The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byUnion County Sheriff's Office
- Sheriff's office address250 American Rd, El Dorado, AR, per the sheriff's Citizen Connect portal (hosted by the vendor Southern Software)
- Inmate lookupThe Citizen Connect portal offers a searchable Inmate Confinements booking database; no count is shown on its home page
- What was triedThe sheriff's own domain, unioncountysheriff.net (home page and /inmateRoster), refused both fetches under robots.txt. The county's home, County Sheriff and County Judge pages were opened; none names the jail, gives beds, or links quorum court members, minutes, agendas or budget.
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryHolds: Male & Female; capacity 215; jail phone (870) 864-1970; jail administrator Jim Sanders. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/union-county-sheriff/
Source: Union County Sheriff's Office - Citizen Connect · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
0/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✗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 Charlie Phillips
- Runs the jailUnder A.C.A. § 12-41-502 the elected sheriff has the custody, rule and charge of the county jail; no county page opened names the jail itself
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff, four-year term
- Contactcphillips@unioncountysheriff.net; (870) 864-1970
- CurrencyNamed on the county government's own County Sheriff page, which carries no date; the sheriff's own site could not be read to cross-check
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryLists Charlie Phillips ('Elected in 2026'); office 250 American Road, El Dorado, AR 71730, phone (870) 864-1970. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/union-county-sheriff/
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Union County Arkansas - County Sheriff · 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 judgeMike Loftin — 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
- 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.
- The checks reflect the county government's own domain, unioncountyar.com, only. The sheriff's own domain, unioncountysheriff.net, refused every fetch under robots.txt, so the sheriff's publishing could not be examined and these no findings may understate it.
- The roster check is no because the only inmate lookup reached is on a vendor's domain (Southern Software Citizen Connect) that was not confirmed as linked from a county or sheriff page.
- The sheriff's name comes from an undated county page; it could not be cross-checked against the sheriff's own site.
- County Judge Mike Loftin (the county's chief executive, not a judicial officer; approves disbursement of appropriated county funds, administers quorum court ordinances and presides over the quorum court with veto power), 101 North Washington, Suite 101, El Dorado. The county pages opened list no quorum court members and link no minutes, agendas or budget.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Union 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