The Detention Center
Jackson County Jail
- Operated byJackson County Sheriff's Office, Corrections Division
- Year built1981, when the county population was 134,546
- Original design capacity176 adults in custody
- Capacity nowThe county publishes two figures: its jail page says the facility 'can house up to 292 male and female Adults in Custody', while the Sheriff's Office landing page and the New Jail Project page say modifications now allow 300, or 315 overnight. Both are the county's own numbers and both are recorded here rather than choosing between them
- Why capacity is cappedIn 1985 people held in the jail sued the county over overcrowding, and the county says the result was strict limits on how many people can be housed
- ThroughputAbout 14,000 lodgings in 2017, of whom roughly half were released before appearing in court or posting bail because of the capacity restriction — the county's own account of a 'revolving door'
- StaffAn average of about 70 full-time staff
- Inside the jailIts own kitchen staffed by workers in custody under a civilian cook, laundry done by workers in custody, indoor and outdoor recreation, a well-stocked library and a small law library, and a medical station with registered nurses, doctors, mental health professionals and a dental chair, plus a contract with a local dentist
- Replacement siteThe county bought land in North Medford in 2019 for a proposed new jail
- Replacement costThe county's published estimate is $166 million, which it defends by comparison with a $62 million 400-bed jail in Skagit County, Washington in 2017 and a $28 million 148-bed remodel in Clatsop County, Oregon
- Replacement fundingThe proposal was $66 million from county reserves against a $166 million project with the balance from a proposed tax district. The ballot measure to create that service district failed, and the adopted budget records that the county has since set aside up to $40,000,000 of fund balance as a match should a future measure pass
- VendorsViaPath Technologies (gettingout.com) for video visits, ConnectNetwork for prepaid phone accounts, correctpay.com and a lobby kiosk for bail
Source: Jackson County Sheriff's Office — Jackson County Jail · checked 2026-08-23
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓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 built1981
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found for the 1981 building. For the proposed replacement the county publishes a $166 million estimate, an offer of $66 million from reserves in the failed proposal, and up to $40,000,000 of fund balance now set aside as a match
- BedsDesigned for 176; the county now publishes both 292 (jail page) and 300, or 315 overnight (Sheriff's Office and New Jail Project pages)
Since then
- Modifications since 1981 raised capacity from the original 176 to 300, or 315 overnight, within the same structure
- The county says the 1981 design could have supported up to seven levels and a maximum of fewer than 300, but that the existing structure no longer meets seismic requirements for building upward
- Land purchased in North Medford in 2019 for a proposed new jail; the service district ballot measure to fund construction and operations failed
The Sheriff
Sheriff Nathan Sickler
- Runs the jailYes — the Jackson County Sheriff's Office Corrections Division runs the Jackson County Jail and also provides court security and prisoner transport for all courts in the county
- How the office is filledElected countywide. Jackson County's adopted budget puts it precisely: 'Under the Home Rule Charter of Jackson County, the Sheriff is an elective administrator officer'
- How he came to officeAppointed Sheriff by the Jackson County Board of Commissioners on 17 January 2017, having been deputy chief of the Sheriff's Office since 30 December 2016, and elected since
- BackgroundBegan in law enforcement in 1998 as a reserve officer, criminology degree from Southern Oregon University in 1999, full-time officer at Phoenix, Oregon, then Klamath Falls Police from 2002, joined the Jackson County Sheriff's Office in 2006, sergeant in 2008, Criminal Investigations from 2012, captain in 2015
- Size of the corrections operationAbout 70 full-time staff in the Corrections Division, deputies and support personnel
- Office5179 Crater Lake Hwy., Central Point, OR 97502 — (541) 774-6800
- He is the public face of the jail campaignThe county's New Jail Project page gives a phone number to book him to present on the project to local groups
- How this was verifiedNamed on the county's own New Jail Project page and in the Oregon State Sheriffs' Association biography; the county's Sheriff's Office landing pages and elected officials page do not carry his name
Still needed
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Oregon State Sheriffs' Association — Jackson County · checked 2026-08-23
The Judges
Oregon Circuit Court judges are elected in nonpartisan statewide-scheduled races and are state judicial officers, not county officials. Justices of the Peace are unusual: a JP is both a state court judge and a county elected official, elected to a six-year term, and the county pays for the court. A judge, not the sheriff, sets security amounts and release conditions; the sheriff's office only receives the money and releases the person. Jackson County is the 1st Judicial District. Its Justice Court handles traffic citations written by the Sheriff's Office, Oregon State Police, ODOT and county weighmasters and animal control, and municipal code violations for seven cities. Worth recording precisely: the county's own page says the present Justice of the Peace reached the bench by gubernatorial appointment, effective 5 January 2024, which is how a mid-term vacancy in an otherwise elected office is filled. Arraignment is normally at 1:30 pm on the next scheduled court day after arrest, and the amount printed on a citation is the presumptive fine, not the minimum.
