The Detention Center
Franklin County Sheriff's Office Detention Center
- Operated byFranklin County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address270 State Road 65, Eastpoint, FL 32328
- Video visitation vendorHomewav
- FY 2021-22 county budgetSheriff budget transfer $6,013,640; county-paid jail lines (inmate medical $150,000, utilities, insurance, repair and maintenance)
- Jail AdministratorMajor David Varnes, Corrections Administrator
Source: Franklin County Sheriff's Office — Detention Division · checked 2026-09-28
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 byNot found
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff A.J. "Tony" Smith
- Runs the jailYes — the Franklin County Sheriff's Office Detention Division runs the detention center in Eastpoint
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- First elected2016, per the sheriff's own page
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Franklin County Sheriff's Office — Sheriff A.J. "Tony" Smith · 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 Franklin County
- Circuit Court: Florida's Second Judicial Circuit, which also serves Gadsden, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty and Wakulla (Fla. Stat. 26.021). Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and hear felonies.
- County Court: the Franklin 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.
- The boardFranklin County Board of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- franklinsheriff.com confirmed as Franklin County Sheriff's Office, Eastpoint, Florida (franklinsheriff.org is an Alabama county and was not used).
- Sheriff A.J. 'Tony' Smith named on his own page (first elected 2016) and on the county's Sheriff's Office page.
- Detention Division page names the Franklin County Sheriff's Office Detention Center, Corrections Administrator Major David Varnes, and a captain over daily operations.
- The sheriff's site appears to be mid-redesign: the new home page shows few links; commissary and video-visitation pages returned 404; FAQ detention answers (bond amount, commissary, first appearance) were hidden in collapsed sections and could not be read.
- Roster: sheriff publishes an arrest log (FCSO, Apalachicola PD, Carrabelle PD), not a list of who is in custody now, so roster = no.
- Budget: only county budget found on the county site is the FY 2021-22 adopted budget (Sheriff transfer $6,013,640 plus county jail lines); no current-year budget located.
- No capacity, PREA, deaths, inspection report, contracts, bond guidance or fee rates found.
- What was tried: http://www.franklinsheriff.com/ and https://www.franklinsheriff.com/ root (refused, PROVENANCE_REQUIRED; https://franklinsheriff.com/ worked); /detention (404); /resources/inmate-commissary/ and /resources/video-visitation/ (404).
- Two searches 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 Franklin 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