The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byGlades County Sheriff's Office
- Federal detaineesThe sheriff's home page says the office partners with ICE and the US Marshals to house over 450 federal detainees and prisoners
- Rated capacityNot found
Source: Glades County Sheriff's Office — home page · checked 2026-09-28
Transparency rating
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 David Hardin
- CurrentNamed in the FDLE Sheriff's Office Directory, 2 Sep 2025; not confirmed on a county page
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff's own home page describes the office housing federal detainees in its 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: FDLE Sheriff's Office Directory (2 Sep 2025) · 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 Glades County
- Circuit Court: Florida's Twentieth Judicial Circuit, which also serves Charlotte, Collier, Hendry and Lee (Fla. Stat. 26.021). Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and hear felonies.
- County Court: the Glades 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.
- NoteNo county government page could be opened in this session.
- The boardGlades County Board of County Commissioners
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Only the sheriff's home page (gladessheriff.org, confirmed Glades County, Florida) could be opened. Every sub-page, including the jail/inmate-information page, was refused by robots.txt, so the ten checks were not judged.
- SHERIFF NAME CONFLICT: the sheriff's home page welcome message is signed 'Sheriff Stuart Whiddon', but the FDLE directory of 2 Sep 2025 lists David Hardin. The home-page message appears to be old text left up; it is not used. David Hardin is recorded as the FDLE fallback and needs confirming on a current official page.
- The home page says the office partners with ICE and the US Marshals to house over 450 federal detainees and prisoners, and mentions a 'State of the Art' jail; no contract document, facility name or capacity figure was seen on an opened page.
- County seat Moore Haven is taken from the sheriff's address in the FDLE directory (PO Box 39, 1297 East SR 78, Moore Haven); no county page was opened.
- What was tried: http://www.gladessheriff.org (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED); https://gladessheriff.org/corrections/inmate_information/index.php, https://www.gladessheriff.org/corrections/index.php, /sitemap.xml and /robots.txt all ROBOTS_DISALLOWED. A second search for the county's constitutional-officers page found myglades.com, but https://www.myglades.com/commissioners/elected_officials.php, /commissioners/index.php and /departments/public_officials.php were all ROBOTS_DISALLOWED. 2 WebSearches 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 Glades 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