The Detention Center
Scott County Jail
- Operated byScott County Sheriff's Office
- LocationThe county's sheriff page places the jail across Tywappity Street south of the Judicial Building, facing New Madrid Street, in Benton
- Jail fax573-545-4128
- BondsThe sheriff's page states that a list of approved bonding companies and agents is posted in the front lobby at the jail; no bond procedure is published online
- Deposits and commissaryThe county's jail information page directs deposits and commissary through outside vendors by website, phone or 24-hour lobby kiosk; no rates are published
- PhoneThe jail information page directs families to an outside vendor to add phone minutes; no rates are published
- RosterThe jail information page links an inmate roster hosted on an outside vendor's database, not on the county's own domain
- BedsNot found - no bed count published on any page that could be opened
- What was triedscottcountymo.com home, sheriff, jail-info, commissioners and commission-agenda pages were opened. A search result at isoms.scottcounty.com could not be fetched and appears to belong to another state's Scott County; it is not cited.
Source: Scott County, Missouri - Jail Information · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✓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 — not published
- ✗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 Derick Wheetley
- Runs the jailYes - the sheriff's page on the county site covers the Scott County jail, which operates around the clock
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff
- Statutory basisRSMo 221.020 gives the sheriff of each county the custody, rule, keeping and charge of the jail and of all prisoners in it; RSMo 221.080 puts jail expense on the county commission.
- Office address131 S. New Madrid Street, Benton, Missouri 63736
- Listed contact573-545-3525 / 573-471-3530
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Scott County, Missouri - Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-18
The Judges
Missouri's 1940 Nonpartisan Court Plan covers the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals statewide, but at circuit level it applies in only six jurisdictions - Clay, Greene, Jackson, Platte, St. Louis County and St. Louis City. This county is not one of them, so its circuit and associate circuit judges are elected on a partisan ballot. They are state judicial officers, not county officials. No judge's name and no circuit number was confirmed from a page that could be opened.
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-18
The County Commissioners
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
- The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- The sheriff's office is hosted on the county's own domain, scottcountymo.com, which counts as first-party.
- The roster check is recorded as no on a strict reading: the county's jail information page links an inmate roster, but the roster itself sits on an outside vendor's domain rather than the county's own.
- The bond_info check is recorded as no: the county says only that a list of approved bonding companies is posted in the jail lobby, which is not published guidance on how to post bail.
- The fees check is recorded as no: the jail information page names deposit, commissary and phone vendors but publishes no rates.
- The commission agenda page carries agendas and hearing notices, including a budget amendment hearing notice, but no budget document, no minutes, and no board of visitors or grand jury jail report, so the budget and inspections checks are recorded as no.
- No Missouri state agency inspects county jails. The Department of Corrections operates and inspects state prisons under RSMo chapter 217; that authority does not reach chapter 221 county and city jails. The Missouri Sheriffs' Association publishes non-binding jail guidance and runs jail-administrator training, but it is a private association of sheriffs, not a regulator. The only statutory mechanisms are local and lay: a grand jury visit to the jail under RSMo 221.300, and a county board of visitors under RSMo 221.320-221.350, which RSMo 221.350 requires to report yearly to the county.
- Missouri has no death-in-custody reporting law and no public dataset; RSMo 58.451(1)(5) requires only notice to the coroner.
- Three-member County Commission, the ordinary Missouri form. Presiding Commissioner Danny Tetley, First District Commissioner David F. Hough, Second District Commissioner Chase Asmus, all listed on the county's own commissioners page. The commission meets Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in Room 116 of the Scott County Courthouse, 131 S. Winchester, Benton. The county posts commission agendas from May 2024 to August 2026, including a December 2025 budget amendment hearing notice and an August 2026 tax rate hearing notice, but no minutes.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Scott 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 who pay for it.
Names verified 2026-09-18 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered