The Detention Center
Marion County Jail
- Operated byMarion County Sheriff's Office (Detention Bureau)
- Jail address3290 NW 10th St, Ocala, FL 34475
- PopulationHouses "between 1,600-1,700 inmates" (sheriff's Detention Bureau page)
- Fees$22.00 booking fee and $3.00 daily subsistence fee (sheriff's jail rules page)
- Video visitsSecurus
- Jail AdministratorMajor Charles McIntosh, Detention Bureau Chief
Source: Marion County Sheriff's Office — Detention Bureau · checked 2026-09-28
Transparency rating
6/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗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
- ✓Phone, video and commissary rates
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 (population 1,600-1,700 stated)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Billy Woods
- Full name (FDLE lead)William "Billy" Woods
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff's Detention Bureau operates the Marion County Jail
- In officeTook office in 2016; serving a third term (sheriff's own page)
- 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: Marion 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 Marion County
- Circuit Court: Florida's Fifth Judicial Circuit, which also serves Citrus, Hernando, Lake and Sumter (Fla. Stat. 26.021). Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and hear felonies.
- County Court: the Marion 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 home page lists five commissioners by district; no agendas/minutes link could be read from it.
- The boardMarion County Board of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- marionso.com confirmed as Marion County, Florida (Ocala).
- Sheriff Billy Woods is named on the sheriff's own site; took office 2016.
- Sheriff's Inmate Search page sends users to jail.marionso.com, the sheriff's own subdomain roster; that subdomain returned 403 to our reader.
- PREA page lists a 2024 PREA annual report, data review, and PREA audit reports for 2024, 2021, 2016 and 2015; our reader got titles but not document URLs.
- Detention FAQ explains bond posting 24/7: cash or certified check at the jail's Information and Visitation Center, card via cashbondonline.com, or a bail bond agent.
- Jail rules page states a $22 booking fee and $3 daily subsistence fee.
- Sheriff's Budget & Finance Bureau page posts no budget figures; the county site's budget pages could not be reached from its home page.
- No inspection report, deaths-in-custody record or contracts found; the Special Operations and Compliance page mentions medical contract monitoring but posts no contract.
- Seat source is the sheriff's detention page (Ocala address).
- What was tried: http://jail.marionso.com (403); county budget/agendas pages not reachable from marionfl.org home page.
- 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 Marion 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