The Detention Center
Lamar County Detention Center
- Operated byLamar County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address121 Roberta Drive, Barnesville, GA 30204
- Bed capacity152 beds
- Year built1992
- Staffing21 sworn jailers
- FY2026 budgetSheriff – Detention Center $1,520,619; Sheriff – Detention Building $127,650
- Jail AdministratorCaptain Stephanie Melton (Jail Administrator)
Source: Lamar County Sheriff's Office — Jail Operations · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓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 — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1992
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds152
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Brad White
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office runs the Lamar County Detention Center through its Jail Operations division
- 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: Lamar County Sheriff's Office — Office of 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 Lamar County
- Superior Court: the Towaliga Judicial Circuit, which also serves Butts and Monroe. 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 Lamar 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.
- The boardLamar County Board of Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Jail Operations page gives 152 beds, built 1992, 21 sworn jailers, and names Captain Stephanie Melton as jail administrator.
- Sheriff's 'Jail Population' link points to the office's Interop jail population list (interopweb.com/lamarso); the vendor page itself was not opened.
- Bail Bonding page explains cash, property and professional bonds, lists six approved bonding companies, and a $20 per-defendant sheriff's bond fee.
- FY2026 county budget book shows Sheriff's Office $2,886,033, Detention Center $1,520,619 and Detention Building $127,650.
- Inmate communications and commissary pages name vendors (Pay Tel phones, The Store Call commissary, JailATM deposits) but give no phone, video-visit or commissary rates; fees scored no.
- No PREA, deaths, inspection report or contract material found on the sheriff or county site.
- What was tried: lamarcountysheriff.com root refused (rate limited), www root refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED); one search restricted to the county and sheriff domains opened the way.
- 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 Lamar 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