The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byWoodruff County Sheriff's Office
- Jail addressNot found on the county's own pages
- Own jail or boarded outThe county's sheriff page refers to the sheriff's "operation of the jail"; no page opened names the facility or says prisoners are sent to another county
- Sheriff's own siteNone found; search returned only the county's sheriff page and commercial inmate-lookup sites
- What was triedCounty home, sheriff, county judge and quorum court pages were opened. A search result on arkansassheriffsassociation.com proved to be a privately owned commercial lookup site (its footer says so) and was not used.
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryHolds: Male & Female; capacity 23; jail phone 870-347-2583; jail administrator JR Smith. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/woodruff-county-sheriff/
Source: Woodruff County, Arkansas - Sheriff · 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 Phil Reynolds
- Runs the jailThe county's sheriff page lists "operation of the jail" among the sheriff's responsibilities; the jail is not named
- 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
- Office address500 North 3rd Street, Augusta, AR 72006 (the county's courthouse address as printed on the page)
- Office line870.347.2583
- Arkansas Sheriffs' Association directoryLists Phil Reynolds ('Elected in 2015'); office 500 North 3rd Street, Augusta, AR 72006, phone (870) 347-2583. Checked 18 September 2026; an association directory, not a county source - https://arsheriffs.org/sheriffs/woodruff-county-sheriff/
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Woodruff County, Arkansas - 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 own pages that were opened name no circuit number and no judge, so none is recorded.
- 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 judgeMichael John Gray — 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 county's site, woodruffcountyar.gov, was opened and read; it gives the sheriff one page with his name, phone and duties. No separate sheriff's site was found.
- All ten checks are no: the county's pages do not name the jail or publish a roster, beds, budget, PREA material, housing contracts, bond guidance, fees, deaths or any inspection report.
- No quorum court minutes are published on the county's site, so none could be searched for a detention facility inspection report.
- Search results for this county were dominated by commercial inmate-lookup sites (woodruffjailroster.org, woodruffcountyjailar.org, arkansasjailroster.com and others); none were used.
- County Judge and Quorum Court, the Arkansas form. The county judge page names County Judge Michael John Gray. The quorum court page lists eight justices of the peace without districts: Bo Collins, Bill Crawford, Brian Austin, Kenny Simons, John Beard, Freddie Hudson, Thomas Gaines and Robert Gibbs. It publishes no meeting schedule, minutes, agendas, budgets or ordinances.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Woodruff 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