The Detention Center
Columbia County Detention Facility
- Operated byColumbia County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address389 NW Quinten St., Lake City, FL 32055
- Beds340 (minimum, medium and maximum security)
- Year builtOriginally constructed 1987; new housing section added 2022
- FY 2025-26 county budgetDetention Center Operations $7,253,369; Detention Center Facilities $664,097; separate Jail Debt Service Fund $636,914
- Booking fee$15 non-refundable subsistence fee at each intake
- Jail AdministratorCaptain Robert C. Dees, Jail Administrator
Source: Columbia County Sheriff's Office — Detention Facility · checked 2026-09-28
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1987
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found (county budget carries a Jail Debt Service Fund)
- Beds340
Since then
- New housing section added 2022
The Sheriff
Sheriff Wallace F. "Wallie" Kitchings
- Runs the jailYes — the Columbia County Sheriff's Office operates the Columbia County Detention Facility
- 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: Columbia County Sheriff's Office — Meet the Sheriff · 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 Columbia County
- Circuit Court: Florida's Third Judicial Circuit, which also serves Dixie, Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison, Suwannee and Taylor (Fla. Stat. 26.021). Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and hear felonies.
- County Court: the Columbia 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 meeting calendar page is where the board posts agendas and materials.
- The boardColumbia County Board of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site is now columbiasheriff.org (Lake City, Florida); Sheriff Wallace F. 'Wallie' Kitchings named on the Meet the Sheriff page.
- Detention page: 340 beds, built 1987, expanded 2022, Jail Administrator Captain Robert C. Dees, $15 intake subsistence fee.
- County FY 2025-26 budget shows Detention Center Operations $7,253,369 within a Total Sheriff of $23,960,492, plus a Jail Debt Service Fund.
- Detention page explains first appearance within 24 hours where a judge states the bond amount, but gives no instructions on how to post bond, so bond_info = no.
- Detention page names vendors (Summit food service, Smart Communications, Securus) but posts no contracts.
- Page says the jail is inspected annually for Florida Model Jail Standards compliance; no report posted.
- No inmate search/in-custody list, PREA, or deaths information found; the sheriff's quick links point only to state VINE.
- What was tried: http://www.columbiasheriff.com and https://www.columbiasheriff.com (refused, PROVENANCE_REQUIRED).
- One search used.
- 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 Columbia 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