Dade County, Georgia — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Dade County Jail

Operated byDade County Sheriff's Office
Jail address75 Case Avenue, Trenton, Georgia 30752 (mail: P.O. Box 920)
Jail phone706-657-2277 or 706-657-3233
Assistant jail administratorLieutenant Daniel Raley
Inmate phone and videoNCIC Inmate Communications
Commissary and messagingThe Store Call
FY-2026 jail budgetAdult Correctional (Jail) (3420): $1,966,100 (includes Inmate Food $200,000; Inmate Medical $45,000)
FY-2026 sheriff budgetLaw Enforcement / Sheriff's Department Administration (3310): $3,037,300
Jail AdministratorCaptain Chad Payne (Jail Administrator)

Source: Dade County Sheriff's Office — Inmate/Jail Resources · checked 2026-09-29

Transparency rating

2/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✗Who is in custody — not published
✗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 — not published
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Dade County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-29. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

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 Ray Cross

Runs the jailYes — 'The Sheriff's Office maintains the County Jail, provides security for the County Courts, and serves various legal papers throughout the county.'
How the office is filledElected; the sheriff's own message refers to being elected 'for another four years'

Still needed

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

Source: Dade 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 Dade County

Superior Court: the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, which also serves Catoosa, Chattooga and Walker. 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 Dade 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.
NoteAgendas and minutes are posted through Simbli (eBoard Solutions), linked from the county site; archived items in the county Agenda Center.
The boardDade County Board of Commissioners →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

Sheriff's site dadesheriff.com opened and is a section of the Dade County, Georgia government site (dadecounty-ga.gov); Georgia confirmed.
Opened: sheriff home, Sheriff, About Us, Divisions, Inmate/Jail Resources, sitemap; county Government page, county home, FY-2026 budget page and FY-2026 budget summary PDF.
The Inmate/Jail Resources page names the Dade County Jail and lists address, phones, jail administrator, mail rules and phone/commissary vendors (NCIC, The Store Call) but no fee rates.
No inmate roster, capacity figure, bond guidance, PREA, inspection report, death record or contracts found on the sheriff's or county pages opened.
FY-2026 budget summary shows Adult Correctional (Jail) $1,966,100 and Sheriff's Department $3,037,300.
County seat recorded as Trenton from the county government address (Trenton, GA 30752) on the county's Government page.
Searches used for this county: 0.
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 Dade 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