The Detention Center
Barrow County Detention Center
- Operated byBarrow County Sheriff's Office (Detention Bureau)
- Jail address652 Barrow Park Drive, Winder, GA
- Non-emergency770-307-3080
- BedsCounty site: the Sheriff's Office "operates a 372-bed detention facility"
- Jail Operations CommanderCaptain Daniel Coles
- Bond typesProperty, transfer, cash and bonding-company bonds accepted
- Bond fee$20.00 for the first five charges and $5.00 for each additional charge
- Commissary depositsKiosk (cash/debit/credit, $2.50 transaction fee), JailATM.com, or mailed money order
- Jail AdministratorMajor Robert A. White, Detention Bureau Chief and Sheriff's Chief Jailer
Source: Barrow County Sheriff's Office — Detention Bureau FAQ · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓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
- ✓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
- Beds372 (county site: "operates a 372-bed detention facility")
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jud Smith
- Runs the jailYes — Georgia sheriffs are the jailers of the counties by law (O.C.G.A. 42-4-1)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Shown onExecutive staff page: "Sheriff Jud Smith"
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Barrow County Sheriff's Office — Executive Staff · checked 2026-09-29
The Judges
Georgia's superior court judges are elected state judges who hear felony cases. For most charges a county magistrate sets bail soon after arrest; for the most serious felonies only a superior court judge can.
Who sets bail in Barrow County
- Superior Court: the Piedmont Judicial Circuit, which also serves Jackson. Superior court judges are elected circuit-wide in nonpartisan elections to four-year terms and hear felony cases; for the most serious felonies only a superior court judge can set bail.
- Magistrate Court: the Barrow County Magistrate Court. For most charges a magistrate sets bail soon after arrest.
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-29
The Board of Commissioners
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe county budget that funds the sheriff's office and the jail, and the jail building itself. Some small counties have a sole commissioner; consolidated governments such as Athens-Clarke, Augusta-Richmond, Columbus and Macon-Bibb have a commission instead.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. By law the sheriff is the jailer of the county and appoints the other jailers, subject to the governing authority's supervision (O.C.G.A. 42-4-1). No state agency inspects the jail.
- The boardBarrow County Board of Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site barrowsheriff.com opened; confirmed Barrow County, Georgia (Winder, GA).
- Detention Bureau FAQ names the Barrow County Detention Center and gives bond procedures, bond fee and commissary deposit fee.
- Inmate Population Report page links the county's daily inmate inquiry on jail.barrowsheriff.com; that link redirects https to http and was not opened.
- Criminal Alien Tracking page posts quarterly affidavits (2024-2026) prepared by the Detention Bureau; not opened.
- Command staff page names the Detention Bureau Chief (Sheriff's Chief Jailer), a Jail Operations Commander and an Administrative Operations Commander.
- County site barrowga.org (found by search) says the Sheriff's Office "operates a 372-bed detention facility" and the sheriff is elected to four-year terms.
- County Board of Commissioners page: seven part-time members, a chairman elected county-wide and six district commissioners, staggered four-year terms.
- What was tried: detention-bureau main page refused (rate limit); barrowga.org home link list, Departments and AgendaCenter pages refused or empty (robots), so budget not found.
- Seat recorded from the detention center's Winder address.
- State inspection/oversight: Georgia law makes the sheriff the county's jailer. The Georgia Sheriffs' Association, an association of the state's sheriffs rather than a state agency, publishes jail standards and a statewide monthly jail report.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Barrow 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 commissioners who pay for the jail, and the judges who set bail.
Names verified 2026-09-29 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered