The Detention Center
Madison County Jail
- Operated byMadison County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address823 SW Pinckney Street, Madison, Florida 32340
- PhonesSecurus Technologies; outbound calls only
- First appearanceWithin 24 hours (sheriff's jail page)
- Jail AdministratorMajor Bea Livingston, Jail Administrator
Source: Madison County Sheriff's Office — Jail Information · checked 2026-09-28
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓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 builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff David Harper
- Runs the jailYes — "The Madison County Jail is under the direct authority of the Madison County Sheriff"
- 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: Madison County Sheriff's Office — About 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 Madison County
- Circuit Court: Florida's Third Judicial Circuit, which also serves Columbia, Dixie, Hamilton, Lafayette, Suwannee and Taylor (Fla. Stat. 26.021). Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and hear felonies.
- County Court: the Madison 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.
- NoteBoard page not opened — madisoncountyfl.com and madisonclerk.com were refused by the fetch tool.
- The boardMadison County Board of County Commissioners
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- madisonflsheriff.org confirmed as Madison County, Florida; the old lead mcso-fl.org failed (certificate error).
- Sheriff David Harper is named on the sheriff's own site.
- Sheriff links "Search Jail Population" to madisonjail.org, a page titled Madison County Sheriffs Office; it opened but its search content did not render for our reader.
- PREA page gives a zero-tolerance statement, reporting routes and a PREA coordinator; no audits posted.
- Jail pages describe visitation, Securus phones, canteen and deposits but give no fee rates, capacity or bond guidance; the visitation PDF had no readable text.
- Sheriff's finance page posts no budget; the county budget could not be opened.
- No inspection report, deaths-in-custody record or contracts found.
- Seat source is the sheriff's jail page (Madison address); no county-government page could be opened.
- What was tried: http://www.mcso-fl.org (refused — certificate not valid for that host); https://madisoncountyfl.com/ and https://www.madisonclerk.com/ — refused by the fetch tool.
- 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 Madison 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