St. Johns County, Florida — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

St. Johns County Detention Center

Operated bySt. Johns County Sheriff's Office (Corrections Division)
Main detention unit664 beds, men and women awaiting pre-trial hearings
Community Work Release Center100 beds, sentenced men (364 days or less)
Average daily population431 in 2024 (sheriff's 2024 annual report)
AccreditationFlorida Corrections Accreditation Commission since June 22, 2004; next assessment March 2028 (no report posted)
Online jail logDiscontinued in 2024 because of scam activity (sheriff's 2024 annual report)

Source: St. Johns County Sheriff's Office — Detention Center · checked 2026-09-28

Transparency rating

3/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✗Who is in custody — not published
✓Beds and daily population
✗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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what St. Johns County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-28. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year builtNot found
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds664 (main unit) plus 100 (work release center)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Robert A. Hardwick

Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Corrections Division runs the St. Johns County Detention Center
How the office is filledElected, four-year term
In office sinceElected November 2020 as the 28th sheriff; took office January 5, 2021 (sheriff's own bio page)

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: St. Johns County Sheriff's Office — Sheriff Hardwick · 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 St. Johns County

Circuit Court: Florida's Seventh Judicial Circuit, which also serves Flagler, Putnam and Volusia (Fla. Stat. 26.021). Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and hear felonies.
County Court: the St. Johns County Court. County judges are elected countywide to six-year terms and hear misdemeanors.

Still needed

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 boardSt. Johns County Board of County Commissioners
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

Sheriff's site confirmed at sjso.org (St. Johns County, Florida).
The sheriff runs a 664-bed detention center plus a 100-bed Community Work Release Center; 2024 average daily population was 431.
Roster: the sheriff's inmate search page says the search is 'temporarily down', and the 2024 annual report says the online jail log was discontinued because of scam activity. The smartwebclient jail search returned 403.
Fees published: phone $0.16/min plus tax, remote video visits $0.25/min (four free 30-minute on-site visits a week), messages 50 cents (inmate contact page).
Accreditation page states FCAC accreditation but posts no report, so inspections = no.
Annual reports 2019-2025 are posted; the 2024 report gives jail population but no corrections budget, deaths or PREA figures.
No bond-posting guidance (only a phone number), PREA page, budget document, deaths-in-custody data or contracts were found on pages opened.
What was tried: sjso.org/smartwebclient/jail.aspx returned 403. No search used for this county. 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 St. Johns 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