The Detention Center
Heard County Jail
- Operated byHeard County Sheriff's Office (Jail Division)
- Jail address11820 HWY 100 N, Franklin, GA 30217
- Housing capacity70 inmates
- StaffingManned 24 hours a day by state-certified Detention Officers
- Other agenciesOccasionally houses individuals for other jurisdictions
- Video visitation providerPay Tel Communications, Inc.
- Jail AdministratorLieutenant Penny McClain, Jail Administrator
Source: Heard County Sheriff's Office — Jail Division · 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
- Beds70 (housing capacity)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Ross Henry
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office Jail Division runs the Heard County Jail
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Office address11820 HWY 100 N, Franklin, GA 30217
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Heard County Sheriff's Office — About the 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 Heard County
- Superior Court: the West Georgia Judicial Circuit, which also serves Carroll. 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 Heard 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 site pages were refused by our reader (rate limited); board name taken from search result titles only, not opened
- The boardHeard County Board of Commissioners
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Sheriff site heardcosheriff.com opened and confirmed Heard County, Georgia; it names Sheriff Ross Henry, matching the directory lead.
- Jail Division page names the Heard County Jail, gives a 70-inmate housing capacity and names the Jail Administrator.
- Bond page explains cash, property, out-of-county property and professional bonds and accepted payment types; no bond schedule posted.
- Commissary page sets a $45 weekly spending limit and deposits via jailatm.com; video visitation is through Pay Tel. No fee rates are published.
- No inmate roster, PREA, deaths, inspection or contract material found on the sheriff site.
- A GATR Q2 2026 PDF on the sheriff site had no readable text.
- County government site heardcountyga.com: first fetch refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED); after one search, the home, agendas/minutes, board staff and 2023 financial report pages were all refused by the proxy (HTTP 429 rate limit). County seat, budget and minutes therefore not examined.
- What was tried: heardcosheriff.com home, aboutSheriff, contactus, divisionMaster, Jail_Division pages (jailDesc, inmateBonds, inmateCommissary, inmateVisitation, inmateVideoVisitation), GATR Q2 2026.pdf; heardcountyga.com (refused).
- 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 Heard 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