The Detention Center
Polk County Jail — Central County Jail and South County Jail
- Operated byPolk County Sheriff's Office (Department of Detention)
- Central County Jail2390 Bob Phillips Road, Bartow
- South County Jail1103 US Hwy 98 West, Frostproof
- BookingSheriff's Processing Center, 7101 De Castro Road, Winter Haven — about 50,000 book-ins and releases a year
- First appearanceCourtrooms at both jails hold First Appearance hearings
- AccreditationFlorida Corrections Accreditation Commission (FCAC); 100% compliance at October 2024 review (sheriff's accreditation page; no report posted)
- Jail AdministratorChief Mike Allen (Department of Detention)
Source: Polk County Sheriff's Office — Security Division · 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 — 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
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 Grady Judd
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Department of Detention runs the Central County Jail (Bartow) and South County Jail (Frostproof)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- In office sinceFirst elected 2004; re-elected every four years since (sheriff's own bio page)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Polk County Sheriff's Office — Sheriff Grady Judd · 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 Polk County
- Circuit Court: Florida's Tenth Judicial Circuit, which also serves Hardee and Highlands (Fla. Stat. 26.021). Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and hear felonies.
- County Court: the Polk 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 government site not opened; agenda/minutes URL not recorded.
- The boardPolk County Board of County Commissioners
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site confirmed at polksheriff.org (Polk County, Florida).
- The sheriff runs two jails — Central County Jail in Bartow and South County Jail in Frostproof — under Chief Mike Allen; booking is at the Processing Center in Winter Haven.
- Fees published: $2.00 per day subsistence, $30.00 book-in fee, $9.00 hygiene kit (FAQ page); video visits $0.17 per minute (visitation page); inmate deposit fees $4.95-$13.95 and an $83 weekly commissary cap (inmate accounts page).
- Jail Inquiry is a public name/booking-date search of the jail population.
- The sheriff states FCAC accreditation with 100% compliance (Oct 2024) but posts no report, so inspections = no.
- No bond-posting guidance, PREA page, capacity figure, budget, deaths-in-custody data or contracts were found on the detention, accounts, visitation, FAQ, accreditation or public-records pages.
- What was tried: http/https polksheriff.org root refused by the fetcher; pages reached via one search. County government site not opened.
- 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 Polk 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