The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byOktibbeha County Sheriff's Department
- Jail budgetProposed FY2026-27 General Fund: Jail (220) $2,425,195, up from $2,200,367 (+10.22%); Sheriff (200) $4,683,150, up from $4,525,625 (Sept. 11, 2026 budget-hearing agenda)
- City prisonersBoard of Supervisors agendas/minutes (June–July 2026) record an updated Contract Jail Agreement (PSO-CON-610) with the City of Starkville for housing municipal inmates; the contract text and rates were not in the documents read
Source: Oktibbeha County — Budget hearing agenda, Sept. 11, 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 Shank Phelps
- Runs the jailYes — by law the sheriff is the jailer of the county (Miss. Code § 19-25-71)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Contact111 Dr. Douglas L. Connor Drive, Starkville, MS 39759; 662-323-2421 (county staff directory)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Oktibbeha County — Staff Directory, 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 Oktibbeha County
- Circuit Court: Mississippi's Sixteenth Circuit Court District, which also serves Clay, Lowndes and Noxubee. Circuit judges are elected district-wide to four-year terms and hear felony cases.
- Justice Court: Oktibbeha 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.
- NotePosts agendas and minutes online in the county Agenda Center, including budget-hearing agendas with department budget lines.
- The boardOktibbeha County Board of Supervisors →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Official county site oktibbeha.ms.gov opened (found via search); home page, staff directory, County Administration, Agenda Center, a budget-hearing agenda, a July 2026 agenda and June 22, 2026 minutes read.
- The sheriff's own site (sheriff.oktibbeha.ms.us, linked from the county home page) and the county's Sheriff's Department page (/197) were both refused by our reader — jail, roster, visitation, bond and PREA pages there were NOT examined. The 'no' scores reflect only the county site.
- County staff directory names Sheriff Shank Phelps.
- Budget: the Sept. 11, 2026 budget-hearing agenda shows separate Sheriff (200) and Jail (220) lines with prior-year and proposed amounts.
- Contracts: minutes and agendas record approval of an updated joint jail agreement with the City of Starkville (PSO-CON-610) after more than a year of negotiation; the contract itself was not found posted, so contracts scored no.
- County posts FY2020 audited financial statements on the County Administration page.
- Board of Supervisors posts agendas and minutes in the county Agenda Center; meetings are also on YouTube.
- What was tried: oktibbehacountyms.org (refused); oktibbeha.ms.gov root without www (refused); /197/Sheriffs-Department (robots); sheriff.oktibbeha.ms.us (certificate error).
- Not scored: Sheriff's own site and the county Sheriff's Department page were both refused; no jail/sheriff material was read, only county admin pages. Marking the rest 'not published' would claim more than was checked. Found published on the pages that did open: budget.
- 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 Oktibbeha 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