The Detention Center
Georgetown County Detention Center
- Operated bySheriff's Office
- Jail address2394 Browns Ferry Rd., Georgetown, SC 29440
- Phone843-545-3400
- Rated capacity212 inmates
- OpenedMarch 1996
- Average daily population125 over the audit year; 142 on the audit's first day (2025 PREA audit)
- New facility$65 million, 256 beds (51 in a women's wing), expandable to 500; groundbreaking June 7, 2024 near the existing facility on Browns Ferry Road; county notice says expected opening February 2027
- Phone/video vendorPay Tel Communications
- Commissary vendorMcDaniel Supply Company
- Jail AdministratorWayne Owens, Warden/Jail Administrator (named in the 2025 PREA audit report posted on the sheriff's site)
Source: Georgetown County Sheriff's Office — Detention Center · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
6/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗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 built1996 (opened March 1996)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found for the 1996 building; the county Capital Improvement Plan facilities document lists 2020 IPR bonds ($36,000,000) toward a detention center project
- Beds212
Since then
- New 85,800 sq ft, 256-bed detention center ($65 million) under construction; groundbreaking June 7, 2024; county notice says expected opening February 2027
The Sheriff
Sheriff Carter Weaver
- CurrentNamed as Sheriff on the sheriff's own site and the county directory
- Took officeElected Sheriff of Georgetown County in February 2020 (sheriff's site)
- How the office is filledElected
- Runs the jailYes — the Detention Center Administrator and command staff manage the detention center "as directed by the Sheriff" (sheriff's site, Detention Center mission page)
- Office address430 N Fraser Street, Georgetown, SC 29440 (county directory)
Still needed
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Georgetown County Sheriff's Office — Sheriff Carter Weaver · 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 Georgetown County
- Circuit Court: South Carolina's Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, which also serves Horry. 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 Georgetown 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 and minutes are on the county's CivicClerk portal (https://georgetowncosc.portal.civicclerk.com/), linked from the council page; portal not opened.
- The boardGeorgetown County Council →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site (a.www.gcsheriff.org) opened: detention center pages on mission, phone/commissary, bond court, bondsmen list, visitation, mail, PREA, FAQ, and a booking-and-release lookup.
- Detention center is run under the Sheriff: 'The Detention Center Administrator and Detention Center Command Staff manage the Detention Center as directed by the Sheriff.'
- Booking and Release page offers a searchable list of bookings and releases with charges and bond amounts.
- Bond court page gives county and municipal bond hearing times (county bond court 7 days a week at 9am and 3pm) and says the detention center does not accept money for bonds.
- PREA page posts audit reports and yearly statistics (2019–2025). The 2025 PREA audit (Aug 6-8, 2025) reports 45 standards met, 0 not met; it records one substantiated staff-on-inmate sexual abuse allegation referred for criminal investigation, with the staff member arrested.
- Phone, video visitation and commissary vendors are named, but no rates are published on the pages read.
- County FY2024/2025 budget (gtcountysc.gov) shows Department 207 - Detention Center at $4,932,810 and Sheriff at $9,672,910. FY2026/2027 budget file was too large for our reader; FY2025/2026 file had no readable text.
- No deaths-in-custody record, inspection report, or jail contract found on the county or sheriff pages read.
- County seat recorded as Georgetown: county council chambers (129 Screven Street) and sheriff's office are in Georgetown per county pages.
- 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 Georgetown 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