Washington County, Florida — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Not found

Operated byNot confirmed (the county runs no corrections department; the sheriff's own site could not be opened)
County budget FY2019-20Detention and Correction $2,133,302; inmate housing revenue $200,000; booking fees revenue $8,000
Inmate laborPublic Works inmate crew $264,609 (FY2019-20 budget)

Source: Washington County FY2019-2020 Budget · checked 2026-09-28

Transparency rating

Not scored. Washington County's and its sheriff's own websites could not be reached or read in the session that produced this record, so their disclosures were never examined. This is a gap in the research, not a finding about the county.

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 Kevin Crews

Runs the jailNot confirmed on a page opened — the sheriff's site could not be read; the county's department list has no corrections department
How the office is filledElected, four-year term
Office711 3rd St., Chipley (county's Sheriff's Department page)

Still needed

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

Source: Washington County BOCC — Sheriff's Department 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 Washington County

Circuit Court: Florida's Fourteenth Judicial Circuit, which also serves Bay, Calhoun, Gulf, Holmes and Jackson (Fla. Stat. 26.021). Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and hear felonies.
County Court: the Washington 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.
NoteFive commissioners, one per district; meets at 1331 South Blvd., Chipley. Agendas at https://washingtonfl.gov/documents/agendas/; minutes on the clerk's site.
The boardWashington County Board of County Commissioners →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

IMPORTANT: the sheriff's own site (wcso.us / w.wcso.us) could not be opened at all, so every jail check other than budget was judged only on the county government's domain. The 'no' scores reflect what the county site shows, not an examination of the sheriff's site.
A search result shows the sheriff hosts an Inmate Roster at https://www.wcso.us/inmateRoster, but it was refused (robots.txt), so roster is not scored yes. Re-check when the site can be read.
County site (washingtonfl.gov) opened: Sheriff's Department page (names Sheriff Kevin Crews), departments list, commission page and budgets page.
Budget: the county's FY2019-20 budget shows a Detention and Correction line of $2,133,302 plus inmate-housing and booking-fee revenue. The FY2025-26 budget summary shows only an aggregate Public Safety figure.
What was tried: http://www.wcso.us and https://www.wcso.us (robots.txt disallowed); https://wcso.us (disallowed); w.wcso.us (https redirects down to http; /index.php and /jail refused — robots and certificate errors); wcso.us/inmateRoster (disallowed).
Not scored: The sheriff's own site could not be opened at all, so the jail checks rest only on county pages without jail content. Marking the rest 'not published' would claim more than was checked. Found published on the pages that did open: budget.
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 Washington 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