The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byNot confirmed
Source: Manatee County — Sheriff's Office agency 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 Rick Wells
- CurrentNamed in the FDLE Sheriff's Office Directory, 2 Sep 2025; not confirmed on a county page
- Runs the jailNot confirmed — the sheriff's jail page could not be opened
- 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 Manatee County
- Circuit Court: Florida's Twelfth Judicial Circuit, which also serves DeSoto and Sarasota (Fla. Stat. 26.021). Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and hear felonies.
- County Court: the Manatee 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.
- NoteSeven members: five elected from single-member districts, two county-wide; no county mayor.
- The boardManatee County Board of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Not examined: every page on the sheriff's own site (manateesheriff.com — home, /jail/) was refused by the fetch tool (robots.txt), and the sheriff's arrest-inquiries app was rejected by the proxy. Checks are left empty rather than scored no.
- Only county-government pages opened (mymanatee.org): the sheriff agency page (address 600 Highway 301 Boulevard West, Bradenton; no sheriff named, no jail information), the Board page and the budget pages.
- County Financial Management page states the FY26 adopted budget total ($1,368,296,426) but no budget book with a sheriff or jail line could be reached.
- Sheriff name is the FDLE directory lead only; no own page naming the sheriff could be opened.
- Seat source is the county Board meetings page, which places the County Administration Building in Bradenton.
- What was tried: https://www.manateesheriff.com/ and https://www.manateesheriff.com/jail/ (robots.txt disallowed); https://www.manateesheriff.com/arrest_inquiries_app/ (proxy rejected, HTTP 520).
- 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 Manatee 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