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

The Detention Center

Detention Center (no fuller name published on the county site)

Operated byNot stated on the pages read
Listed address1520 Ellis AVE, Orangeburg, SC (county directory)
Listed phone803-531-4658 (county directory)
Association directory phone803-539-2091
Where prisoners goOrangeburg County's FAQ says the County of Orangeburg operates the Orangeburg-Calhoun Regional Detention Center (803-539-2091, the same number the association lists for Calhoun) - https://www.orangeburgcounty.org/m/faq?cat=31. No Calhoun County page read explains the arrangement.

Source: Calhoun County - County Directory · checked 2026-09-29

Transparency rating

0/10Closed

✗The jail is named — not published
✗Who is in custody — not published
✗Beds and daily population — not published
✗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 Calhoun 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

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Thomas S. Summers, Jr.

CurrentNamed as Sheriff on the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office command staff page; 'Meet the Sheriff' page says he has served since 2001
Runs the jailNot stated on the pages read; the sheriff's site lists no detention division, and the county directory lists the Detention Center at an Orangeburg address

Still needed

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

Source: Calhoun County Sheriff's Office - Command Staff · 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 Calhoun County

Circuit Court: South Carolina's First Judicial Circuit, which also serves Orangeburg and Dorchester. 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 Calhoun 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).
NoteCouncil minutes PDFs are listed on the Administration page; agendas on the Public Notice of Meetings page.
The boardCalhoun County Council →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

Examined: county site calhouncounty.sc.gov (directory, departments, administration, financial audits, public notice of meetings) and sheriff site ccso.sc.gov (about us, meet the sheriff, command staff) opened.
The county directory lists a 'Detention Center' at 1520 Ellis AVE, Orangeburg, SC, phone 803-531-4658; no page read names the facility or explains the arrangement with Orangeburg.
The departments page lists no detention center department; the sheriff's site lists no detention or jail division.
The county posts annual audited financial reports (FY2012-FY2025) but no budget document; our reader could not find sheriff or detention lines in the FY2025 report text.
The sheriff's site links the state VINE service for offender status; that is not a county roster.
No roster, capacity, bond, PREA, fee, contract, death or inspection material found.
What was tried: https://ccso.sc.gov/about-us, /meet-sheriff, /command-staff; https://calhouncounty.sc.gov/node/37, /departments, /departments/administration, /financial-audits, /public-notice-meetings and the FY2025 audit PDF — all opened.
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 Calhoun 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