The Detention Center
Johnson Detention Center
- Operated bySheriff's Office
- Jail address154 Templeton Road, Laurens, SC 29360
- PhonesMain 864-683-4055; Booking 864-683-4783; Visitation 864-683-4785
- Mailing addressLaurens County Detention Center, PO Box 329, Laurens, SC 29360
- Video visitationThrough Combine Public Communication (vendor named; no rates posted)
- CanteenMcDaniel Supply (vendor named; no prices posted)
- Rated capacityNot found
- Jail AdministratorMajor Dennis Hampton (listed under Detention Center on the sheriff's Detention Services Division page)
Source: Laurens County Sheriff's Office - Jail Info · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓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
- ✗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 Don Reynolds
- CurrentNamed as Sheriff on the Laurens County Sheriff's Office command staff page
- Runs the jailYes — the Johnson Detention Center is run by the Sheriff's Office Detention Services Division (sheriff's detention page)
- Office address216 West Main Street, Laurens, SC 29360
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Laurens County Sheriff's Office - Command Staff · 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 Laurens County
- Circuit Court: South Carolina's Eighth Judicial Circuit, which also serves Abbeville, Greenwood 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 Laurens 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).
- NoteCounty government home page (laurenscounty.us) opened but its links could not be read; council and minutes pages were refused.
- The boardLaurens County Council
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site (laurenscountysheriff.org) opened via the career-opportunities link on the association page; its root URL was refused.
- The Johnson Detention Center is run by the Sheriff's Office Detention Services Division; the sheriff's detention page lists Major Dennis Hampton for the Detention Center.
- Roster: the sheriff's Inmate Search page links 'our inmate search' at laurens-911-sc.zuercherportal.com; the portal itself was blocked by robots.txt for our reader.
- PREA page posts a compliance statement, a Fiscal Year PREA Investigations Report (Aug 2015 - Dec 2017, 'None reported during this time frame'), an 'April 2015 Audit Report' and 2016/2017 sexual-violence surveys. The April 2015 audit PDF is image-only and could not be read, so it is not counted as an inspection report.
- Bond: a 'Bail Scam Warning' post says the detention center does not accept bond payments by payment apps and gives 864-683-4055 to verify bond; no guidance on how to post bond was found.
- Jail Info names the video-visitation and canteen vendors but posts no rates or contracts. The Civil Service Fees page showed no fee content to our reader.
- County government: https://www.laurenscounty.us home page opened but showed only notices; laurenscountysc.gov, laurenscounty.us/county-council/ and its sitemap were refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED). No budget or council minutes were read.
- The one WebSearch returned only the association page and aggregator/spam pages; no county or sheriff URL.
- 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 Laurens 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