The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byWayne County Sheriff
- Published nameThe county site does not name or describe the county jail
Source: Wayne County — Sheriff page · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
0/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✗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
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 Jerry Mosley
- Runs the jailYes — the county's sheriff page lists having charge of the courthouse and jail and keeping a jail docket
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term; the county page shows the 2024–2028 term
- Name as shownThe county page reads: Sheriff Jerry "Juice" Mosley
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Wayne County — Sheriff page · 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 Wayne County
- Circuit Court: Mississippi's Tenth Circuit Court District, which also serves Clarke, Kemper and Lauderdale. Circuit judges are elected district-wide to four-year terms and hear felony cases.
- Justice Court: Wayne 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.
- NoteBoard meets the first Monday of each month; agendas and minutes are not posted — the page directs the public to the Board Secretary.
- The boardWayne County Board of Supervisors →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Examined: county site waynecounty.ms Sheriff page (with its link list), Board of Supervisors page, Chancery Clerk page.
- The county page spells the sheriff 'Mosley'; the association directory spells it 'Moseley'. The county's own spelling is recorded.
- No jail, inmate roster, bond, visitation, fee or budget material on the county site; no board minutes or budget posted.
- What was tried: waynecountyms.com refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED); waynecounty.ms home page refused until reached through a search result.
- Facebook pages, if any, are not counted as the county publishing.
- 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 Wayne 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