The Detention Center
Lauderdale County Detention Facility
- Operated byLauderdale County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address (sheriff's page)2500 Courthouse Blvd, Meridian, MS 39301
- Jail address (county page)2001 5th Street, Meridian, MS 39301
- Rated capacityAuthorized to house 290 inmates
- Layout12 pods, 144 holding cells, four special needs cells, one medical cell, one suicide prevention cell
- Population shownInmate Roster (218) on the sheriff's roster page when read 29 Sep 2026
- Who it holdsPre-trial suspects, short-term convicted offenders, and state prisoners until transfer
- Vendors namedVisitation/messaging: Vendengine (CorrectPay); commissary: Kimble's; phones: Ally Telecom Group — no rates published
- Jail AdministratorMajor Melissa McCarter (Jail Commander / Jail Administrator)
Source: Lauderdale County Sheriff — Detention Facility · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗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
- Beds290 (authorized)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Ward Calhoun, III
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is the jailer by law (Miss. Code 19-25-71); the sheriff's site hosts the Detention Facility page
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office · 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 Lauderdale County
- Circuit Court: Mississippi's Tenth Circuit Court District, which also serves Clarke, Kemper and Wayne. Circuit judges are elected district-wide to four-year terms and hear felony cases.
- Justice Court: Lauderdale 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.
- NoteThe county site links a Meetings & Minutes page, but our reader could not decode it.
- The boardLauderdale County Board of Supervisors →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site names Ward Calhoun, III as sheriff and the facility's capacity (290); roster showed 218 on 29 Sep 2026.
- Two different jail addresses appear on official pages: 2500 Courthouse Blvd (sheriff) and 2001 5th Street (county).
- FAQ says only to call the jail for an inmate's bond — no guidance on how to post bond.
- FAQ names phone, video and commissary vendors but publishes no rates; on-site visitation is free.
- No budget, PREA, deaths, inspection or contract material found on either site.
- What was tried: lauderdalecounty.org/minutes returned unreadable content twice; guessed root lauderdalecounty.org first refused, later opened.
- 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 Lauderdale 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