The Detention Center
Union County Jail
- Operated byUnion County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address378 Beasley Street, Blairsville, GA 30512
- Beds"54 beds for general housing and 3 beds for observation"
- Jail phone(706) 439-6080
- VisitationNo in-person visitation; video visitation via JailATM
- FY2026 budgetSheriff $6,635,097; Jail Operations $3,153,623
Source: Union County Sheriff's Office — Jail · 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
- ✗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
- Beds54 general housing + 3 observation (sheriff's Jail page)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Shawn Dyer
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff's site runs the Union County Jail (O.C.G.A. 42-4-1)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- In office sinceJanuary 1, 2025 (sheriff's About page)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Union County Sheriff's Office — About · 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 Union County
- Superior Court: the Enotah Judicial Circuit, which also serves Towns, Lumpkin and White. 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 Union 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.
- NoteSole commissioner: Harold Collins (2026 Budget Book).
- The boardUnion County Sole Commissioner →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site confirmed as Union County, Blairsville, Georgia; About page names Sheriff Shawn Dyer, in office since January 1, 2025.
- Jail page names the Union County Jail with 54 general-housing beds and 3 observation beds.
- County 2026 Budget Book shows Sheriff ($6,635,097) and Jail Operations ($3,153,623) lines.
- Commissary, phone (Combined Public Communications) and video (JailATM) vendors are named, but no fee rates are published.
- No inmate roster, bond guidance, PREA, inspection, death-in-custody or contract material found on the sheriff's site.
- What was tried: unioncountygasheriff.org root refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED); opened Jail (from search), home, About, Admin, Departments, Information, Visitation; unioncountyga.gov home, Government, Departments, Governmental Finance, 2026 Budget Book. Searches used: 1.
- 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 Union 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