Maricopa County, Arizona — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

The Maricopa County jail system - Fourth Avenue Jail, Towers Jail, Watkins Jail, Estrella Jail, Lower Buckeye Jail, the Intake Transfer and Release facility (ITR) and the 512 Facility

Operated byMaricopa County Sheriff's Office, Custody Bureau, with medical care provided by Maricopa County Correctional Health Services, a separate county department
Fourth Avenue Jail201 South 4th Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85003. 'Inmate capacity: Approximately 2,064 beds and 1152 cells (288 specifically designated for highest security level inmates)'. 577,883 square feet, built 2005. 'Most secure facility in County jail system, housing the highest security inmates inside a uniquely designed Special Management Unit'
Towers Jail3127 West Gibson Lane, Phoenix, AZ 85009. 720 beds, approximately 90,000 square feet, built 1982. 'Lowest population capacity jail facility in the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Jail system'; 'Is the oldest operating jail facility'; 'A majority of the inmates housed at Towers Jail are un-sentenced, pre-trial detainees'
Watkins Jail2680 South 28th Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85009. 'Approximately 1,600 beds', 258,000 square feet, year built 2020. 'The Watkins Jail is a state-of-the-art facility designed and operated on the system of strategic inmate management using the principles of "Direct Supervision"... The officer's workstation is in the middle of the housing unit, without walls or barriers to impede direct communication/interaction with an inmate living there'
Estrella Jail2939 West Durango St, Phoenix, AZ 85009. 'Approximately 1,503' beds, 281,072 square feet, year built 1991. Holds 'all classifications of un-sentenced/sentenced female inmates'. 'The jail is composed of five tower housing units and ten dormitories.' Programmes include 'Choose to Change, Mosaic, and Girl Scouts Beyond Bars'
Lower Buckeye Jail3250 West Lower Buckeye Road, Phoenix, AZ 85009. 'Approximately 2,427' beds, 670,237 square feet, built 2005. 'Largest detention facility in the State of Arizona.' It contains 'a 60 Bed Medical Infirmary and a 255 Bed Mental Health Unit', '800+ surveillance cameras, 2,000+ doors/locks and 11 elevators', negative airflow rooms for infectious disease control, and 'a fully accredited high school for our Juvenile offenders'
Intake, Transfer and Release (ITR)2670 South 28th Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85009. Approximately 190,000 square feet, opened November 2020. 'The facility replaced the Central Intake processing center that was located at the 4th Avenue Jail.' 'The ITR has four completely functional courtrooms'; 'The ITR will process approximately 100,000 bookings and 90,000 releases each year'
512 Facility2670 South 28th Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85009. 512 beds, approximately 67,000 square feet, opened 2020. 'Designed for short-term stay (72 hours or less, but up to 5 days)'; 'Acts as buffer between ITR and other facilities'
Transportation Hub2670 South 28th Drive. 'Transportation of prisoners and inmates between jails, courts, and nearly 60 locations throughout Arizona.' In 2019, 'approximately 302,138 prisoners' movements' over 394,223 miles, plus 7,223 detainees moved by the Jail Wagon over 219,580 miles
How many people are in itThe Sheriff publishes a running total on the front of its inmate information page. When read for this record it said 'Total currently in custody: 6325'
Deaths in custody are published by nameThe Sheriff maintains an Inmate Deaths page with a separate list for 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. Each entry gives name, age where known, booking number, jail facility and date of death - for example, from January 2025: 'Darshaquise Duran, G106599, 4th Avenue, January 2'; 'David Espindola, G043769, Lower Buckeye, January 14'; 'Renee Artz, G139432, Estrella, January 21'; 'Landon Smith, G156080, ITR, January 30'
What it costs to hold someone, published as a rateThe county publishes a signed Jail Per Diem Letter each year. For FY2027, effective 1 July 2026: 'Housing Rate $145.86' per day and 'Booking Rate $702.56', against FY2026 rates of $144.00 and $662.23. The rates 'were developed as part of a comprehensive jail per diem rate study performed by a third-party consultant', built from MCSO and Correctional Health Services budgeted direct and indirect costs plus central service cost allocation. 'Budgeted costs for the development of the FY2027 rate totaled approximately $401.9 million'
Scale in units of serviceThe per diem letter states 'the five-year average for custody man days increased from 2,393,233 to 2,452,860' and 'the five-year average for number of bookings increased from 77,318 to 79,058'. It also states who pays: 'Approximately 94% of the budgeted costs are absorbed by Maricopa County while 6% is estimated to be recovered through jail per diem charges to the utilizing jurisdictions'
Video visits and their price'All Remote video visits take place through ViaPath's GettingOut video visitation service and cost $0.25 per minute. These visits are only charged for visit time you use.' 'All onsite video visits are currently suspended.' Remote visits run 7:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. daily in 30-minute sessions, and 'the number of remote visits an inmate may receive is not limited'. Only the incarcerated person can start a visit: 'Friends and family cannot pre-schedule video visits from outside the facility'
TelephonesGlobal Tel*Link runs the phone system. 'The Inmate Telephone System allows only outgoing inmate calls'; 'The maximum length for each call is 20 minutes'; phones are available roughly 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Families choose between collect and prepaid AdvancePay or PIN Debit accounts. No per-minute rate is published
How to post a bond'Bonds and fines may be paid at the Fourth Avenue Jail Bond & Fine room located on the north west corner of the building. After Bond is paid, it may take up to 24 hours for an inmate's release to be processed. Please note: If an inmate has an Immigration hold or any other law enforcement agency hold, paying the bond will not release the inmate.' Payment must be the exact amount, by US currency, cashier's cheque, US Postal or Western Union money order or card; card transactions carry a processing fee and must be under $10,000; transactions over $10,000 require a social security number for IRS purposes; and 'Once a bond payment is accepted, NO REFUNDS will be given'
Mail is postcards only'MCSO now utilizes a central mailroom located at the Lower Buckeye Jail. All incoming inmate mail, including newspapers, magazines, and books must be addressed as follows, regardless of which jail the inmate is housed in... All incoming mail, with the exception of legal mail, must be standard postcards. This is to ensure the safety and security of jail facilities, inmates, and staff'
Money'THE SHERIFF'S OFFICE DOES NOT ACCEPT ANY U.S. CURRENCY OR CHECKS.' Deposits go through TouchPay kiosks, telephone, the internet or retail locations, and 'There is a fee for this service'
Where releases happen'All inmates in MCSO custody are released from this facility' - the ITR. Released people 'are directed to go to the public parking lot (at the corner of Gibson and 28th Dr.) for pick up'
What was triedThe Sheriff's site at mcso.org - Sheriff Bio, Custody Services, Custody Bureau Information, Our Jails, Inmate Information, Inmate Deaths for 2023-2026, Inmate Account Deposits, Inmate Telephone System, Visitation, Tablets, PREA, Self-Surrender, Information for Families, Compliance and Bureau of Internal Oversight pages; the county site at maricopa.gov including the sitemap, Board of Supervisors, Budget Office, Budget Documents and Jail Per-Diem Letter pages; the adopted FY2027 County Budget Summary and Budget Schedules; superiorcourt.maricopa.gov; and justicecourts.maricopa.gov. No PREA audit result, no independent inspection or accreditation result for the jail, no per-minute telephone rate and no commissary price list was found

Source: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office - Jails · checked 2026-08-23

Transparency rating

8/10Open

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Maricopa County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-23. 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 builtThere is no single date. Towers Jail, built 1982, is 'the oldest operating jail facility in the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office'. Estrella Jail was built in 1991, Fourth Avenue Jail and Lower Buckeye Jail in 2005, and the ITR, the 512 Facility and Watkins Jail all opened in 2020
Original costNot found in dollar terms, but the Sheriff describes the 2005 pair as 'the largest construction project ever undertaken by the county government' - 'Two mega jails, a food factory, laundry, distribution center, training center'
Paid for byA dedicated jail tax. The adopted FY2027 budget schedules estimate 'Jail Tax' revenue of $295,492,360 into the Detention Operations Fund (255), plus $28,734,278 of intergovernmental charges for services from other jurisdictions and $1,637,939 from the state. The fund totals $412,534,872 with 3,813.20 FTE and pays the Sheriff's Detention Operations, Correctional Health, and detention-related work in Adult Probation, Juvenile Probation, Facilities Management and Equipment Services
BedsApproximately 8,826 across the system: Fourth Avenue 2,064, Towers 720, Watkins 1,600, Estrella 1,503, Lower Buckeye 2,427 and the 512 Facility 512, with the ITR handling throughput rather than long-term housing. The Sheriff publishes a live count of people in custody - 6,325 when read for this record - and the per diem letter gives a five-year average of 2,452,860 custody man days and 79,058 bookings a year

