The Detention Center
Brooks County Detention Facility
- Operated byBrooks County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address1003 Holloway Dr, Quitman, GA 31643
- Jail phone229-263-8153
- Rated capacityMaximum of 112 prisoners
- Daily average population64 inmates (sheriff's Staff & Divisions page)
- Staffing18 full-time officers, 24 hours a day
- FY2024-25 Jail budget$1,650,500 (Sheriff's Office total $4,595,050)
Source: Brooks County Sheriff's Office — Staff & Divisions · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓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 — not published
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds112
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Mike Dewey
- Runs the jailYes — 'The Brooks County Detention Facility is a major function of the Brooks County Sheriff's Office'
- 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: Brooks County Sheriff's Office · 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 Brooks County
- Superior Court: the Southern Judicial Circuit, which also serves Colquitt, Echols, Lowndes and Thomas. 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 Brooks 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.
- NoteFive district commissioners.
- The boardBrooks County Board of Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff site and county site (brookscountyga.gov) both confirmed Brooks County, Georgia; county site says 'The county seat is Quitman.'
- Sheriff site names Sheriff Mike Dewey and publishes the Detention Facility's 112-prisoner maximum and 64 daily average.
- County FY2024-25 budget packet shows a Jail line of $1,650,500 within Sheriff's Office departments.
- Sheriff site has no inmate roster, visitation, bond, commissary, fee, PREA or contract pages.
- No search used.
- 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 Brooks 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