Worcester County, Massachusetts — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Worcester County Jail and House of Correction

Operated byWorcester County Sheriff's Office
Office address5 Paul X. Tivnan Drive, West Boylston, MA 01583
Phone(508) 854-1800

Source: Worcester County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-20

Transparency rating

4/10Partial

✓The jail is named
✓Who is in custody
✗Beds and daily population — not published
✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
✗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
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Worcester County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-20. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

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 Lewis G. Evangelidis

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.

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Worcester County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-20

The Judges

Not found

Worcester County Circuit Court

Not found

Still needed

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 Office is the only one in the Commonwealth publishing an inmate look-up on its own domain.
It publishes a Prison Rape Elimination Act policy dated 2024, ten years of data reports covering 2016 through 2025, and audit reports for 2016, 2019 and 2022.
Its bail page gives the hours, the location, that bail must be posted in cash, and that it is returned to whoever posted it if the defendant attends court.
The page headed Bid Notices invites providers to bid and tells the reader to click on each notice. No notices are posted on it.
The funds and telephone page names its vendors but publishes no rate for any call, message or deposit.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Worcester 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