Since then

1982: Towers Jail, still the oldest operating facility
1991: Estrella Jail, 1,503 beds for women
2005: Fourth Avenue Jail (2,064 beds) and Lower Buckeye Jail (2,427 beds), described by the present Sheriff, who managed the project as Chief of Custody, as 'the largest construction project ever undertaken by the county government'
2020: Watkins Jail (1,600 beds), the Intake Transfer and Release facility and the attached 512 Facility, replacing the Central Intake processing centre at the Fourth Avenue Jail
Continuing capital work in the FY2027 budget includes elevator renovations, MCSO security surveillance projects and a Lower Buckeye Jail food factory roof replacement, funded from the Detention Operations fund

The Sheriff

Sheriff Jerry Sheridan

Runs the jailYes, and on a scale unmatched in Arizona. The Sheriff's Custody Bureau runs five jail facilities plus an intake centre and a short-term holding facility, and the county budget books Detention Operations as the largest single appropriation in the Sheriff's department. ARS 31-101 and ARS 11-441(A)(5) make the sheriff the jailer in every Arizona county
How the office is filledElected. Arizona county sheriffs are elected countywide to four-year terms
Headquarters550 West Jackson, Phoenix, Arizona 85003. Phone (602) 876-1000. Jail information line (602) 876-0322
He came up through the jails'In 1978 I was hired as a detention officer and then a deputy sheriff attending the Phoenix Police Academy.' He rose through Corporal, Lieutenant and Captain, then 'A few years later I was promoted to Chief of Custody'
He built two of the jails he now runs'The MCSO jail system makes up 75% of the personnel and budget of the Office - a job made more challenging as the responsibility for the largest construction project ever undertaken by the county government was placed in my lap. Two mega jails, a food factory, laundry, distribution center, training center and thousands of officers had to be designed, planned, built, and hired. These jails are now known as 4th Avenue Jail and the Lower Buckeye Jail.' He served twelve years as Chief of Custody
Before he was Sheriff'In 2010 Sheriff Arpaio asked me to become his Chief Deputy. This was a time of tremendous turmoil in the Sheriff's Office and was almost immediately inundated with federal litigation, audits, administrative issues, and reorganization.' He was appointed to the Arizona Peace Officers Standards and Training Board by Governor Hull and two later governors, holds a master's degree in organizational management and graduated from the FBI National Academy
Scale of the office'As Sheriff of the 4th largest Sheriff's office in the country'. The county's own Custody Bureau page describes 'the five Maricopa County detention facilities, the nation's fourth largest'
Detention staffing and costThe Detention Operations fund (255) carries 3,813.20 full-time equivalents and $412,534,872 across all departments in the adopted FY2027 budget

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office - Sheriff Jerry Sheridan BIO · checked 2026-08-23

The Judges

Maricopa is one of the two Arizona counties where Superior Court judges are not elected. Here the Governor appoints them from a list supplied by a judicial nominating commission and they then stand for retention, which is what the court means when it says its 98 judges are 'appointed through the merit-selection process'; in Arizona's other thirteen counties, Santa Cruz and La Paz among them, Superior Court judges are elected countywide in nonpartisan four-year races. More than 60 commissioners are hired by the court rather than appointed by the Governor or elected at all. Justices of the peace remain elected to four-year terms in their precinct, and Maricopa has 26 of them - the officers who, in Arizona, normally set release conditions at the initial appearance. So the sheriff who holds roughly 6,300 people is elected countywide; the judges who decide most of their bail are elected in precincts of a few hundred thousand people each; and the judges who try their felony cases are appointed and then retained. The jail system is built around that division: the Intake, Transfer and Release facility contains 'four completely functional courtrooms' so that first appearances can happen inside the building, and the Transportation Division moved roughly 302,138 prisoners in 2019 to get people to the courts that are not. All of these judges are state judicial officers, not county officials, though the county funds the justice courts - $43,291,620 for FY2027 - out of its own budget.

