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

The Detention Center

Winston-Choctaw County Regional Correctional Facility (WCCRCF)

Operated byWinston County Sheriff, with Choctaw County, under agreement with MDOC
Mailing addressP.O. Drawer 1437, Louisville, MS 39339 (MDOC lists 22062 MS Hwy 25 North, Louisville)
Who it holdsState and county inmates (county page)
Regional correctional facilityWinston/Choctaw County Correctional Facility — holds state prisoners under an MDOC contract
Maximum capacity380 inmates (county page)
OpenedMarch 18, 1999 (county page)
AccreditationAmerican Correctional Association, June 2000; reaccredited 2004, 2007, 2010 and January 2014 (county page)
WardenTerrance Watt (county page)
Jail AdministratorTerrance Watt, Warden, Winston-Choctaw County Regional Correctional Facility

Source: Winston County — WCCRCF page · checked 2026-09-29

Transparency rating

2/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✗Who is in custody — not published
✓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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Winston County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-29. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year builtOpened March 1999
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds380 (maximum capacity)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Mike Perkins

Runs the jailYes — Mississippi law makes the sheriff the county jailer (Miss. Code § 19-25-71); the county's sheriff page points to the Winston Choctaw County Regional Correctional Facility
How the office is filledElected, four-year term

Still needed

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

Source: Winston 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 Winston County

Circuit Court: Mississippi's Fifth Circuit Court District, which also serves Attala, Carroll, Choctaw, Grenada, Montgomery and Webster. Circuit judges are elected district-wide to four-year terms and hear felony cases.
Justice Court: Winston 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/agendas to an outside portal (prontodms.dsmgov.com) that our reader could not open.
The boardWinston County Board of Supervisors →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

Examined: county site winstoncountyms.org home page link list, Sheriff page, Sheriff Forms page, WCCRCF page, Board of Supervisors page, Information & Notices page, Chancery Clerk forms page.
The county's own WCCRCF page names the facility, its warden, a 380-inmate maximum capacity and its 1999 opening, and says it holds state and county inmates.
The WCCRCF page points to MDOC's website for PREA data; a pointer to a state site does not earn the PREA check.
No roster, bond, visitation, commissary, fee, contract/per-diem or budget material on the county site.
The sheriff's department has a Facebook page; Facebook is not counted as the county publishing.
What was tried: winstoncountyms.com refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED); board minutes portal prontodms.dsmgov.com/public/?p=P1&ii=80 refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED), so minutes could not be checked for a 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 Winston 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