The Detention Center
Bradford County Jail
- Operated byBradford County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address945-A N. Temple Ave., Starke, FL 32091
- Year built1995
- Designed capacity240 inmates (sheriff-posted PREA audit report, Nov 2023)
- Average daily population182 in 2025, plus a separate US Marshals population of 55 (sheriff's Annual Review 2025)
- Bookings1,198 in FY Oct 2024–Sep 2025
- Corrections bureau expenses$8,513,941.70 in FY 2024-25 (Annual Review 2025)
- Jail AdministratorCaptain Beth Griffin, Jail Division Commander (sheriff's Command Staff page)
Source: Bradford County Sheriff's Office — Jail · checked 2026-09-28
Transparency rating
6/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✓Deaths in custody
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗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 built1995
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds240 designed capacity (PREA audit report, Nov 2023)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Gordon Smith (George Paul "Gordon" Smith)
- Runs the jailYes — the Bradford County Sheriff's Office operates the Bradford County Jail
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Bradford County Sheriff's Office — Command Staff · checked 2026-09-28
The Judges
Florida's circuit and county judges are elected state judicial officers, not county officials. A judge sets the first conditions of release at first appearance, within 24 hours of arrest.
Who sets bail in Bradford County
- Circuit Court: Florida's Eighth Judicial Circuit, which also serves Alachua, Baker, Gilchrist, Levy and Union (Fla. Stat. 26.021). Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and hear felonies.
- County Court: the Bradford County Court. County judges are elected countywide to six-year terms and hear misdemeanors.
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-28
The Board of County Commissioners
They pay for the jail. In most counties the sheriff runs it; in some, the county does.
- What they controlThe sheriff's budget, including its separate line for corrections and detention: the sheriff submits it by June 1 and the board may amend, increase or reduce it (Fla. Stat. 30.49). The board also owns the jail building, and it decides by ordinance whether the sheriff or a county corrections department runs the jail (Fla. Stat. 951.061).
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations where the sheriff runs the jail. The sheriff is separately elected, and can appeal the board's budget cuts to the Governor and Cabinet sitting as the Administration Commission. No state agency inspects the jail; peer inspectors from other sheriffs' offices do.
- NoteCounty government site not opened.
- The boardBradford County Board of County Commissioners
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- The sheriff runs the jail; the jail page names it and gives the address and year built (1995).
- Sheriff's Annual Review 2025 publishes average daily population (182, plus 55 US Marshals prisoners), 1,198 bookings and corrections bureau expenses of $8,513,941.70.
- The same Annual Review reports 8 suicide attempts with the words "ONE SUCCESSFUL" — a death in custody published by the sheriff.
- Sheriff posts a PREA notice, a 2024-2025 PREA annual report and the Nov 2023 PREA audit report (1 standard exceeded, 44 met, 0 not met).
- Jail page says only that bond information becomes available after first appearance (about 10:00 AM daily); no instructions on how to post bond, so bond_info not credited.
- Phone and video visits via NCIC; no rates published. Finance page carries no budget document.
- Inmate search (smartweb.bradfordsheriff.org) is the sheriff's own jail lookup, linked from the jail page; not opened.
- What was tried: http://www.bradfordsheriff.org (old lead) refused before search; https://www.bradfordsheriff.org opened after search. County government site not tried.
- State inspection/oversight: Florida requires every county jail to meet the Florida Model Jail Standards and to be inspected each year, but the inspectors come from other sheriffs' offices, not a state agency, and state law does not require the reports to be published.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Bradford 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 is elected. So are the county commissioners who pay for the jail, and the judges who set bail.
Names verified 2026-09-28 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered