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

The Detention Center

Colleton County Detention Center

Operated bySheriff's Office
Jail address394 Mable T. Willis Blvd, P.O. Box 433, Walterboro, SC 29488 (listed on the Sheriff's Office page)
Phone843-549-5742
VisitationFriday-Sunday by inmate category/last name; one hour per inmate total
Video visitation / rulesVia SmartCommunications (smartjailmail.com)
Inmate depositsLobby kiosk at 22 Klein St, Walterboro, or online via McDaniel Supply Company
Inmate search'Current Inmates' portal linked from the Sheriff's Office pages
Jail AdministratorCaptain Wanda Taylor (Detention Center Division, per Sheriff's Divisions page)

Source: Colleton County Sheriff's Office - Sheriff's Divisions · checked 2026-09-29

Transparency rating

2/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✓Who is in custody
✗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 Colleton 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 Guerry L. "Buddy" Hill Jr.

CurrentNamed as Sheriff on the Sheriff's Office pages of the county site; took oath of office January 5, 2021
Runs the jailYes - the Detention Center is listed as a division of the Sheriff's Office (Sheriff's Divisions page)
Office address394 Mable T. Willis Blvd, Walterboro, SC 29488; 843-549-2211

Still needed

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

Source: Colleton County Sheriff's Office - Our Sheriff · 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 Colleton County

Circuit Court: South Carolina's Fourteenth Judicial Circuit, which also serves Hampton, Jasper, Allendale and Beaufort. 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 Colleton 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).
NoteAgendas/minutes page opened; the most recent items shown were from December 2022.
The boardColleton County Council →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

Examined this pass. Sheriff's Office pages on the county site colletoncounty.org opened and confirm Colleton County, South Carolina (Walterboro).
Opened: https://www.colletoncounty.org/sheriffs-office, /sheriffs-office/our-sheriff, /sheriffs-office/sheriffs-divisions, /sheriffs-office/online-services, https://www.colletoncounty.org/node/385, /finance, /finance/financial-reports, /county-council, /county-council/agendas-minutes, and the FY2025 annual financial report PDF.
Roster credited on the Sheriff's Divisions page, which links 'Current Inmate Search' at colleton-so-sc.zuercherportal.com (the sheriff's own portal); the portal itself was blocked to our reader (robots.txt).
Budget not credited: the finance page's newest budget (FY2019-20 PDF) had no readable text, and the FY2025 annual financial report read shows no Sheriff or Detention line; council budget ordinance not found.
Fees not credited: deposit and video-visit vendors are named but no rates are published on the pages read.
No capacity, bond guidance, PREA, deaths, inspection report or contracts found on the pages opened.
One WebSearch used.
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 Colleton 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