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

The Detention Center

Not found

Operated byNot stated on the pages read
Own pagesNo jail or detention center is named on the Lee County government pages read
Directory jail linesSouth Carolina Sheriffs' Association directory lists 'Detention Center: 803-896-2400' and 'Sumter County Detention Center: 803-436-2340' for Lee County; neither confirmed on a Lee County page

Source: South Carolina Sheriffs' Association directory · checked 2026-09-29

Transparency rating

Not scored. Lee County's and its sheriff's own websites could not be reached or read in the session that produced this record, so their disclosures were never examined. This is a gap in the research, not a finding about the county.

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 Daniel Simon

CurrentNamed as Sheriff on the Lee County government's Sheriff's Office directory page
Runs the jailNot stated on the pages read
OfficePO Box 89, Bishopville SC 29010; (803) 484-5353

Still needed

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

Source: Lee County - Sheriff's Office directory 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 Lee County

Circuit Court: South Carolina's Third Judicial Circuit, which also serves Clarendon, Sumter and Williamsburg. 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 Lee 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).
The boardLee County Council →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

Examined: the Lee County government site (leecountysc.org) opened, including the home page, departments directory, Sheriff's Office page, Magistrate Office, Finance Office, council and minutes pages, and the financial audits page. No jail or detention center material was found; the departments list has no detention center.
Where Lee County prisoners are held is not stated on any Lee County page read. The association directory lists both a 'Detention Center: 803-896-2400' line and a 'Sumter County Detention Center: 803-436-2340' line.
The county's Sheriff's Office page links a sheriff website, www.leeso.org; it could not be opened (robots.txt/certificate error on https and http).
Budget: the county posts audited financial statements (FY17-FY25), not a budget document. The FY2025 audit (https://cms9files.revize.com/leecountycarolina/LEE%20COUNTY%20FINAL%20FS%2006-30-2025%20(1)-1.pdf) shows only a combined 'Public Safety' line (expenses $7,026,231) and no sheriff or detention line our reader could find. The Finance Office page links no budget.
Council minutes read (June 9 and July 14, 2026) contain nothing on a jail or detention center; the June 9 minutes describe a balanced budget of $16,880,147.
The Magistrate Office page has no bond guidance.
The one WebSearch returned only the association page plus state and news pages; the county URLs above were opened from the association and county pages.
Not scored: the sheriff's own website could not be opened, and no Lee County page says where prisoners are held. Marking the rest 'not published' would claim more than was checked.
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 Lee 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