The Detention Center
Union Parish Detention Center
- Operated byUnion Parish Police Jury, overseen by a jail commission (per the sheriff's FAQ)
- Who runs itHead of the Union Parish Detention Center (title not published on a first-party page) — the parish does not name the current holder
- Answers tothe Union Parish Police Jury, through a jail commission (per the sheriff's own FAQ); the police jury's own pages were not examined
- Why this is differentThe elected parish sheriff does not run this jail.
- Jail address707 Rodeo Circle, Farmerville, La 71241; (318) 368-9827
- Who operates itThe sheriff's FAQ: "The UPDC is operated by the Union Parish Police Jury and overseen by a jail commission. UPSO is not involved in the operation of the jail." This is the arrangement La. R.S. 15:702 contemplates, where the governing authority operates the parish jail
- WardenThe Louisiana Sheriffs' Association directory lists a "Union Parish Prison" with Warden Ray Hanson (318.368.9827, the same number the sheriff gives for UPDC); no first-party page names the warden
- BondCall UPDC at (318) 368-9827 for charges and bond amount; post through a bail bondsman or by cash or money order (no checks or debit cards); a $30 bond fee per charge applies; bonding on 3rd District charges is completed at the sheriff's office; a list of bondsmen is in the front lobby
- Booking photosAvailable through the sheriff's mobile app
- What was triedSheriff's home, biography, FAQ, records and court support pages were opened, as was the LSA directory entry. No police jury or detention center site was returned by search; none was examined.
Source: Union Parish Sheriff's Office - FAQ · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗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
- ✗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
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Dusty Gates
- Runs the jailNo - the sheriff's own FAQ says: "The UPDC is operated by the Union Parish Police Jury and overseen by a jail commission. UPSO is not involved in the operation of the jail."
- How the office is filledElected parish sheriff
- Statutory basisLa. R.S. 15:704 makes each sheriff the keeper of the public jail of his parish; under R.S. 15:702 and 15:703 the parish governing authority maintains the jail building and provides the jail physician
- Tenure publishedThe sheriff's biography page says he became interim sheriff in 2013 after the death of Sheriff Robert G. "Bob" Buckley, was elected in 2014 to complete the unexpired term, re-elected unopposed in 2015 and re-elected in 2019. The Louisiana Sheriffs' Association directory also lists Dusty Gates as sheriff
- Office address710 Holder Rd, Farmerville, LA 71241; 318-368-3124
- Public recordsRecords custodian Dy. Holli Finklea, records@unionsheriff.com, (318) 608-3017; requests by email, phone, mail or in person; the page says processing takes five business days; report fees $10-$15
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Union Parish Sheriff's Office - About Our Sheriff · checked 2026-09-18
The Judges
Louisiana district judges are elected in partisan elections to six-year terms. They are state judicial officers, not parish officials. Who sets bail at first appearance varies by parish — a district judge on rotation, a magistrate or commissioner, or in some parishes a justice of the peace — and Louisiana's bail statutes do not require that first appearance to happen in open court. The sheriff's court support page says its deputies serve the Third District Court at the courthouse in Farmerville; no judge is named on the pages opened.
- The parish's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-18
The Parish Governing Authority
The police jury operates this jail through a jail commission, according to the sheriff's own FAQ. The sheriff does not run it.
- What they controlThe physical maintenance of the parish jail and the jail physician (La. R.S. 15:702, 15:703).
- What they don'tNot applicable here: in this parish the police jury itself operates the jail.
- The governing bodyNo governing-body page was found on the parish's own site
Notes on the record
- Louisiana has no general parish-jail inspection law. The Department of Public Safety and Corrections monitors compliance with its Basic Jail Guidelines at least annually, but only for jails that house state inmates for the state per diem; no public repository of those compliance reports was located.
- Union Parish is the parish in this group where the jail is not run by the sheriff: the sheriff's own FAQ says the police jury operates the Union Parish Detention Center under a jail commission and that the sheriff's office is not involved in its operation. The police jury's own pages were not found, so the operator's side of this is unexamined.
- The checks were judged on the sheriff's own domain, unionsheriff.com, which names the detention center and gives bond instructions. No roster, beds, population, budget, PREA material, housing agreement, fees, in-custody death or inspection report was found there.
- The seat is recorded as Farmerville from the sheriff's court support page, which places the courthouse at 100 E Bayou St, Farmerville; the Louisiana Sheriffs' Association directory also lists Farmerville as the parish seat.
- Every page opened identifies Union Parish, Louisiana, not the Union Counties of Arkansas or Missouri. Commercial lookup sites in the search results (unionparishjailla.org, louisianainmateroster.org, unionparishjailroster.org, louisianaprisonroster.org, sabinesheriff.com, prisonroster.com, thepublicindex.org, townofhaughton.org, countyoffice.org, usacops.com) and Wikipedia were not used.
- Police jury. The sheriff's FAQ names the Union Parish Police Jury as the operator of the detention center, overseen by a jail commission. No police jury website was found, so its members, the jail commission's members, meeting schedule and minutes are not recorded here.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Union Parish 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, but here the police jury runs the jail. Police jurors are elected too.
Names verified 2026-09-18 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered