The Detention Center
Detention Center (Greenwood County Law Enforcement Center)
- Operated bySheriff's Office
- Jail addressLaw Enforcement Center, 528 Edgefield Street, Greenwood, SC 29646
- Detention center phone (county page)(864) 943-8059
- Detention center phone (association directory)864-943-8063
- Jail administratorKathy Tucker
- Jail AdministratorKathy Tucker, Jail Administrator
Source: Greenwood County Detention Center page · 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
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 Dennis D. Kelly
- CurrentNamed as Sheriff on the Greenwood County Sheriff's Office page (county site)
- Runs the jailYes — the Detention Center is listed among the Sheriff's Office divisions on the sheriff's page
- Sheriff's Office phone(864) 942-8600
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Greenwood County Sheriff's Office (county site) · 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 Greenwood County
- Circuit Court: South Carolina's Eighth Judicial Circuit, which also serves Abbeville, Laurens and Newberry. 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 Greenwood County magistrates. For most charges a magistrate sets bond soon after arrest.
- 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 page links agendas and minutes in a Google Drive folder.
- The boardGreenwood County Council →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Rescue pass: county site greenwoodcounty-sc.gov opened this time (sheriff, detention center, county council, administration, auditor, warrants pages).
- Sheriff Dennis D. Kelly is named on the county's own sheriff page.
- Detention center page gives only address, jail administrator and phone, plus a 'Detention Center Inmate Search' link to a JailTracker roster for Greenwood_County_SC (the roster itself did not load in our reader).
- No capacity, budget, PREA, inspection, contract, bond or fee information found on the pages read.
- County offices are at 600 Monument Street, Greenwood (administration page).
- What was tried: /finance and /budget on the county site returned 404; auditor page has no budget documents; council agendas/minutes are in Google Drive folders linked from the council page (not opened).
- The single web search returned only aggregator pages and the association directory; the county site was opened directly.
- 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 Greenwood 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