Superior Court in Maricopa County - Presiding Judge

Pamela S. Gates. 'The Honorable Pamela S. Gates is the Presiding Judge of the Judicial Branch in Maricopa County. She has supervisory authority over the Superior Court and Adult and Juvenile Probation departments and oversite authority over all lower courts in Maricopa County.' 'Judge Gates was appointed to the bench in 2009 and has served in the civil, criminal, family and juvenile departments of the Superior Court as Associate Presiding Judge and Presiding Judge for the civil department.' The Arizona Supreme Court's Presiding Judges list agrees: 'Judge Pam Gates, Maricopa County'

Superior Court in Maricopa County - size and method of selection

'The Judicial Branch of Arizona in Maricopa County - comprised of Superior Court, Adult Probation, and Juvenile Probation, including juvenile detention -- is the fourth largest trial court system in the United States, with 98 judges appointed through the merit-selection process and supported by more than 3,000 professional staff members. There are also more than 60 commissioners hired by the court to serve as judicial officers. A Maricopa County judicial officer is always available to provide support for specific requests requiring judicial approval from across Arizona and court is held around the clock for certain types of hearings'

Justice Courts of Maricopa County - justices of the peace by precinct

Fred Arnett - East Mesa Precinct
Mireya Arroyo - Moon Valley Precinct
Lori Burkhardt - Ironwood Precinct
Ken Cheuvront - Encanto Precinct
Leonore Driggs - Arcadia-Biltmore Precinct
Ashley Fitzwilliams - Dreamy Draw Precinct
Andy Gastelum - Maryvale Precinct
Joe 'Pep' Guzman - Agua Fria Precinct
Anna Huberman - Country Meadows Precinct
Jennifer Jermaine - San Marcos Precinct
Kyle Jones - North Mesa Precinct
Blake King - San Tan Precinct
Tyler Kissell - University Lakes Precinct
Teresa Lopez - West McDowell Precinct
Chris Mueller - Hassayampa Precinct
Heidi Owens - White Tank Precinct
Jordan Ray - Highland Precinct
Michele Reagan - McDowell Mountain Precinct
Cathy Riggs - Desert Ridge Precinct
Jennifer Hernandez Sama - El Centro Precinct
Rebecca Rios - South Mountain Precinct
Sharron Sauls - Kyrene Precinct
Elaissia Sears - West Mesa Precinct
DesaRae Tucker
Donald Watts - Manistee Precinct
Craig Wismer - Arrowhead Precinct

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

Maricopa County passes eight of the ten checks, more than any other county in this group, and two of its disclosures are the strongest found anywhere in it: a named list of every death in custody, and a published per-day price for holding a person.
deaths is marked yes, and the disclosure is specific rather than statistical. The Sheriff publishes an Inmate Deaths page with a separate table for each year from 2023 to 2026, broken down by month, giving each person's name, their age where recorded, their booking number, which of the jails they died in and the date. No other county in this group publishes a death in custody at all.
contracts is marked yes, and this is the clearest contract disclosure in the group by a wide margin. The county publishes a signed memorandum from its Chief Financial Officer setting the jail per diem billing rates for the coming year - $145.86 a day to house a person and $702.56 to book one in FY2027 - explains that a third-party consultant built the model from MCSO and Correctional Health Services costs, states the total budgeted cost behind the rate ($401.9 million), and says who carries it: 'Approximately 94% of the budgeted costs are absorbed by Maricopa County while 6% is estimated to be recovered through jail per diem charges to the utilizing jurisdictions.'
roster is marked yes. The Sheriff runs its own inmate search by booking number or by name and date of birth, and publishes a running headline figure - 'Total currently in custody: 6325' when read. The page carries its own caution: 'Information Contained herein should not be relied upon for any type of legal action. MARICOPA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE cannot represent that the information is current, accurate or complete.'
capacity is marked yes and is unusually granular. The Sheriff publishes, for each facility, the bed count, the square footage, the year built, the security classifications held and a description of the housing design - down to Lower Buckeye's '60 Bed Medical Infirmary and a 255 Bed Mental Health Unit' and Fourth Avenue's '1152 cells (288 specifically designated for highest security level inmates)'.
fees is marked yes on one published rate: '$0.25 per minute' for a remote video visit through ViaPath's GettingOut service, charged only for time used. What is not published is a per-minute telephone rate - GTL runs the phone system and the county describes the account types without pricing them - or any commissary price list. On-site video visits, which were free, 'are currently suspended'.
prea is marked no. MCSO has a PREA page which explains the statute, states that 'Any sexual abuse by employees, contractors, vendors, volunteers and inmates is strictly prohibited' and publishes its own PREA policy in English and Spanish plus an inmate brochure. What it does not publish is any audit result or statistical report, which is what this check asks for.
inspections is marked no. Arizona has no state jail inspector and no accreditation or independent inspection result for the jail system was found. MCSO does publish a Compliance section, a Bureau of Internal Oversight and a 'Melendres Compliance Corner' with compliance reports, but Melendres v. Arpaio concerns patrol and traffic enforcement rather than the jails.
The jails are nonetheless under federal court supervision on the medical side, and the county's own budget is where that shows. Both Correctional Health Services appropriations carry line items named 'CHS Graves Judgement Operating' - $5,418,606 from the Detention Operations fund and $7,200,000 in grants for FY2027. That is money budgeted against a federal judgment about conditions in this jail system, recorded here as a funding fact.
Two operational facts change what families must do. All personal mail must be a standard postcard sent to a central mailroom at the Lower Buckeye Jail whatever jail the person is in, with a detailed list of what makes a postcard unacceptable. And the Sheriff's Office 'DOES NOT ACCEPT ANY U.S. CURRENCY OR CHECKS' for inmate accounts - deposits must go through TouchPay, which charges a fee.
The county funds and the Sheriff runs a jail system that is a large public works programme in its own right. Three facilities opened in a single year, 2020, including the ITR built to process 'approximately 100,000 bookings and 90,000 releases each year', and the present Sheriff personally managed the construction of the two 2005 mega jails as Chief of Custody before being elected to run them.
Board of Supervisors, five members: Kate Brophy McGee (Chair, District 3), Debbie Lesko (Vice Chair, District 4), Mark Stewart (District 1), Thomas Galvin (District 2) and Steve Gallardo (District 5). In the county's own words, 'The County is governed by five elected district supervisors. The Board of Supervisors appoints a county manager. The Board sets the agenda and approves a budget that allocates money to all departments and elected offices.' Two supervisors' pages list a 'Public Safety Funding Committee' among their responsibilities. Maricopa County has no jail district, but it does have something functionally similar and larger: a dedicated Detention Operations Fund (fund 255) paid for chiefly by a jail tax. The adopted FY2027 budget schedules estimate 'Jail Tax' revenue to that fund at $295,492,360, alongside $28,734,278 of 'Intergov Charges For Services - Other', which is the per-diem billing to other jurisdictions. The fund carries 3,813.20 FTE and $412,534,872 in total, and it pays not only the Sheriff but Correctional Health, Adult Probation, Juvenile Probation, Facilities Management and Equipment Services for detention-related work. Within the Sheriff's own FY2027 total of $508,802,054, Detention Operations is $282,067,360, Inmate Services $14,310,122, Inmate Health Services $700,000 and the Sheriff Jail Enhancement fund $6,575,841. Correctional Health Services adds $94,991,376 from the Detention Operations fund plus $7,200,000 in Correctional Health Grants; both carry line items labelled 'CHS Graves Judgement Operating' - $5,418,606 and $7,200,000 for FY2027 - money budgeted against a federal court judgment concerning care in this jail system.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Maricopa 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 Maricopa 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