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

The Detention Center

County Jail (budget department name; no fuller facility name published on the county site)

Operated byNot stated on the pages read
Inmate inquiriesNo online inmate lookup; call (803) 637-4124 (county sheriff page)
FY2026-27 budget05240 County Jail $2,709,900; 05210 Sheriff's Office $4,099,754; 05755 Law Enforcement Center $294,500
Boarding & lodging line$380,000 in the County Jail budget (FY2026-27)
Law Enforcement CenterCounty ACFR (FY ended 6/30/25): new Law Enforcement Center placed into service during FY25, paid from the county's plutonium settlement funds (Law Enforcement Center Plutonium Fund); the ACFR does not say whether it houses the jail

Source: Edgefield County FY2026-2027 Budget · checked 2026-09-29

Transparency rating

1/10Closed

✗The jail is named — not published
✗Who is in custody — not published
✗Beds and daily population — not published
✓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 — not published
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Edgefield 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 byLaw Enforcement Center funded from the county's plutonium settlement funds (county ACFR FY2025); not stated whether this building includes the jail
BedsNot found

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Jody P. Rowland

CurrentNamed as Sheriff on the county government's Sheriff's Office page
Office address264 Star Rd, Edgefield, SC 29824
Runs the jailNot stated on the pages read; the sheriff's page handles inmate inquiries by phone (803) 637-4124

Still needed

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

Source: Edgefield County - Sheriff's Office page · 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 Edgefield County

Circuit Court: South Carolina's Eleventh Judicial Circuit, which also serves Lexington, McCormick and Saluda. 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 Edgefield 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).
NoteFive-member council; agendas and minutes posted on the council page.
The boardEdgefield County Council →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

Examined: county site edgefieldcounty.sc.gov opened (sheriff, about-us, finance, county council, magistrate court, RFPs pages; FY2026-27 budget; FY2025 ACFR).
Sheriff's page names Sheriff Jody P. Rowland and says there is no online way to look up inmates (call 803-637-4124); no detention center page, name, capacity, visitation, bond, PREA or fee information found.
FY2026-27 budget has a 'County Jail' department (05240, $2,709,900), separate from the Sheriff's Office (05210) and a Law Enforcement Center line (05755).
FY2025 ACFR: a new Law Enforcement Center was placed into service in FY25, paid with plutonium settlement funds; the county pages read do not say whether the jail moved there.
RFPs page lists no jail-related contracts; magistrate court page has no bond guidance.
One WebSearch spent; it returned news and association pages only (not cited).
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 Edgefield 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