The Detention Center
Josephine County Adult Jail
- Operated byJosephine County Sheriff's Office
- Year built2000
- SizeA 262-bed jail that 'currently is able to house a maximum of 185 local inmates' — the county's own words, and the gap between the two figures is the county's own disclosure
- Jail addressThe Sheriff's Office and jail operate from Grants Pass; county mailing address 500 NW 6th St., Grants Pass, Oregon 97526; jail and office telephone (541) 474-5221
- RosterA live jail viewer at jailviewer.co.josephine.or.us, which resolves to the county's New World inmate inquiry service. The county is candid that the service is provided 'as-is' and that it cannot change the website used to view people in custody
- CommissaryTurnKey is the commissary vendor and Inmate Canteen takes deposits; a person in custody may hold up to $200, and medical bills and money owed from a prior stay are deducted from the account
- PhonesSecurus Technology; outgoing calls only, 7 am to 9 pm, capped at 15 minutes, collect or by prepaid card, with a recorded announcement about charges before each call
- Money in the jail budgetThe county's approved budget for FY2025-26 puts Jail & Detention - Sheriff Adult Jail at $9,420,200, with Juvenile Detention at $2,683,300 and a Jail Commissary Fund of $690,600
- How the jail is paid forA dedicated local option levy for the Adult Jail and Juvenile Detention at $0.93 per $1,000 of assessed value, published on the county's own budget hearing notice
- Published rulesThe county publishes an Adult in Custody Manual, plus pages on bail, inmate accounts, meals, phones, visitation, property and mail, and victim notification through VISOR
Source: Josephine County Sheriff's Office — 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 built2000
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byOperations are funded in part by a dedicated local option levy for the Adult Jail and Juvenile Detention at $0.93 per $1,000 of assessed value. No construction financing figure is published
- Beds262 built; a maximum of 185 local prisoners can currently be housed
Since then
- Not found — the county publishes the 2000 build date and the gap between 262 beds built and 185 usable, but no capital history
The Sheriff
Sheriff Dave Daniel
- Runs the jailYes — the Josephine County Adult Jail is a division of the Sheriff's Office, alongside patrol, civil, records and animal control
- How the office is filledElected countywide in a nonpartisan race
- In office sinceElected Josephine County Sheriff in November 2014 and sworn in on 5 January 2015
- BackgroundGrew up in Portland, a science degree in speech communications from Oregon State University, began as a police officer at Grants Pass Department of Public Safety, then the first Oregon State Police resident trooper for Wheeler and Gilliam counties, then back to Grants Pass. A master's in management from Southern Oregon University; traffic officer, community resource team, 16 years on the SWAT team, major crimes detective and range master
- RecognitionAwarded the Law Enforcement Medal of Honor in 2013 after a life-threatening incident while arresting a sex offender
- OfficeSheriff's Office 601 NW 6th Street area, Grants Pass; jail and general enquiries (541) 474-5221, Sheriff's Office non-emergency (541) 474-5123
- How this was verifiedThe Oregon State Sheriffs' Association biography, and named as the sitting sheriff in a scam warning published by the Josephine County Circuit Court on the Oregon Judicial Department's site
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 — Josephine 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. Josephine County is the 14th Judicial District, a single-county district. No county justice court was found in Josephine County: the county site's court links point only to the state Circuit Court. The Circuit Court publishes a standing warning that callers impersonating deputies of Sheriff Dave Daniel or court staff demand payment to recall warrants, and states that the court never collects fines by telephone — a useful correction to how people imagine bail and fines are handled.
Josephine County Circuit Court — 14th Judicial District, Josephine County Courthouse, 510 NW 5th Street, Grants Pass
- Not found — the Oregon Judicial Department's Josephine County page publishes the court administrator (Trina Swaja) 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
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
- capacity: Josephine publishes the most useful capacity statement in this group — not just a bed count but the difference between the beds that exist (262) and the beds it can staff and use (185). No daily population figure is published, but the roster shows who is in custody now.
- budget: the county publishes LB-1 notices of budget hearing for the county, the Law Enforcement Service District, the 4-H district and the rural fire protection district, plus a supplemental budget notice. The county notice breaks out Jail & Detention - Sheriff Adult Jail at $9,420,200 approved for FY2025-26 against $9,645,400 adopted for 2024-25, Juvenile Detention at $2,683,300, a Jail & Detention non-departmental line at $1,775,800, Community Corrections at $12,473,000 and a Jail Commissary Fund of $690,600. Document at https://www.josephinecounty.gov/Finance/Budgets/Budget%202025-26/LB1%20Form%20Approved%20Josephine%20County%20Budget%20FYE%202026.pdf
- A dedicated jail tax exists: the local option levy for the Adult Jail and Juvenile Detention is published at $0.93 per $1,000 of assessed value in the same notice. It is a levy rather than a separate district.
- The separate Law Enforcement Service District, formed by Measure 17-115 on 7 November 2023, is a taxing body and not a jail operator: its budget of $5,793,800 for FY2025-26 buys dispatch, evidence and patrol services from the county through the Sheriff's Office under a service agreement, of which $5,766,500 is contract services and $27,300 administration. Document at https://www.josephinecounty.gov/Finance/Budgets/Budget%202025-26/LB1%20Form%20Approved%20Law%20Enforcement%20Service%20District%20Budget%20FYE%202026.pdf
- bond_info: the Bail page distinguishes clearly between posting at the Circuit Court Accounting Office during business hours (cash only, no convenience or transaction fee) and after-hours options (the jail lobby kiosk, cash only, with a possible convenience or transaction fee, or allpaid.com online with a transaction fee, requiring the person's name, inmate ID and court docket number).
- fees: recorded 'no'. The county names its vendors — Securus for phones, TurnKey and Inmate Canteen for commissary — and publishes call rules and the $200 account cap, but no per-minute rate and no commissary price list.
- prea, inspections and deaths: nothing published on the county site for any of the three.
- contracts: nothing published about holding other agencies' prisoners, and no rate. The jail page states only that it houses local prisoners.
- 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 Josephine County was published there or on the county's own site.
- Josephine County operates under a home rule charter and is governed by a three-member Board of County Commissioners elected at large to four-year terms: Colene Martin, Gary Richardson and Ron Smith. Commissioner Colene Martin was appointed to the board on 23 February 2026. The board levies taxes, adopts ordinances and appropriates funds, and publishes weekly written updates as well as agendas, minutes and recorded meetings. Two dedicated taxing instruments touch public safety: the local option levy for the Adult Jail and Juvenile Detention at $0.93 per $1,000, and the Josephine County Law Enforcement Service District created when voters approved Measure 17-115 on 7 November 2023, with a permanent rate limit of $0.99 per $1,000 and a FY2025-26 budget of $5,793,800 — that district funds patrol, dispatch and evidence services under a service agreement with the county, not the jail.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Josephine 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 Josephine 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