The Detention Center
La Paz County Adult Detention Facility
- Operated byLa Paz County Sheriff's Office, Detention Division. Funded through the La Paz County Jail District, a separate taxing body with its own budget
- Jail address1111 Arizona Ave., Parker, AZ 85344. The Sheriff's Office publishes this as the inmate mailing address: '(Inmates Name) / La Paz County Adult Detention Facility / 1111 Arizona Ave. / Parker, AZ 85344'
- What the division says it is for'It is the objective of the La Paz County Sheriff's Office Detention Division to provide a safe and secure environment for persons committed to the custody of the Sheriff while protecting the citizens and crime victims of La Paz County through a cost effective care & custody system'
- Staff training'All Detention Officers are required to complete a Arizona Basic Detention Officer Academy. Detention personnel also receive refresher and continued training in their course of employment'
- Programmes'Programs offered to inmates include A.A., N.A., bible studies, church services, anger management G.E.D. and other social programs.' Notary services, commissary for those with funds and indigent packets for those without
- Medical'Inmates incarcerated in the La Paz County Sheriff's Office Adult Detention Facility receive professional, efficient, and required medical treatment of physical illnesses, chemical dependencies, and psychiatric problems during their incarceration'
- Telephones'Inmates are allowed to make telephone calls from their housing areas. Otherwise all outgoing calls to the public are collect.' No rate is published. 'In-coming calls for inmates are not allowed, except in verified emergency situations'
- Visitation is remote only'The Detention Facility no longer allows on-site personal visits. All personal visits from friends and family are conducted remotely through video by creating an account online at inmatecanteen.com.' No price for a video visit is published
- Money'All incoming money for inmates (other than initial intake) will be accepted by money order through mail or by cash the time of visitation. Cash or money orders are the only form of funds accepted.' Deposits are also taken through Inmate Canteen
- Who else it holdsThe Jail District budget shows revenue lines for 'JAIL INMATE CONTRACT - FEDERAL' ($277,156 estimated FY2027), 'JAIL INMATE CONTRACT - STATE' ($4,000), 'JAIL INMATE CONTRACT - MUNICIPAL' ($100,850) and 'JAIL INMATE CONTRACT - COUNTY' ($0). The agreements themselves and the per-day rates are not published
- Custody notificationThe Detention Facility page carries a VINE (Victim Information and Notification Everyday) registration link at vinelink.com. VINE is a notification service, not a published roster
- What was triedThe Sheriff's Office site (lapazsheriff.org, a single-page app whose content is served from cdn.myocv.com), its Detention Facility, Jail Records, Sheriff's Welcome, Records and Careers pages; the county site at lapaz.gov and co.la-paz.az.us including the sitemap, Courts, Board of Supervisors, Elected Officials, Agenda Center, Finance and Budgets & Tax Levies pages; and the FY2027 adopted Jail District budget. No bed count, no daily population, no year of construction, no construction cost, no death in custody, no PREA audit, no inspection result and no telephone, video-visit or commissary price list was found
Source: La Paz County Sheriff's Office - Adult Detention Facility · checked 2026-08-23
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗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 byOperating funding is unusually well documented even though construction funding is not. The La Paz County Jail District pays for the jail from a dedicated excise sales tax estimated at $2,550,000 for FY2027, from jail inmate contract revenue (federal $277,156, municipal $100,850, state $4,000), from jail district incarceration fees ($6,219), from the Jail Enhancement Fund and the Jail Commissary Fund, and from a $2,083,176 transfer in from the county general fund. The district levies no property tax. Nothing was found about how the building itself was paid for
- BedsNot found. The Sheriff's Office describes housing areas, programmes and medical services but publishes no bed count and no daily population
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff William Ponce
- Runs the jailYes. The Sheriff's Office operates the La Paz County Adult Detention Facility through its Detention Division, and the county's Jail District budget books the whole jail appropriation to department 'Sheriff (042)'. ARS 31-101 and ARS 11-441(A)(5) make the sheriff the jailer in every Arizona county
