Perry County, Indiana — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Not found

Operated byPerry County Sheriff's Office
Jail nameNot published on the county's sheriff page

Source: Perry County — Sheriff department page · checked 2026-09-20

Transparency rating

Not scored. Perry County's and its sheriff's own websites could not be reached or read in the session that produced this record, so their disclosures were never examined. This is a gap in the research, not a finding about the county.

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 Alan Malone

Runs the jailYes — the sheriff keeps the county jail (IC 36-2-13-5)
How the office is filledElected, four-year term; no more than eight years in any twelve
Office address (county site)2219 Payne Street, Tell City, IN 47586

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Perry County Sheriff's Office (Indiana) · 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.

Perry County Circuit Court

Not found

Still needed

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).
NoteThe county site links separate Commissioners and County Council pages and posts agendas/minutes in a SharePoint folder; those pages could not be opened, so members were not recorded.
The boardPerry County Board of Commissioners
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

The county's sheriff page gives only an address (2219 Payne Street, Tell City), hours and a link to the sheriff's own site; it does not name the sheriff or the jail.
The sheriff's own site (perrycountysheriffindiana.com) and the county commissioners page were refused by the fetch tool (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED); checks rest on the county sheriff page only.
Seat (Tell City) from Wikipedia.
Not scored: Sheriff's own site was refused; only the county sheriff page with address and hours was read. Marking the rest 'not published' would claim more than was checked.
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 Perry 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