The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byClay County Sheriff's Office
- Jail pagesThe county's sheriff page lists only a jail phone number; it links the sheriff's own site (claysheriffms.org), which could not be opened
Source: Clay County — Sheriff · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
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 Eddie Scott
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is the jailer by law (Miss. Code § 19-25-71)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- In office since2012 (county page: "your Sheriff since 2012")
- Jail phone(662) 494-2712 (county page)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Clay 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 Clay County
- Circuit Court: Mississippi's Sixteenth Circuit Court District, which also serves Lowndes, Noxubee and Oktibbeha. Circuit judges are elected district-wide to four-year terms and hear felony cases.
- Justice Court: Clay County's justice court judges are elected by district within the county and often set bail at the first appearance.
- 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.
- The boardClay County Board of Supervisors →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- County site claycountyms.com opened: sheriff, board, board minutes, chancery clerk financial information and notices pages examined; none carries jail material.
- What was tried: claysheriffms.org and claysheriffms.org/roster.php (the sheriff's site, which search shows has an inmate roster) — https redirects down to http and could not be opened. Sheriff's site not examined.
- Because the jail material sits on the sheriff's site, which could not be read, the ten checks are left unscored rather than marked 'no'.
- Board minutes are posted by year back to 2010 (latest folder 2025); the chancery clerk's financial page describes the annual audit but links no budget or audit document.
- The sheriff's office also has a Facebook page; not scored.
- 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 Clay 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