
- No page opened shows whether Montgomery County holds its own prisoners or boards them elsewhere; that is recorded as not found, not as a finding that the county has no jail.
- Arkansas confirmed on the AAC page (Mount Ida). Montgomery County, Missouri was set aside. Search results were dominated by commercial inmate-lookup sites; none is 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.
- A.C.A. § 12-12-315 requires notice of a death in jail custody to 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.
- Arkansas form: County Judge Bart Williams is the county's chief executive (not a judicial officer); the Quorum Court's justices of the peace are Benjamin Harrison, Tommy Beshears, Matt Rae, Steve Irwin, Ty Whisenhunt, Melissa Powell, Nathan Howell, Tonya Roberts and David McCarter (districts not given). All names are from the Association of Arkansas Counties directory; no county page could be opened, and no quorum court page or minutes were found.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Montgomery 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