The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byLowndes County Sheriff's Office
- Jail name and addressNot found on a page our reader could open
Source: Lowndes County Board of Supervisors agenda, 15 Sep 2026 · 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 Hawkins
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is the jailer by law (Miss. Code 19-25-71); the Board's 15 Sep 2026 agenda lists a detention officer hire and jail meal log under Sheriff Eddie Hawkins
- 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: Lowndes County Board of Supervisors agenda, 15 Sep 2026 · 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 Lowndes County
- Circuit Court: Mississippi's Sixteenth Circuit Court District, which also serves Clay, Noxubee and Oktibbeha. Circuit judges are elected district-wide to four-year terms and hear felony cases.
- Justice Court: Lowndes 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.
- NoteAgendas and minutes are posted in the county's Agenda Center (2026 meetings through 15 Sep 2026).
- The boardLowndes County Board of Supervisors →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Not examined for jail checks: the sheriff's own site (lowndes-so.org, linked from the county's Departments page) is a JavaScript app our reader could not read — no links or content came through.
- County site (lowndescountyms.com) opened: Agenda Center posts Board agendas/minutes; the 15 Sep 2026 agenda names Sheriff Eddie Hawkins and schedules the FY 2027 budget hearing.
- No budget document found on the county's Accounting/Business Office page.
- Sheriff also has a Facebook page (not counted).
- What was tried: sheriff.lowndescountyms.com (linked from county home) refused (robots/timeout); lowndescountyms.com root on first guess refused, later opened via a harvested link.
- 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 Lowndes 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