Bolivar County, Mississippi — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Not found

Operated byBolivar County Sheriff (by law)
County jailThe county site does not name the county jail or give its details
Regional correctional facilityBolivar County Regional Correctional Facility — holds state prisoners under an MDOC contract
Regional facility address2792 Hwy 8 West, Cleveland, MS 38732
Regional facility capacity250 State Inmates - Medium Security (county site)
Regional facility programsAlcohol/drug rehabilitation, GED, construction training, literacy, pre-release and others
Jail AdministratorBrenda Cox, Warden, Bolivar County Regional Correctional Facility

Source: Bolivar County — Regional Correctional Facility · checked 2026-09-29

Transparency rating

0/10Closed

✗The jail is named — not published
✗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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Bolivar County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-29. 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 byNot found
BedsNot found

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Kelvin Williams, Sr.

Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is the jailer by law (Miss. Code 19-25-71)
How the office is filledElected, four-year term
Office address2792 Hwy 8 West, Cleveland, MS 38732 (same address as the regional correctional facility)

Still needed

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

Source: Bolivar County — Sheriff · checked 2026-09-29

The Judges

Mississippi's circuit judges are elected state judges who hear felony cases. Bail is often first set at an initial appearance by a justice court judge, elected by district within the county, or by a county or municipal judge.

Who sets bail in Bolivar County

Circuit Court: Mississippi's Eleventh Circuit Court District, which also serves Coahoma, Quitman and Tunica. Circuit judges are elected district-wide to four-year terms and hear felony cases.
Justice Court: Bolivar County's justice court judges are elected by district within the county and often set bail at the first appearance.

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 2026-09-29

The Board of Supervisors

They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.

What they controlThe county budget, including the sheriff's office and the jail, and the jail building itself. Five supervisors, each elected from a district. In fifteen counties, the county also runs a regional correctional facility that holds state prisoners under a contract with the Department of Corrections.
What they don'tDay-to-day operations. By law the sheriff is the jailer of the county and hires the jailers (Miss. Code 19-25-71). No state agency inspects the jail.
NoteThe county's Board of Supervisors page opened but showed only a courthouse-closure notice; no minutes, agendas or budget linked.
The boardBolivar County Board of Supervisors
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

County site (co.bolivar.ms.us) opened on its Sheriff, Board of Supervisors and Regional Correctional Facility pages; the Sheriff page names Kelvin Williams, Sr.
The county site describes the Bolivar County Regional Correctional Facility (250 state inmates, Warden Brenda Cox) but never names or describes the county jail itself — named and capacity scored no because those facts cover the state-prisoner facility, not the county jail.
The sheriff's office and the regional facility share one address, 2792 Hwy 8 West, Cleveland.
No roster, bond guidance, fees, PREA, deaths, budget or MDOC contract/per-diem found.
The sheriff has a Facebook page; Facebook does not count as the county publishing.
What was tried: co.bolivar.ms.us root, /county-departments and /contact-us were refused by our reader (robots/provenance); bolivarcounty.ms.gov does not resolve.
State inspection/oversight: Mississippi has no state agency that inspects county jails. The State Department of Health's jail inspections ended when the Legislature stopped funding them in 2017.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Bolivar 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 is elected. So are the supervisors who pay for the jail, and the judges who set bail.

Names verified 2026-09-29 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered