The Detention Center
No county jail — prisoners held at Lowndes County Jail
- Operated byLowndes County (housing arrangement)
- Where prisoners goAll individuals arrested by the Echols County Sheriff's Office are transported to the Lowndes County Jail
- VisitationBy appointment through 229-671-3000
Source: Echols County Sheriff's Office — Jail Information · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✗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 — 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
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Randy Courson
- Runs the jailSheriff by law is the county's jailer; Echols has no jail of its own — arrestees go to the Lowndes County Jail
- 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: Echols County Sheriff's Office — Personnel · 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 Echols County
- Superior Court: the Southern Judicial Circuit, which also serves Brooks, Colquitt, 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 Echols 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.
- NoteConsolidated government (2008); Board of Commissioners.
- The boardEchols County Board of Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Echols County has no jail of its own; the sheriff's site says all arrestees go to the Lowndes County Jail and links the Lowndes County portal.
- named = yes because the sheriff's site names the facility used (Lowndes County Jail).
- Sheriff's Reports page carries monthly arrest reports only.
- County site shows millage/levy documents but no budget document with a sheriff or jail line was found.
- 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 Echols 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