The Detention Center
Dawson County Detention Center
- Operated byDawson County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address19 Tucker Avenue, Dawsonville, GA 30534
- Capacity192 inmates
- Visitation1 on-site visit (30 minutes, no cost) and 2 remote visits (15 minutes, paid through Smart Communications) per week
- Phone and remote visitsSmart Communications
- CommissaryKeefe
- Bond add-ons (as published)10% of bail up to $100 (Peace Officers and Prosecutors Training); 10% of bail to the Jail Construction and Staffing Fund; $20 non-refundable cash bond fee per bond instrument
- Immigration reportingQuarterly immigration reports posted (Q3 2025 to Q2 2026)
- Jail AdministratorCaptain Anthony Davis (Chief Jailer)
Source: Dawson County Sheriff's Office — Detention · 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 — 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 — 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
- Beds192 (capacity as published by the Sheriff's Office)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jeff Johnson
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office Detention component operates the Dawson County Detention Center
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term (Georgia law)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Dawson County Sheriff's Office — Administration · 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 Dawson County
- Superior Court: the Northeastern Judicial Circuit, which also serves Hall. 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 Dawson 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.
- NoteCounty government site dawsoncountyga.gov was refused by our reader (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED); board and minutes page not confirmed.
- The boardNot found
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site dawsoncountysheriff.org opened; Dawson County, Georgia confirmed (Dawsonville, GA 30534).
- Opened: home, Detention, Administration, About Us, Services, Office of Professional Standards.
- Detention page names the Dawson County Detention Center, gives capacity 192, the chief jailer, visitation rules and bond posting guidance with required bond add-ons and approved bonding companies.
- Detention page links 'View Current Inmates' to a JailTracker page for Dawson_County_GA, but our reader could not open it (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED), so roster is not scored yes.
- Phone, remote-visit and commissary vendors named (Smart Communications, Keefe) but no rates published; only the $20 cash bond fee is stated.
- No PREA, inspection report, death record or contracts found on the sheriff's pages opened.
- What was tried: https://www.dawsoncountyga.gov/ and https://www.dawsoncountyga.gov/courts/page/dawson-county-probate-court — both refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED); county budget and commission minutes not examined.
- County seat not stated on any page opened (sheriff pages give a Dawsonville address only).
- 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 Dawson 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