The Detention Center
Jefferson County Detention Center (Law Enforcement Center)
- Operated byJefferson County Sheriff's Office (Jail Division)
- Jail address911 Clarks Mill Road, Louisville, GA 30434
- Maximum housing capacity126 inmates
- Separate county facilityJefferson County Correctional Institute, 1159 Clarks Mill Road — county-run, holds state and county inmates, capacity 200
Source: Jefferson County — Jail Division · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds126 (maximum housing capacity)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Gary Hutchins
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office Jail Division runs the Jefferson County Detention Center (Law Enforcement Center)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- In office sinceJanuary 1, 1993 (per county page)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Jefferson County — Sheriff page · 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 Jefferson County
- Superior Court: the Middle Judicial Circuit, which also serves Emanuel, Washington, Toombs and Candler. 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 Jefferson 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.
- NoteChairman plus 4 district commissioners
- The boardJefferson County Board of Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Jail Division page names the jail, gives a 126-inmate maximum housing capacity, visitation rules and two bonding companies.
- Inmate handbook (04-2021) explains cash, property, professional and transfer bonds, and states a $5 medical/dental copay and a $100/week commissary limit.
- No inmate roster, deaths, inspection or contract material found for the jail.
- The county posts PREA pages and PREA audit reports (2016, 2019, 2022, 2025), but they cover the Jefferson County Correctional Institute, not the sheriff's jail; prea scored no for the jail.
- FY2027 proposed budget and Budget-PDF pages opened but the reader got no text, so a sheriff/jail line could not be confirmed; budget scored no.
- Sheriff and jail pages are on the county's own site (jeffersoncountyga.gov).
- 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 Jefferson 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