The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byWhitley County Sheriff's Department
- Address711 N Opportunity Dr, Columbia City, IN 46725
- Business phone(260) 244-7119
- New facility (news, Oct 2024)$34 million, 58,000 sq ft, with a courtroom for inmate hearings and JCAP addiction-program wings
- Beds (architect's project page)226 general-housing beds, 10 inmate-services beds, two 12-bed JCAP units
- ReplacedA nearly 40-year-old facility (architect's project page)
- What was triedon the county page opened (heading reads only "Jail"
- Jail AdministratorSean Martin — Jail Commander & Reserve Deputy Sheriff
Source: Whitley County, Indiana — Jail · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
0/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗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 builtNew jail unveiled October 2024 (news report)
- Original cost$34 million (21 Alive News, 30 Oct 2024)
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds226 general housing + 10 inmate services + two 12-bed JCAP units (Elevatus Architecture project page)
Since then
- Design allows for future expansion (architect's page)
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jason Spencer
- 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
- CaveatNamed as sheriff in an October 2024 news report; the county pages opened do not name the sheriff
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: 21 Alive News, 30 Oct 2024: New jail unveiled in Whitley County · 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.
Whitley 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 and the seven-member County Council (fiscal body) not recorded: no board page opened.
- The boardWhitley County Board of Commissioners
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- County 'Jail' page opened: 711 N Opportunity Dr, Columbia City; Jail Commander Sean Martin; an inmate mail policy; no beds, roster, bond, fee, PREA or inspection information.
- County 'Sheriff's Department / Jail' page and the 'Locations / Whitley County Jail' facility page returned 403; deputies page opened but names no sheriff.
- Building figures come from a news report and the architect's project page, not the county.
- Search cap reached; no further searches made.
- 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 Whitley 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