The Detention Center
Taylor County Jail
- Operated byTaylor County Sheriff's Office
- Who is heldPre-trial, pre-sentenced, county- and state-sentenced male and female inmates (sheriff's page)
- Jail street addressNot found on the sheriff's page; inmate mail goes to a scanning address, PO Box 1759, Waycross, GA 31502
- VisitationVideo only, no longer in person; Securus is the phone and video provider
- Annual costDescribed in county commission minutes (7 Apr 2025) as a $3.3 million operation
Source: Taylor County Sheriff's Office — Jail Information · checked 2026-09-28
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗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 — 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 Wayne Padgett
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff's own Jail Information page presents the Taylor County Jail and names Sheriff Wayne Padgett as its head
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Office108 N Jefferson St., Suite 103, Perry, FL 32347
- Jail budget debateCounty minutes of 7 Apr 2025 record the sheriff suggesting, during budget-cut workshops, that the county take over the jail, described as a $3.3 million operation
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Taylor County Sheriff's Office — Jail Information · 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 Taylor County
- Circuit Court: Florida's Third Judicial Circuit, which also serves Columbia, Dixie, Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison and Suwannee (Fla. Stat. 26.021). Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and hear felonies.
- County Court: the Taylor 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.
- NoteFive commissioners elected by district; meets first Monday and third Tuesday. Agendas and minutes page listed on the board page.
- The boardTaylor County Board of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- The old lead taylorcountysherifffl.org redirects to taylorsheriff.org, the Taylor County, Florida sheriff's site. Home, Jail Information, Public Records and Finance pages read.
- Roster not scored: the sheriff links jail.taylorsheriff.org ('Recent Arrests'; the jail page says the current inmate count is there), but WebFetch could not open it (robots.txt 503). The site's other 'Inmate Search' link goes to a non-county aggregator.
- No capacity, bond guidance, fee rates, PREA, deaths, inspection or contract material on the sheriff's pages. Commissary via Stewart (commissarydeposit.com), phone/video via Securus; no rates posted.
- The sheriff's Finance page names the function but posts no budget. The county site's government and departments pages show no budget link; the clerk's site (taylorclerk.com) could not be opened.
- County commission minutes of 7 Apr 2025 (on the county's revize host) record a dispute over the sheriff's budget and a suggestion that the county take over the jail; the sheriff's site still presents the jail as the sheriff's.
- What was tried: taylorcountygov.com root and taylorclerk.com (refused, PROVENANCE_REQUIRED); jail.taylorsheriff.org (robots error).
- 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 Taylor 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