The Detention Center
Walton County Jail
- Operated byWalton County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address40 Sheriff Circle, DeFuniak Springs, FL 32433 (inmate handbook)
- Beds596
- Average daily population500 (sheriff's jail page)
- Bookings5,296 inmates booked (2025 Annual Report)
- Food cost$3.15 per inmate per day (2025 Annual Report)
- Accreditation claimedFlorida Corrections Accreditation Commission accredited the jail in February 2010 (statement; no report posted)
- Other facilityThe custody roster lists inmates at the Walton County Jail and at 'WCJ TOC'
- Jail AdministratorMajor Taylor Park, jail commander
Source: Walton County Sheriff's Office — Jail · checked 2026-09-28
Transparency rating
7/10Open- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗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
- Beds596
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Michael A. Adkinson, Jr.
- Runs the jailYes — the Walton County Sheriff's Office runs the Walton County Jail
- 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: Walton 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 Walton County
- Circuit Court: Florida's First Judicial Circuit, which also serves Escambia, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa (Fla. Stat. 26.021). Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and hear felonies.
- County Court: the Walton 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. Agendas and minutes on the county's CivicWeb portal (https://walton.civicweb.net/Portal/), linked from the commissioners page.
- The boardWalton County Board of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site waltonso.org opened: home, Jail, Bail Bonds, Inmate Calling, the inmate handbook (21 Sep 2026) and the 2025 Annual Report.
- Roster: the sheriff's own inmate inquiry (nwscorrections.waltonso.org) shows people currently in custody.
- Budget: the county's FY2024 Final Budget (mywaltonfl.gov) carries the Sheriff's Office in the Fine & Forfeiture Fund with staffing counts; budgets through FY2026 are posted.
- Fees: the handbook posts a $20 initial subsistence fee, $2 daily subsistence, $10 sick call, $20 doctor visit, $5 per prescription. Phone and video (GettingOut/Telmate) rates are not posted.
- PREA: the handbook sets out a zero-tolerance policy and reporting channels; no PREA audit report found.
- Bond: the sheriff posts a list of approved bondsmen, the documents a bondsman must present, and an online cash-bond service.
- No deaths-in-custody, inspection report or contract material found. The 2025 Annual Report gives bookings and food cost only.
- What was tried: the county's FY2023 ACFR on waltonclerk.com (refused, robots.txt).
- 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 Walton 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