The Detention Center
McDuffie County Detention Center
- Operated byMcDuffie County Sheriff's Office (Jail Division)
- Sheriff's Office address751 Public Safety Drive, Thomson, GA 30824 (jail reached via the main office, ext. 3863)
- VisitationVideo visitation through IC Solutions; in-person visits for inmates in permanent housing
- Jailer staffing (FY2026 budget)SHERIFF--JAILERS line, 23.5 approved FTE
Source: McDuffie 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 — 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 — 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 Logan Marshall
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office lists a Jail Division that operates the McDuffie County Detention Center
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- First elected1992, per the sheriff's own page
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: McDuffie County Sheriff's Office — 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 McDuffie County
- Superior Court: the Toombs Judicial Circuit, which also serves Glascock, Lincoln, Taliaferro, Warren and Wilkes. 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 McDuffie 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.
- NoteMcDuffie County and the City of Thomson share one website; its Meetings & Agendas page covers several boards.
- The boardMcDuffie County Board of Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site opened (Georgia confirmed); Jail Division page names the McDuffie County Detention Center and explains property, cash and bondsman bonds, with a $20 fee per bond originating in McDuffie County.
- Jail Division page says phone/video-visit charges apply but lists no rates.
- The site's 'Inmate Inquiry' link points to interopweb.com/mcduffiejailpop; our reader was blocked by robots.txt, so roster not scored.
- County budget book FY2026 (county site) shows SHERIFF--DEPUTIES and SHERIFF--JAILERS lines.
- No capacity, PREA, inspection, death-in-custody or contract material found on the sheriff's or county's site pages opened.
- 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 McDuffie 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