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

The Detention Center

Lancaster County Detention Center (LCDC)

Operated bySheriff's Office
Jail address1941 Pageland Hwy., Lancaster, South Carolina
Main phone803-283-2084
Rated capacity121 beds (Sheriff's 5 Year Budget Plan)
PopulationRecord single-day high of 217 in 2024; ADP of 185 in 2023 (Sheriff's 5 Year Budget Plan)
Year builtLate 1970s (Sheriff's 5 Year Budget Plan)
Who is heldUnsentenced inmates awaiting trial, those sentenced to less than 90 days, and Family Court inmates
New facilityUnder construction; budget plan says completion projected late 2026, funded by a special 1 cent sales tax passed in November 2020
Detention budget$4,326,129 current (FY 2024-2025) per the Sheriff's 5 Year Budget Plan
Phone/video vendorSMART Communications
Jail AdministratorCaptain Rodney Hope, Director (sheriff's detention page and organizational chart)

Source: Lancaster County Sheriff's Office — Detention · 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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Lancaster 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 builtLate 1970s
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found for the current building; new detention center funded by a special 1 cent sales tax passed in November 2020 (Sheriff's 5 Year Budget Plan)
Beds121

Since then

New detention center under construction; completion projected late 2026 (Sheriff's 5 Year Budget Plan). Bed count and cost not stated on the pages read.

The Sheriff

Sheriff Barry S. Faile

CurrentNamed as Sheriff on the sheriff's own site (lacoso.net)
Runs the jailYes — the sheriff's organizational chart places the Corrections Division / Detention Center (Director Captain Rodney Hope) under the Sheriff; the detention page sits on the sheriff's site
Office address1520 Pageland Hwy., Lancaster, S.C. 29720

Still needed

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

Source: Lancaster County Sheriff's Office — Contacts · 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 Lancaster County

Circuit Court: South Carolina's Sixth Judicial Circuit, which also serves Chester and Fairfield. 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 Lancaster 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).
NoteCounty government site https://www.mylancastersc.org/ could not be opened by our reader (robots.txt fetch timed out); council page not opened.
The boardLancaster County Council
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

Sheriff's site (lacoso.net) opened: detention page, contacts, administration, organizational chart, 5-year budget plan and 2025 PREA report.
Detention page links an 'Inmate Search' on the county's own domain (https://inmate.lancastercountysc.net/NewWorld.InmateInquiry/SC0290000); the lookup itself was refused by our reader (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED), credited on the strength of the sheriff's detention page.
Bond: detention page says bond hearings are held daily at the Lancaster County Magistrate's Office at 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. by video link, with a phone number for questions.
PREA: zero-tolerance statement, brochures (English/Spanish) and a 2025 annual PREA data report (6 incidents reported: 4 unsubstantiated, 1 unfounded, 1 referred to another agency).
Sheriff's 5 Year Budget Plan (sheriff's own site, author Sheriff Barry S. Faile) gives 121 beds, a record single-day population of 217 in 2024, and a current detention budget of $4,326,129.
Fees: only a $5 fingerprinting charge is published; no phone, video, commissary or booking rates found.
No deaths-in-custody record, inspection report, or jail contract found on the sheriff pages read. County government site not opened, so county budget/council pages were not examined.
County seat recorded as Lancaster: the sheriff's office and detention center addresses are in Lancaster per the sheriff's site.
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 Lancaster 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