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

The Detention Center

Itawamba County Detention Center

Operated byItawamba County Sheriff's Department
Jail address102 Joe Staub Road, Fulton, MS 38843
Jail phone(662) 862-7300
Jail AdministratorJohn Ainsworth, Jail Administrator

Source: Itawamba County — Sheriff's Department · checked 2026-09-29

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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Itawamba 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 Mitch Nabors

Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is the jailer by law (Miss. Code 19-25-71); county sheriff page lists the Detention Center and its Jail Administrator
How the office is filledElected, four-year term

Still needed

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

Source: Itawamba County — Sheriff's Department · 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 Itawamba County

Circuit Court: Mississippi's First Circuit Court District, which also serves Alcorn, Lee, Monroe, Pontotoc, Prentiss and Tishomingo. Circuit judges are elected district-wide to four-year terms and hear felony cases.
Justice Court: Itawamba 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.
NoteDonnie Wood (D1), Ike Johnson (D2), Wally Barnard (D3), Eric 'Tiny' Hughes (D4), Bill Sheffield (D5). No minutes, agendas or budget posted on the county site.
The boardItawamba County Board of Supervisors
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

County site (itawamba.gov) names the Itawamba County Detention Center, its address and its Jail Administrator.
Sheriff page links a 'Jail Inmate Roster' on a vendor host (tcsi-roster.azurewebsites.net), but our reader was refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED), so roster is not credited.
Sheriff page publishes records fees (accident report, fingerprints, background checks) but no jail phone, visit, commissary or booking fees.
No capacity, budget, bond guidance, PREA, deaths, contracts or inspections found; board page posts no minutes or agendas.
Sheriff also has a Facebook page (not counted).
What was tried: itawambacountyms.gov guessed domain refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED).
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 Itawamba 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