The Detention Center
Union County Jail
- Operated byUnion County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address50 NW 1st Street, Lake Butler
- Beds36-bed facility housing convicted and non-convicted, felony and misdemeanor offenders
- HistoryOriginal jail built circa 1922; by 1950 the old jail was dismantled and a new one built on the present site; later renovations (no dates or costs given)
- VisitationThursday and Friday, 1:00-3:00 pm, immediate family only
Source: Union County Sheriff's Office — County Jail · checked 2026-09-28
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓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 — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtBy 1950 (current jail site); original jail circa 1922
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds36
Since then
- Renovations mentioned, no dates or details given
The Sheriff
Sheriff Brad Whitehead
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff's stated mission includes "the operation of the County Jail"
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Office55 W Main Street, Lake Butler, FL 32054
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Union County Sheriff's Office (home page) · 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 Union County
- Circuit Court: Florida's Eighth Judicial Circuit, which also serves Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Gilchrist and Levy (Fla. Stat. 26.021). Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and hear felonies.
- County Court: the Union 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 and clerk sites could not be opened; minutes URL not confirmed.
- The boardUnion County Board of County Commissioners
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site unionsheriff.us opened (home page and County Jail page). The home page exposed no links to our reader; the jail page was found by search.
- Only the home page and the County Jail page could be read; other sub-pages (e.g. /jail, /index.php) were refused by a robots.txt error, so the rest of the sheriff's site was not examined.
- The County Jail page gives name, address, 36 beds, building history and visiting hours. No roster, bond guidance, fees, PREA, deaths, inspection or contract material on the pages read.
- What was tried: unionsheriff.us/jail and /index.php (robots error); unioncountyfl.gov and unionflclerk.com (host not found). County budget and board minutes not found.
- County seat taken from Wikipedia (no county page could be 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 Union 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