The Detention Center
Sebastian County Adult Detention Center
- Operated bySebastian County Sheriff's Department
- Jail address801 South A Street, Fort Smith, AR 72901 - the jail is in Fort Smith, per the county's own page
- Jail line479-783-4988
- Jail supervisorCaptain Josh Helmert, named on the county's detention pages (staff under the sheriff)
- Beds356 - 266 original beds (opened 1995) plus a 90-bed expansion in 2007
- Staffing56 deputies working shifts around the clock, per the county's visiting page
- Construction cost$6,179,646 original; $4,142,657 for the 2007 expansion
- BondCash bond in the exact amount plus a $20.00 fee at the Booking and Information desk, or through a bonding agency; cash-only bonds are paid to FSPD or the ADC depending on where charges are filed
- DepositsLobby kiosk, CSGpay.com (facility #24065) or 1-877-618-3516, for commissary, prepaid phone and inmate PIN debit accounts; no fees or prices published
- Work releaseNot offered, per the county's FAQ
- Juvenile facilitySebastian County Juvenile Detention Center, also at 801 South A Street, operated by the Sheriff's Department
- What was triedQuorum Court Agendas & Packets and Transparency in Government pages show document folders (Quorum Court, County Budget) but the folder contents were not reachable; no budget, inspection report or housing agreement was opened
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryHolds: Male, Female & Juvenile; capacity 335; jail phone (479) 783-4988; jail administrator Joshua Helmert. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/sebastian-county-sheriff/
Source: Sebastian County Government - Adult Detention Center · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓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
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1995
- Original cost$6,179,646
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds356
Since then
- 2007: 90 beds added to the rear of the facility, $4,142,657
The Sheriff
Sheriff Mike Conger
- Runs the jailYes - the Sheriff's Department operates the Adult Detention Center and the Juvenile Detention Center (A.C.A. § 12-41-502 gives the sheriff custody, rule and charge of the jail)
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff, four-year term
- Office address800 South A Street, Fort Smith, AR 72901; 479-783-1051 (24 hours). Greenwood District line 479-996-2145
- How confirmedNamed as sheriff on the county's own site, sebastiancountyar.gov, checked on 18 September 2026; the Association of Arkansas Counties directory agrees. An earlier reading of the county's elected-officials page in this research recorded Hobe Runion.
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryLists Mike Conger ('Elected in 2026'); office 800 South A St., Fort Smith, AR 72901, phone (479) 783-1051. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/sebastian-county-sheriff/
Still needed
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Sebastian County, Arkansas — official site (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.
Circuit Court - Divisions I through VII (as listed by the county)
- Stephen Tabor (Division I)
- Annie Hendricks (Division II)
- Shannon Blatt (Division III)
- Leigh Zuerker (Division IV)
- Gunner Delay (Division V)
- Greg Magness (Division VI)
- Dianna Ladd (Division VII)
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 judgeSteve Hotz — 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
- 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.
- Sebastian has two county seats, Fort Smith and Greenwood; the county's own detention page puts the Adult Detention Center at 801 South A Street, Fort Smith.
- The roster check rests on the county's Inmate Inquiry page, a searchable lookup of current bookings with charges and bond information, not a static list.
- The capacity check rests on the published 356 beds; no daily population figure is published.
- The fees check is no: the deposit page names the vendor (CSGpay) but publishes no fees, commissary prices or phone or video rates.
- The county runs a NextRequest FOIA portal (sebastiancountyar.nextrequest.com), named on its Transparency in Government page; it was not opened.
- A model summary of the Juvenile Detention Center page labelled Chris Landrum as 'Sheriff'; the county's Elected Officials Listing names Hobe Runion as Sheriff, so that label was not relied on.
- The county's own pages do not name the judicial circuit number, so none is given.
- Two county seats. The Association of Arkansas Counties page for this county lists the Fort Smith courthouse first, as the main seat, and the Greenwood courthouse second (checked 18 September 2026).
- County Judge Steve Hotz (the county's chief executive, not a judicial officer; presides over the Quorum Court with veto authority) and a 13-member Quorum Court: Johnny Hobbs (1), Jackie Davis (2), Shawn Looper (3), James Butler (4), Brandon Morrison (5), Danny W. Aldridge (6), Kenneth Williamson (7), Valeria J. Robinson (8), Rhonda Royal (9), Dickie Lee Robertson (10), Gerry Ward (11), Tommy Camp (12), Lorrie Glidewell Runion (13). The county lists two courthouses: Fort Smith (35 South 6th St.) and Greenwood (11 Town Square). Agendas, packets and county budget documents sit in a public-documents folder system whose contents were not reachable.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Sebastian 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