The Detention Center
Middleton Jail and House of Correction; Women in Transition (Salisbury)
- Operated byEssex County Sheriff's Office
- Office address20 Manning Avenue, Middleton, MA 01949
- Phone(978) 750-1900
Source: Essex County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✓Who else it holds, and for how much
- ―How to post bond — not scored, the county names a page for this that could not be read
- ✗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 byState appropriation through the Legislature
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Kevin F. Coppinger
- 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 governmentAbolished. The sheriff and the house of correction are managed by the state Executive Office of Public Safety. There is no county board.
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Essex County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-20
The Judges
Not found
Essex 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.
- NoteMassachusetts abolished this county's government. There is no county board. The Legislature appropriates the jail's money and the state Executive Office of Public Safety manages the office.
- The boardNo county government
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Massachusetts abolished this county's government. The sheriff and the house of correction are managed by the state Executive Office of Public Safety and funded by the Legislature; there is no county board.
- The Sheriff's Department publishes eight consecutive annual reports, 2018 through 2025, as direct downloads. The 2025 report states the department's appropriation for fiscal 2026: $88,103,829 approved by the Legislature, with a further $4,836,354 in projected reserve funding.
- The same report gives average daily population by facility: 783 at Middleton, 90 at the Pre-Release and Re-Entry Center and 18 at Women in Transition, for a total of 891. It records 3,763 people processed through intake during the year and 3,753 released.
- The department publishes Prison Rape Elimination Act annual reports for 2022, 2023 and 2024 and three audit reports completed in 2025.
- A current procurement solicitation is posted with a closing date. Awarded contracts are described in the annual report rather than published as documents.
- The research and statistics page states that the division produces daily, weekly, monthly, semi-annual and annual reports. Only the recidivism studies are posted; anything else is routed through a research application form.
- The Department of Public Health inspected this facility and published its report on 16 January and 25 February 2025. The county's own site does not link it.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Essex 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