Anderson County, South Carolina — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Anderson County Sheriff's Office Detention Center (Detention Division)

Operated bySheriff's Office
Jail address305 Camson Road, Anderson, SC 29625
Average daily populationAbout 400 (roughly 319 men and 65 women)
Jail AdministratorCaptain David Baker, head of the Detention Division (named on the sheriff's Detention Bureau page)

Source: Anderson County Sheriff's Office — Detention Bureau · checked 2026-09-29

Transparency rating

3/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✓Who is in custody
✓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 Anderson 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 builtNot found
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
BedsNot found (average daily population about 400)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Chad McBride

CurrentNamed in the South Carolina Sheriffs' Association directory; not confirmed on a county page
Runs the jailYes — the sheriff's Detention Bureau page describes the Anderson County Sheriff's Office Detention Division

Still needed

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

Source: South Carolina Sheriffs' Association directory · checked 2026-09-29

The Judges

South Carolina's circuit court judges are elected by the General Assembly and hear felony cases. For most charges a magistrate sets bond soon after arrest; for offenses punishable by death or life imprisonment only a circuit judge can.

Who sets bail in Anderson County

Circuit Court: South Carolina's Tenth Judicial Circuit, which also serves Oconee. Circuit judges are elected by the General Assembly to six-year terms and hear felony cases; for offenses punishable by death or life imprisonment only a circuit judge can set bond.
Magistrate Court: the Anderson County magistrates. For most charges a magistrate sets bond soon after arrest.

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 County Council

They pay for the jail. Depending on the county, the sheriff or a county detention department runs it.

What they controlThe county budget that funds the detention center and the sheriff's office, and the jail building itself. In counties where the sheriff has handed the jail to the county, the council's administrator runs it.
What they don'tDay-to-day operations where the sheriff keeps the jail (S.C. Code 24-5-10). The state Department of Corrections inspects every detention center each year (S.C. Code 24-9-20).
NoteCounty council page not opened
The boardAnderson County Council
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

Sheriff's Detention Bureau page opened: Detention Division led by Captain David Baker, 305 Camson Road, average daily population about 400; it links an Inmate Search (the sheriff's Zuercher portal), an inmate account deposit store and a PREA Compliance page.
The page calls the facility the Detention Center / Detention Division; the exact phrase 'Anderson County Detention Center' does not appear on it.
PREA Compliance page (https://www.andersonsheriff.org/prea-information) and visitor page were refused by our reader, so PREA and fees are left as no; they may hold material.
What was tried: https://www.andersonsheriff.org, http://www.andersonsheriff.org, /employment, /prea-information, /visitor-info refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED).
Sheriff's name not shown on the one page that opened; association directory name recorded.
State inspection/oversight: The South Carolina Department of Corrections must inspect every county detention center each year and send written reports to county officials (S.C. Code 24-9-20). A county earns the inspections mark here only if it posts such a report on its own site.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Anderson 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 county council members who pay for the jail.

Names verified 2026-09-29 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered