The Detention Center
Johnson County Jail
- Operated byJohnson County Sheriff's Office (Jail Division)
- Jail address1091 Hospital Road, Franklin, IN 46131
- Capacity581 inmates (sheriff's site)
- Expansion$25 million expansion and remodel completed 2021, nearly doubling capacity to 581
- StaffAbout 90 correctional officers and staff
- Medical providerQuality Correctional Care (contract, per inmate handbook)
- Phones / video visitsHomeWAV
- Jail AdministratorMajor Matt Rhinehart — Jail Division Commander
Source: Johnson County Sheriff's Office — About · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗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
- Beds581 (capacity after 2021 expansion)
Since then
- 2021: $25 million expansion and remodel, capacity nearly doubled to 581
The Sheriff
Sheriff Duane E. Burgess
- Runs the jailYes — the Jail Division is one of the Sheriff's Office divisions
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- In office2019–present (per sheriff's site)
- OfficeAbout 56 merit deputies; 1091 Hospital Road, Franklin, IN 46131
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Johnson County Sheriff's Office — About · checked 2026-09-20
The Judges
Indiana circuit and superior court judges are state judicial officers, not county officials. In most counties they are elected to six-year terms; a few counties choose some judges through a nominating commission followed by retention votes.
Johnson County Circuit Court
- Not found
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-20
The Commissioners and County Council
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe three county commissioners own and maintain the jail building and sign its contracts; the seven-member county council adopts the budget and appropriates the jail's money.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and keeps the jail by state law (IC 36-2-13-5).
- NoteIndiana counties have a three-member Board of County Commissioners and a seven-member County Council (fiscal body). County site pages (johnsoncounty.in.gov) returned 403, so members and minutes were not recorded.
- The boardJohnson County Board of Commissioners
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site publishes the Johnson County Standard Bail Bond Schedule (e.g. Level 1 felony $100,000 cash; bonds payable in full cash or 10% cash; subject to review by a judicial officer).
- Sheriff's 'Inmate List' page loads the in-custody list from the HomeWAV system; the list itself could not be read (HomeWAV blocks automated fetches).
- Inmate Handbook (Edition #26-1, revised 25 March 2026) has a PREA section with reporting procedures, and a sanitation and inspections section (internal procedures, not a state report).
- Handbook lists $15 medical co-pays and $10 wristband/razor charges; no phone, video-visit, commissary or booking rates, so fees is 'no'.
- Medical care is by contract with Quality Correctional Care, but no contract document is published.
- What was tried: johnsoncounty.in.gov sheriff department and location pages returned 403; HomeWAV roster endpoint blocked by robots.txt.
- Franklin is the county seat; the cited page shows the sheriff's office there but does not itself state the seat.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail Services inspects annually (IC 11-12-4); reports are public record on request but not posted by the state. None found on the county's own site.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Johnson 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 who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners and council members who pay for it.
Names verified 2026-09-20 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered