The Detention Center
Jefferson County Correctional Facility
- Operated byJefferson County Sheriff's Office, Correctional Division
- Jail address753 Waterman Drive, Watertown, NY 13601
- Rated capacity196 beds in the main facility plus a 36-bed dormitory unit
- Year opened1992
- DesignDirect supervision facility
- Phone providerGTL; commissary through Swanson Services
Source: Jefferson County — Correctional Division · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗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
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1992
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds196 beds plus a 36-bed dormitory unit
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Peter R. Barnett
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office Correctional Division runs the Jefferson County Correctional Facility
- How the office is filledElected county sheriff (NY County Law art. 17)
- Corrections staffingTwo lieutenants, six sergeants and sixty-six full-time officers
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Jefferson County — Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-20
The Judges
New York's county and supreme court justices are state judicial officers, not county officials; city, town and village justices also set bail for people arrested in their areas.
Jefferson County Circuit Court
- Not found
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-20
The County Legislature or Board of Supervisors
They pay for the jail. In most counties the sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe jail budget, the building itself, and the agreements that rent its beds to other agencies. Several counties also have an elected County Executive. In Westchester a county Department of Correction runs the jail rather than the sheriff.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations, and state oversight. The sheriff is separately elected and keeps the jail in most counties (NY Correction Law art. 20), while the State Commission of Correction sets the standards, inspects the facility and investigates every death in custody. The five New York City counties have no county sheriff jail at all — the city Department of Correction runs them.
- Note15-member Board of Legislators serving two-year terms, with a County Administrator.
- The boardJefferson County Board of Legislators →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- The Correctional Division page publishes the facility's bed count and year opened, which is more than most counties in this group.
- Bail and Fine Procedure is a full guidance page: cash or postal money order payable to the Sheriff, card payment with fees, wire transfer, in-person hours, and how bail bonds work.
- The 2026 Adopted County Budget on the county site carries a Sheriff's Office appropriation covering Civil, Corrections and Law Enforcement divisions.
- The county posts a Notice of Settlement in M.C. v. Jefferson County about access to opioid use disorder treatment at https://www.jeffersoncountyny.gov/media/Sheriff/MC%20vs%20Jefferson%20Co.pdf; it is a litigation notice, not an inspection, death record or contract, so it scores no check.
- What was tried: the supplied URL https://co.jefferson.ny.us/departments/sheriff redirects to jeffersoncountyny.gov, the right New York county.
- No searches were spent on this county.
- State inspection/oversight: New York's State Commission of Correction oversees every local correctional facility in the state, sets the minimum standards they must meet, inspects them, and investigates every death in custody.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Jefferson 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 who runs this jail is elected. So are the legislators who pay for it.
Names verified 2026-09-20 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered