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

The Detention Center

Not found

Operated byTate County Sheriff's Office (jailer by law)
Sheriff's office address (directory)1 Justice Drive, Senatobia
Board agenda5 Jan 2026 agenda lists a sheriff's 'Monthly meal log' and the sheriff's quarterly budget allocation

Source: Tate County Board of Supervisors agenda, 5 Jan 2026 · checked 2026-09-29

Transparency rating

Not scored. Tate County's and its sheriff's own websites could not be reached or read in the session that produced this record, so their disclosures were never examined. This is a gap in the research, not a finding about the county.

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 Luke Shepherd

Runs the jailYes — the sheriff is the jailer of the county by law (Miss. Code 19-25-71)
How the office is filledElected, four-year term
CurrentNamed in the Mississippi Sheriffs' Association directory; not confirmed on a county page
Own siteSheriff's website (tatecountysheriff.com) shows only 'Sheriff Shepherd', no first name

Still needed

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

Source: Mississippi Sheriffs' Association directory · 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 Tate County

Circuit Court: Mississippi's Seventeenth Circuit Court District, which also serves Panola, Tallahatchie and Yalobusha. Circuit judges are elected district-wide to four-year terms and hear felony cases.
Justice Court: Tate 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.
NoteBoard page links minutes (prontodms.dsmgov.com, refused our reader) and agendas; agenda PDFs are posted on the county site.
The boardTate County Board of Supervisors →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

County site tatecountyms.gov opened (board, finance pages, a 2026 agenda); it holds no jail material and links the sheriff's own site, tatecountysheriff.com.
The sheriff's home page opened but our reader lost every link (all showed as '#'); its menu labels show Press Releases, Sex Offenders, Most Wanted, Contact Us, Civil Process, Forfeited Property.
The sheriff's sub-pages were refused: /roster.php (robots.txt) and /contact.php (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED). Because the sheriff's jail pages could not be opened, the ten checks are left unscored.
Finance and Accounting page opened: no budget posted.
Minutes link https://prontodms.dsmgov.com/public/?p=P1&ii=18450 refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED).
What was tried: guessed https://www.tatecountyms.gov/ refused before search; the non-www domain opened after search.
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 Tate 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