- How the office is filledElected. The county's own 'La Paz County Elected Officials' sheet lists 'County Sheriff - William Ponce (R)'. Arizona county sheriffs are elected countywide to four-year terms
- In his own words'I am honored and humbled to be able to serve as your Sheriff... We are always hindered by the number of Deputies assigned to cover over 4500 square miles of La Paz County, but we must utilize our technology and resources to ensure the safety and security of our County' - signed 'William Ponce, Sheriff La Paz County'
- Office motto'Dedicated to Service'. The office states it values 'Integrity | Professionalism' among its listed characteristics
- Contact928-669-6141; wponce@sheriff.lapaz.gov. The county switchboard is 928-669-6115 at 1108 Joshua Avenue, Parker, AZ 85344
- Detention staffingThe FY2027 Jail District budget funds 38.5 full-time employees in the Jail District Fund (500) at $2,076,195 in salaries and $2,956,925 in total estimated personnel cost, plus 0.25 FTE in the Jail Commissary fund
- DivisionsPatrol, Criminal Investigations, Communications, Civil Unit, Detention Facility, Records, Property and Evidence, Animal Control, Boating Safety, Dive Team, Search and Rescue, a Task Force and a Volunteers programme
Still needed
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: La Paz County - County Elected Officials (county-published sheet) · checked 2026-08-23
The Judges
Arizona Superior Court judges outside Maricopa and Pima Counties are elected countywide in nonpartisan elections to four-year terms; in Maricopa and Pima they are appointed by the Governor from a nominating commission's list and then stand for retention. La Paz County has a single resident Superior Court judge, and the Arizona Supreme Court currently shows the presiding judgeship filled on a temporary basis by Judge Jerry Landau. Justices of the peace are elected to four-year terms in their precinct, and the La Paz County Justice Court says so on its own front page. La Paz has two justice precincts, Parker (the La Paz County Justice Court) and Salome. In Arizona it is normally the justice of the peace or a municipal magistrate who sets release conditions at the initial appearance, so the officer who holds the prisoner - the elected sheriff - and the judge who decides whether the prisoner stays answer to different electorates. All of these judges are state judicial officers, not county officials, even though the county pays for the justice courts.
La Paz County Superior Court - Presiding Judge
- Jerry Landau (Temporary). The Arizona Supreme Court's Presiding Judges list names 'Judge Jerry Landau (Temporary)' for La Paz County
- Marcus Kelley - the county's own Elected Officials sheet lists 'Judge of the Superior Court - Marcus Kelley, 928-669-6134, mkelley@courts.az.gov'. Hollie Lucas is Clerk of the Superior Court
La Paz County Justice Court (Parker) - Justice of the Peace
- Tiffany Dyer. The court's own site states 'Justice of the Peace, Tiffany Dyer' and explains that 'In each county there are limited jurisdiction courts that are presided over by a Justice of the Peace, who is elected to a four year term.' The county's Elected Officials sheet lists the same name at 928-669-2504, tdyer@courts.az.gov
Salome Justice Court
- Not found. The county directory lists a Salome Justice Court at 928-264-1971 but does not name its justice of the peace, and the court has no page of its own on the county site
Constable
- John R. Hoge - listed on the county's Elected Officials sheet at 928-916-1907, jhoge@lapaz.gov. A constable is an elected officer who serves process for the justice court, not a judge
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 2026-08-23
The County Commissioners
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
- The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- named is marked yes. The Sheriff's Office publishes a page headed 'LPCSO Adult Detention Facility' and gives the facility's mailing address as 'La Paz County Adult Detention Facility, 1111 Arizona Ave., Parker, AZ 85344'.
- roster is marked no, and the reason is specific. The Sheriff's Office home page carries a Quick Links tile headed 'Inmates & Arrests' and another headed 'Warrant Search', but both are wired to the site's 'coming soon' placeholder page rather than to any list of people in custody. The only custody-status tool the county points to is VINE at vinelink.com, a notification service a member of the public must register with for a named individual, not a published roster.
- budget is marked yes, and this is the strongest disclosure in the county. La Paz publishes tentative and adopted budgets for both the county and the Jail District, separately, back to fiscal year 2006/2007, together with tax levy documents. The FY2027 adopted Jail District budget is a full Arizona Auditor General budget form set with schedules A to G, so the jail's revenue, expenditure, transfers and staffing are all on the public record.
- contracts is marked no, but the underlying fact is clear enough to state. The Jail District budget shows the county earns money holding other agencies' prisoners - federal, state and municipal inmate contract lines all appear in Schedule C - but neither the agreements nor any per-day rate is published, so the check fails.
- fees is marked no. The Sheriff's Office publishes a detailed price list for jail records - '$10 a person' for a civilian employment check, '$5 Redacted version for civilians' for jail booking sheets, '$10 a letter' for a letter of incarceration, '$10 a mug shot for media outlets', '$20 a disk' for approved jail pod video or bodycam footage, and '$10 a report' for officer reports up to five pages with fifty cents a page after. Those are records fees, not the phone, video-visit and commissary rates the check asks about. Inmate telephone calls are described only as 'collect', video visits only as being booked through inmatecanteen.com, and commissary only as available 'for those with funds'. No price is given for any of the three.
- capacity, deaths, prea, inspections and bond_info are marked no. Nothing on the Sheriff's Office site or the county site gives a bed count, a daily population, a death in custody, a PREA audit result, an independent inspection result, or guidance on how to post bail.
- A note on where the county lives online. La Paz County is reachable at lapaz.gov and at co.la-paz.az.us, the address the Arizona Association of Counties lists for it; the two serve the same CivicPlus site. The domain lapazcountyaz.gov does not resolve for this researcher and has no Internet Archive captures. The Sheriff's Office is a separate site, lapazsheriff.org, built as a single-page application whose text is served as JSON from cdn.myocv.com; the JSON files are cited directly here because the HTML page carries no readable content of its own.
- The county's Boards and Commissions include a 'Sheriff's Public Safety Personnel Retirement System Local Board' of two members from the public serving four-year terms, and the Agenda Center carries a separate 'Corrections Officers Retirement Plan Local Board' category. Both are pension boards for jail and law enforcement staff, not oversight bodies for the jail.
- Board of Supervisors, three members, one per district, meeting at 10 a.m. on the first and third Mondays of each month at 1108 S Joshua, Parker. Duce Minor is Chairman (District 2, elected 2016), Holly Irwin is Vice-Chairman (District 3, elected 2008) and David Plunkett is a Board Member (District 1, elected 2020). Laurie Thornbury is Clerk of the Board and Stephanie McDowell is County Administrator. The board 'has final approval over County department budgets, governs tax rates and calculates all rates' and appoints 'the directors of 16 County departments'. La Paz County has a Jail District: the county adopts a separate 'Jail District' budget every year alongside the county budget, and publishes both. The FY2027 adopted Jail District budget totals $5,102,906 across all funds, of which the Jail District Fund (500) is $4,619,100, the Jail Enhancement Fund (242) $340,000 and the Jail Commissary Fund (283) $85,706. It is paid for by a dedicated excise sales tax estimated at $2,550,000, by jail inmate contract revenue, by incarceration fees, and by transfers in from the county general fund of $2,083,176 - itemised as 'TO JAIL DISTRICT MOE 500' $727,000, 'TO JAIL DISTRICT SUBSIDY 500' $1,282,416 and 'TO JAIL DISTRICT COLA 500' $73,760. The district levies no property tax: its primary and secondary tax levies are both zero. Under ARS Title 48, Chapter 25 an Arizona county jail district is a taxing and financing body, not an operator; the jail itself is run by the Sheriff.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in La Paz 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 commissioners who pay for it.
The sheriff is on your ballot
The county recorder runs the election in La Paz County and prints the ballot the sheriff’s name is on. Links from USA.gov and vote.gov.
Names verified 2026-08-23 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered