The Detention Center
Wilcox County Jail
- Operated byWilcox County Sheriff's Office (Detention Division)
- Chief JailerLee Ramirez (TRNG/Chief Jailer, per the sheriff's staff roster)
- VisitationFirst Sunday of each month, 10-11 AM
- Bond fee$20 per charge; approved bondsman listed
- Inmate phonesProdigy (prodigytel.com)
- FY2026 budgetJail $439,470; Sheriff $814,898
- Jail AdministratorLee Ramirez (Chief Jailer)
Source: Wilcox County — Inmate Information · 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 — not published
- ✓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
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jeff Wessel
- Runs the jailYes — Georgia sheriffs are the jailers of their counties by law (O.C.G.A. 42-4-1)
- 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: Wilcox County — 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 Wilcox County
- Superior Court: the Cordele Judicial Circuit, which also serves Dooly, Crisp and Ben Hill. 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 Wilcox 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.
- NoteFive commissioners, including a chairman and vice-chairman chosen each January.
- The boardWilcox County Board of Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff and jail pages live on the county's own site (wilcoxcountygeorgia.com); the home page's links were lost by our reader, so the sub-pages were found via the county's bids page and site map.
- Inmate Information page names the Wilcox County Jail, gives visitation, commissary deposit (commissarydeposit.com) and phone (Prodigy) arrangements, and a $20-per-charge bond fee.
- The 'Deputy/Jail/Office Roster' page is a staff roster, not an in-custody roster; no inmate roster found.
- FY2026 county budget shows separate lines: Jail $439,470 and Sheriff $814,898. Budgets FY2023-FY2026 are posted.
- Bond guidance is limited to the per-charge fee and one approved bondsman; no bond schedule or how-to-post instructions, so bond_info is 'no'.
- No capacity, PREA, deaths, inspection or contract material found. The Audits page was not 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 Wilcox 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