The Detention Center
Decatur County Jail
- Operated byDecatur County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address912 Spring Creek Road, Bainbridge, GA 39817
- Jail phone229-248-3050
- Inmate phonesIC Solutions
- Commissary and depositsJailATM.com and lobby kiosk
- Inmate email50 cents per use, charged to the inmate's account
- Bond fee$20.00 State of Georgia fee per bond; 3.5% convenience charge on card payments
- FY2026 budget (posted as final; document marked draft dated May 9, 2025)Jail total $4,324,310; Sheriff total $5,074,043; DCCI (county prison) total $3,386,091
- Other county facilityThe county budget also funds DCCI (Decatur County Correctional Institution), a separate county prison
- Jail AdministratorCaptain Donna Thompson (Jail Administrator)
Source: Decatur County Sheriff's Office — Jail · 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 Wiley Griffin
- Runs the jailYes — the Decatur County Jail is run by the Sheriff's Office under Jail Administrator Captain Donna Thompson
- 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: Decatur County, GA — 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 Decatur County
- Superior Court: the South Georgia Judicial Circuit, which also serves Baker, Calhoun, Grady and Mitchell. 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 Decatur 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.
- NoteMeets second and fourth Tuesday at 203 W. Broughton St., Bainbridge.
- The boardDecatur County Board of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site decaturso.com opened; Decatur County, Georgia confirmed (Bainbridge, GA).
- Jail page names the Decatur County Jail and the jail administrator, explains cash, professional and property bonds and the $20 state bond fee, and states inmate email costs 50 cents; phone and commissary vendors named without rates.
- Inmate Bookings page links the Sheriff's Southern Software booking search (AgencyID=DecaturCoSOGA), which opened as 'Current Confinements' for the Bainbridge, GA agency; new bookings appear after a 24-hour delay.
- County site opened from one search: County Commission page, Sheriff's Office page and FY2026 budget PDF (Jail $4,324,310; Sheriff $5,074,043).
- No capacity, PREA, inspection report, death record or contracts found on the pages opened.
- What was tried: https://www.decaturcountyga.gov/ root refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED) before the search.
- 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 Decatur 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