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

The Detention Center

Nevada County Sheriff AR Detention Center

Operated byNevada County Sheriff's Office
OpenedJune 2016 - "In June 2016 Nevada County opened a new jail facility"
Beds80 - "36 female prisoners along with 44 male prisoners"
HoldsPretrial detainees, people arrested on warrants, people serving county jail sentences, and others on holds or awaiting placement
Jail line(870) 887-1111
VisitationVideo only, from monitors in the Sheriff's Office/Jail front lobby; 1:00-7:30 p.m. Monday-Friday by appointment with 24 hours' notice; one twenty-minute visit per week. No rates published.
RosterCurrent-inmates roster on the sheriff's site
What was triedOpened the sheriff's home, jail information, inmate roster and video visitation pages. The Administration, Contact, Jailers and roster-filter pages refused the fetch (robots.txt). No county government domain was returned by search.
Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryHolds: Male & Female; capacity 81; jail phone (870) 887-2616; jail administrator Steve Otwell. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/nevada-county-sheriff/

Source: Nevada County Sheriff AR - Jail Information · checked 2026-09-18

Transparency rating

3/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✓Who is in custody
✓Beds and daily population
✗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 Nevada 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 built2016 (opened June 2016, per the sheriff's jail information page)
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds80 (36 female, 44 male)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Danny Martin

Runs the jailYes - the sheriff's jail information page states the jail building holds the Sheriff's offices in the front and the jail in the back
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
NameNone of the sheriff's pages that could be opened name the sheriff; the Administration and Contact pages refused the fetch, so no officeholder is recorded
Source of the nameName from the Association of Arkansas Counties directory, not a county page; checked 18 September 2026
Office phone (directory)(870) 887-2616
Also checkedNevada County Sheriff AR - Jail Information — https://www.nevadasheriff.org/jail-information (did not print the sheriff's name)
Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryLists Danny Martin ('Elected in 2009'); office 209 East 3rd St., Prescott, AR 71857, phone (870) 887-2616. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/nevada-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 — Nevada 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 judgeMike Otwell — 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

Confirmed Arkansas: the sheriff's home page states the county was formed on 20 March 1871 from parts of Columbia, Hempstead and Ouachita counties.
The sheriff's site (nevadasheriff.org) is first-party. It names the detention center, publishes a current-inmates roster, and states the jail opened in June 2016 with 80 beds (36 female, 44 male). The capacity check is recorded as met on beds alone; no daily population figure is published.
The video visitation page gives a schedule and rules but no rates, and no phone or commissary prices were found, so the fees check is no.
No budget, bond guidance, PREA audit, housing contract, in-custody death or inspection report was found. Cost and funding of the 2016 jail are not stated on the pages opened.
The sheriff's name could not be confirmed: the pages opened do not state it and the Administration page refused the fetch.
The county seat is not recorded because no page opened states it.
Search results from arkansasprisons.org, nevadacountyjail.org, nevadacountyarrests.org, arkansassheriffsassociation.com, arkansasprisonroster.org, arkansasinmates.org and govbackgroundchecks.com are commercial or third-party lookup sites and were not used.
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.
County seat Prescott is taken from the Association of Arkansas Counties page for this county, checked 18 September 2026.
Arkansas county government is a county judge (chief executive) and a quorum court (legislative body). No Nevada County government site was returned by search, so neither the county judge nor the quorum court members could be named from a first-party page.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Nevada 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