Jackson County Circuit Court — 1st Judicial District, Justice Building, 100 S. Oakdale Avenue, Medford
- Not found — the Oregon Judicial Department's Jackson County page publishes the trial court administrator (Tina Qualls) and addresses but no list of judges, and the department's central Judges and Presiding Judges directories render their tables in JavaScript and returned no names to this research
Jackson County Justice Court
- Joe Charter, Justice of the Peace — re-appointed by Governor Tina Kotek effective 5 January 2024. A University of Michigan and Berkeley law graduate who practised for more than 30 years in the Rogue Valley and has served as a Circuit Court judge, Justice of the Peace, bankruptcy trustee and mediator
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 2026-08-23
The County Commissioners
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
- The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Jackson County's New Jail Project page is the most detailed piece of jail-capital disclosure in this group. It publishes the original design capacity, the 1985 overcrowding lawsuit and the cap that followed, the lodging and release figures, the cost estimate with comparators, an explanation of why marijuana tax revenue, gas tax and grants cannot pay for it, and why building upward is not possible. It is advocacy, but it is sourced advocacy published by the county.
- capacity: passes on the jail page's 292 and the New Jail Project page's 300 / 315 overnight. No daily population count is published.
- roster: a live adults-in-custody list at inmate.jacksoncountyor.gov, linked from the jail page.
- bond_info: the Posting of Bail page is clear — 10% of full bail, 24 hours a day; at the Circuit Court at 100 S. Oakdale weekdays 8-4, otherwise the jail lobby kiosk or correctpay.com; cash, debit and credit accepted, personal cheques only from a local attorney's client trust account; Medford municipal charges posted at the Municipal Court; and bail returned less 15% court fees.
- fees: recorded 'no'. The Telephone Access page says calls are collect and that the telephone company will charge the person who accepts, and the Video Visitations page names ViaPath and gettingout.com, but neither publishes a per-minute or per-visit rate, and no commissary price list is published.
- prea: no PREA policy, annual report or audit is published on the county site.
- deaths: nothing published about any death in custody.
- inspections: no inspection or accreditation result published.
- contracts: the jail page says the jail 'serves all law enforcement agencies in the area', but no contract to hold another agency's prisoners and no rate is published.
- budget: the county publishes an adopted budget book, a budget brief, a ClearGov interactive budget and an archive back to 2005. The Sheriff department section contains a Corrections programme description and an Inmate Welfare Fund funded from jail telephone revenues. The financial tables in the adopted budget PDF are images rather than text, so no corrections dollar total is recorded here.
- The county's elected officials page and Sheriff's Office landing pages do not name the sheriff; his name appears on the county's New Jail Project page and is confirmed by the Oregon State Sheriffs' Association biography, which is why the association is cited as the sheriff source.
- state_inspection: Oregon has no state jail inspectorate. The Oregon State Sheriffs' Association publishes voluntary jail standards at https://oregonsheriffs.org/jail-standards/ but no per-jail inspection result for Jackson County was published there or on the county's own site.
- Jackson County is a home rule county governed by a three-member Board of Commissioners elected countywide: Rick Dyer, Randy Sparacino and Colleen Roberts. The county publishes meeting agendas and minutes, recordings of board public meetings and of budget hearings, and a budget book that has won a GFOA award. There is no jail district: the ballot measure that would have created a service district to build and operate a new jail failed, and the county's budget states that a new taxing district modelled on the White City Enhanced Law Enforcement District would be set up for the jail if a future measure passes.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Jackson 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 commissioners who pay for it.
The sheriff is on your ballot
The county clerk runs the election in Jackson County and prints the ballot the sheriff’s name is on. Links from USA.gov and vote.gov.
Names verified 2026-08-23 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered