The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byWayne County Sheriff's Office
- Jail detailsThe sheriff's site (including its 'Jail Division' page) is disallowed by robots.txt; the county directory has no separate jail listing
Source: Wayne County, Indiana — Office Directory · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
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 Randy Retter
- Runs the jailYes — the Indiana 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 phone765-973-9393
- Websitesheriff.co.wayne.in.us
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Wayne County, Indiana — Office Directory · 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.
Wayne 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).
- NoteCommissioners: Brad Dwenger, Aaron Roberts, Jeff Plasterer (meet every Wednesday morning). County Council (fiscal body; meets first Wednesday of the month): Jeff Cappa, Barry Ritter, Beth Leisure, Misty Hollis, Max Smith, Cathy Williams, Gary Saunders.
- The boardWayne County Board of Commissioners
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- County home page and office directory opened: name Sheriff Randy Retter, the commissioners and the council; no jail pages on the county site.
- Sheriff's site sheriff.co.wayne.in.us (including /jailDivision) is disallowed by robots.txt, so its jail information could not be examined; checks reflect the county site only.
- County auditor, commissioners, minutes pages and a 2026 Strategic Investment Plan PDF are also robots-disallowed.
- Not scored: Sheriff's site, including its jail division, is blocked by robots.txt; only the county directory 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 Wayne 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