The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byPolk County Sheriff's Office
- FY2027 adopted budgetSheriff Department $7,215,170; Sheriff Building Maintenance $386,608; Prisoner Medical Services $776,200; Jail Maintenance Fund $21,250
Source: Polk County FY2027 Adopted Budget · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✗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 — 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 Johnny Moats
- Runs the jailYes — Georgia sheriffs are the county jailers by law (O.C.G.A. 42-4-1); the county's Sheriff's Office page links an Inmate Search and jail visitation sign-up
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Office address1676 Rockmart Highway, Cedartown, GA 30125
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Polk County — Sheriff's Office · 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 Polk County
- Superior Court: the Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit, which also serves Haralson. 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 Polk 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.
- NoteSix members listed for 2026, with a chairman and vice chairman. Meets the first Tuesday of every month (work session 5:15 pm, regular meeting follows), 73 Clines Ingram Jackson Rd, Cedartown.
- The boardPolk County Board of Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- The directory website polkga.org is the county government site; confirmed Polk County, Georgia, seat Cedartown.
- The county's Sheriff's Office page names Sheriff Johnny Moats and links an 'Inmate Search' (interopweb.com/polkjailpop) and a visitation sign-up on a vendor deposit site. The roster link was refused by our reader (robots.txt), so the roster could not be seen and is not counted.
- The FY2027 adopted budget (linked from the county Finance page, served from the county's revize document host) shows Sheriff, Sheriff Building Maintenance, Prisoner Medical Services and Jail Maintenance Fund lines. It does not name the jail.
- No jail name, address, capacity, bond guidance, fee rates, PREA, deaths, inspection or contract material found on the county's pages opened.
- What was tried: polkga.org home, public_safety/index.php, sheriffs_office/index.php, government/finance.php, board_of_commissioners/index.php, agendas_and_minutes.php, the FY2027 adopted budget. Closed: interopweb.com/polkjailpop (robots.txt); the county 2025 fee schedule PDF (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED after redirect).
- 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 Polk 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