The Detention Center
Bartow County Detention Center
- Operated byBartow County Sheriff's Office (Jail Division)
- Jail address104 Zena Drive, Cartersville, Georgia 30121
- Building sizeApproximately 300,000 square feet
- Staffing68 line Correction Officers in 4 shifts
- ThroughputOver 7,000 inmates processed and over 600,000 meals served a year
- Inspections (as stated)"Each quarter, the Detention Center is inspected by the Bartow County Grand Jury"; U.S. Marshal's Office and Georgia Fire Marshal inspect annually
- Sheriff and Jail spending (FY2025)Final budget 41,747,800; actual 41,701,981 (county annual financial report)
- Medical providerCorrectHealth, per the medical services page
- PhonesICSolutions; prepaid $0.16/min local/interstate, collect $0.21/min, international $0.50/min
- CommissaryLegacy Commissary Services; orders via JailATM.com; $150 weekly limit
- Bond$20.00 Sheriff's Bonding Fee on each property or cash bond; bonds posted at Bonding/Visitation Center Lobby
- Jail AdministratorMajor Gary Dover, Jail Administrator
Source: Bartow County Sheriff's Office — Jail Division · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗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
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff W. Clark Millsap
- 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 onSheriff page: "W. Clark Millsap, Sheriff"; says he has served 21 years as sheriff
Still needed
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Bartow County Sheriff's Office — Sheriff · 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 Bartow County
- Superior Court: the Cherokee Judicial Circuit, which also serves Gordon. 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 Bartow County Magistrate Court. For most charges a magistrate sets bail soon after arrest.
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 2026-09-29
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 boardBartow County Sole Commissioner →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site (the directory's webmaster2166.wixsite.com/bartowso, with bartow.org staff emails) opened; confirmed Bartow County, Georgia (Cartersville).
- Jail Division page names the Bartow County Detention Center, the Jail Administrator and Assistant Jail Administrator, and says the grand jury inspects it quarterly; no inspection report itself is posted, so inspections is no.
- Inmate Search page describes a public search of people currently held, linking jailroster.bc-cville.org/NewWorld.InmateInquiry/bartow (not opened).
- Bail Bonding page explains bond types, where to post, and the $20 sheriff's bonding fee; phone page publishes ICSolutions per-minute rates.
- Medical page names CorrectHealth as provider but no contract is posted; no capacity, PREA, deaths or budget material found.
- County site bartowcountyga.gov (reached from bartowga.org) says "Bartow County has a sole County Commissioner who acts as the governing authority for the County"; courthouse at 135 West Cherokee Avenue, Cartersville.
- County's 2025 Annual Financial Report (linked from the county Finance page, served from the county's Revize file host) shows a General Fund line "Sheriff and Jail": original budget 39,227,500; final budget 41,747,800; actual 41,701,981.
- The 2026 proposed operating budget PDF gave our reader no text.
- Sheriff's newer site bartow.org links the same inmate lookup and an open-records portal.
- What was tried: www.bartowga.org first refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED); reached the county site through a search result.
- 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 Bartow 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