The Detention Center
Merced County Sheriff's Main Jail and John Latorraca Correctional Center (JLCC)
- Operated byMerced County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes jail namesYes — Main Jail and John Latorraca Correctional Center
- Sheriff's Office address700 W. 22nd Street, Merced, CA 95340
- JLCC locationApproximately seven miles southwest of Merced
- Housing locations named in death noticesMain Jail 1 Block, 2 Block, Holding; JLCC 600 Dorm, SHU, Eastside SHU
- Rated capacity772 beds across 2 facilities
Source: Merced County — Jail Information · checked 2026-08-23
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✓Deaths in custody
- ✗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 builtMain Jail described in 2023 reporting as 55 years old; JLCC year built not found
- Original costNot found for the existing facilities
- Paid for byThe 256-bed replacement facility is fully county funded; the state initially rejected Merced County's funding proposal
- Beds772 BSCC rated capacity — Merced County Jail (Main Jail) 205 and John Latorraca Correctional Center 567, both Type II
Since then
- $138.5 million expansion at John Latorraca Correctional Center (Phase 1 $77.5 million, Phase 2 $61 million) adding a 256-bed facility to replace the downtown Main Jail: a 64-bed women's unit, two 64-bed men's units and two 32-bed men's units. Construction began September 2023, completion expected June 2026.
The Sheriff
Sheriff Vernon H. Warnke
- Title as publishedSheriff / Coroner
- Also serves asCounty Coroner — the Sheriff's Office Coroner's Bureau investigates all in-custody deaths, including autopsy and toxicology
- Took officeSworn in December 2014; began with the department September 15, 1979
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Merced County — Sheriff Vernon H. Warnke · checked 2026-08-23
The Judges
Judge Lo was re-elected Presiding Judge and Judge Trimble elected Assistant Presiding Judge in an October 13, 2025 announcement; both began two-year terms on January 1, 2026. The court's local rules effective July 1, 2026 are at https://www.merced.courts.ca.gov/system/files/local-rules/2026-july-local-rules.pdf. No arraignment or bail department is separately identified.
Superior Court of California, County of Merced — Assistant Presiding Judge (2026-2027 term)
- Jennifer O. Trimble
- 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
- Expansion figures come from The Merced FOCUS, https://themercedfocus.org/construction-begins-on-138-5-million-merced-county-jail-expansion-decade-in-the-making/ . The project's environmental review is on CEQAnet at https://ceqanet.opr.ca.gov/2015061010 .
- Budget: the FY 2025-26 Proposed Budget Book shows a separate line 23000 - Sheriff-Corrections at $46,613,466.92.
- Roster: the county's Inmate Inquiry site showed 778 people with In Custody = Yes at the time of checking, filterable by housing facility (Main Jail, John Latorraca Correctional Center, transportation unit, out-of-county, state hospital, supervised release). It is reached from the Jail Information page via http://booking2.co.merced.ca.us/ , which redirects to it.
- PREA: the only PREA item published is an inmate notice, https://www.countyofmerced.com/DocumentCenter/View/11676 . No audit report or audit result is published.
- Bond info and fees: the Incarcerated Person Handbook (https://www.countyofmerced.com/DocumentCenter/View/18225/Incarcerated-Person-Handbook) describes the commissary but lists no prices and contains no bail guidance. The Inmate Funds page says only 'There is a convenience fee to use this service' without stating an amount.
- Inspections: the county publishes no inspection result. BSCC hosts a corrective action plan submitted by the Merced County Sheriff's Office in response to the 2020-2022 BSCC inspection, recorded below as the state inspection document.
- California DOJ Death in Custody data record eight Merced County Sheriff's Department deaths from 2023 through 2025, one more than the seven on the county page for that period: a 5/11/2025 county-jail suicide of a person booked and awaiting trial, and a 9/5/2025 accidental death at a local hospital, neither of which appears in the published table.
- Five-member Board of Supervisors, elected by district.
What California law requires
Merced County posts a death-in-custody page.
Posts 7 of 7The page is here. The page states 'The information below is provided in compliance with California Penal Code 10008 / California Assembly Bill 2761, which took effect on January 1, 2023', defines pre-trial, partially sentenced and sentenced status, and carries a table with columns Reportable Number, Date of Death, County, Facility, Location, Race, Gender, Age, Custodial Status, Manner of Death and Means of Death — all seven statutory elements. Seven deaths are listed: 2023-001 4/20/2023 JLCC 600 Dorm, B M 31, partially sentenced, accident, fentanyl/paroxetine/hydroxyzine toxicity; 2023-002 5/25/2023 JLCC Eastside SHU, W F 28, pre-trial, suicide, asphyxia by hanging; 2024-001 4/18/2024 Main Jail 1 Block, H M 42, pre-trial, suicide, asphyxia by hanging; 2024-002 6/19/2024 JLCC SHU, W M 74, pre-trial, natural, pending; 2024-003 11/3/2024 Main Jail 1 Block, H M 26, pre-trial, homicide, multiple sharp force injuries; 2025-001 3/15/2025 Main Jail Holding, W M 47, pre-trial, suicide, asphyxia by hanging; 2026-001 7/25/2026 Main Jail 2 Block, H M 31, pre-trial, accident, pending toxicology (overdose).
- ✓The agency with custodial responsibility
- ✓The county where the death occurred
- ✓The facility — and where inside it
- ✓Race, gender and age
- ✓The date of death
- ✓Custodial status — awaiting arraignment, awaiting trial, or incarcerated
- ✓Manner and means of death
California Penal Code § 10008, enacted by AB 2761 and in force since January 2023, requires the agency with custodial responsibility to post these seven items on its own website within ten days of a death in custody, and to update them within thirty days if the facts change. California is the only state in the country with this duty. Checked 2026-08-23. This records what is published, nothing more.
The record
14 people have died in the Merced County jail since 2016.
Deaths: Texas Justice Initiative, the cleaned copy of the Texas Attorney General’s custodial death reports — the state’s own public index carries no cause of death and has not been refreshed since August 2025. Population: Texas Commission on Jail Standards monthly report. Counted, not estimated.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Merced 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.
- Find your polling place and check your registration →
- Your county elections office →
- Register to vote in California →
The county elections office runs the polling place in Merced County and prints the ballot the sheriff’s name is on. Links from the California Secretary of State and vote.gov.
Names verified 2026-08-23 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered