The Detention Center
Barnstable County Correctional Facility
- Operated byBarnstable County Sheriff's Office
- Office address6000 Sheriff's Place, Buzzards Bay (Bourne), MA 02532
- Phone(508) 563-4300
Source: Barnstable County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ―Beds and daily population — not scored, the county names a page for this that could not be read
- ―What it costs taxpayers — not scored, the county names a page for this that could not be read
- ✗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 — not scored, the county names a page for this that could not be read
- ―Phone, video and commissary rates — not scored, the county names a page for this that could not be read
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 Donna D. Buckley
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff has custody and control of the jail and house of correction (MGL ch. 126 § 16)
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff, six-year term (MGL ch. 37 § 1)
- County governmentStill a governmental unit. Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates and Board of Regional Commissioners.
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Barnstable County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-20
The Judges
Not found
Barnstable 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 Legislature, and in six counties a county board
The state pays for the jail. The elected sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe appropriation. Massachusetts abolished county government in eight of the fourteen counties — Berkshire, Essex, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, Suffolk and Worcester — and their sheriffs and houses of correction are managed by the state Executive Office of Public Safety and funded by the Legislature. Six counties still function as governmental units: Barnstable (as Cape Cod Regional Government), Bristol, Dukes, Nantucket, Norfolk and Plymouth.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected to a six-year term (MGL ch. 37 § 1) and has custody and control of the jail, the prisoners and the staff (MGL ch. 126 § 16). The Department of Public Health inspects the facilities and publishes the reports.
- NoteOperates as Cape Cod Regional Government. Its organisation chart carries no sheriff and no corrections department.
- The boardBarnstable County Assembly of Delegates and Board of Regional Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- The Sheriff's Office publishes a Prison Rape Elimination Act section on the front page of its own site.
- Nantucket County has no jail of its own; by contract, people arrested or sentenced in Nantucket courts are held at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility.
- The site would not load in several ordinary browsers on the day of the audit, and the Sheriff's Office reported the same when telephoned, although it answered an automated reader. The record here was taken from the site itself.
- The Department of Public Health inspected this facility and published its report on 29 January 2025. The county's own site does not link it.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Barnstable 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, to a six-year term. In eight counties there is no county board to elect at all.
Names verified 2026-09-20 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered