The Detention Center
Saluda County Detention Center
- Operated bySheriff's Office
- Jail address205 East Church Street, Saluda, SC 29138 (county detention center page)
- Jail phone864-445-0286
- Assistant Jail AdministratorLorine Kelly
- Designed capacity45 inmates (2017 PREA audit report posted on county site; 50 held during the Jan 2017 audit)
- Year built1970, major renovation 1999 (2017 PREA audit report)
- ReplacementCounty council minutes (13 Feb 2023) describe a new Detention Center voted on by the County; 26 May 2026 worksession minutes discuss the cost of operating both detention centers during the transition to the new one
- Jail AdministratorJanice B. Ergle, Jail Administrator (county detention center page)
Source: Saluda County - Detention Center page · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓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 — not published
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1970 (major renovation 1999), per 2017 PREA audit report
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds45 designed capacity (2017 PREA audit report)
Since then
- Major renovation 1999 (2017 PREA audit report)
- New detention center planned/under way: council minutes 13 Feb 2023 and 26 May 2026 worksession
The Sheriff
Sheriff Josh Price
- CurrentNamed as Sheriff on the county government's sheriff page
- Runs the jailSheriff's Office — the 2017 PREA audit posted on the county site describes the jail as operated by the Saluda County Sheriff's Office; the county's detention center documents are filed under Sheriff/Detention Center
Still needed
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Saluda County - Sheriff 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 Saluda County
- Circuit Court: South Carolina's Eleventh Judicial Circuit, which also serves Lexington, McCormick and Edgefield. 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 Saluda 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).
- NoteCouncil page lists members and links minutes 2017-2026, budget summaries and audits.
- The boardSaluda County Council →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Examined: county site saludacounty.sc.gov opened (detention center, sheriff, departments, county council, public information, bids and awards, 2026 minutes, FY2026-27 budget summary, several minutes PDFs and detention center PDFs).
- Detention center page names the Saluda County Detention Center, 205 East Church Street, with Jail Administrator Janice B. Ergle and Assistant Jail Administrator Lorine Kelly. (The association directory lists 100 Law Enforcement Drive; the county page gives 205 East Church Street.)
- Detention center page links an Inmate Mail Policy, InteleVisit (Pay Tel) video-visit flyer, the Sheriff's Office PREA policy, a PREA inmate brochure, a PREA investigation report and the 2017 PREA audit report.
- 2017 PREA audit (Jan 24-25, 2017) reports designed capacity 45, built 1970, renovated 1999, operated by the Saluda County Sheriff's Office. It is a PREA audit, counted under PREA, not as a state inspection report.
- FY2026-27 budget summary lists Sheriff 2,131,281.00 and Detention 2,040,403.00 (general fund total 19,220,838.00).
- Fees: the mail policy gives only a $0.25 per-photo upload charge (Pay Tel); no phone, video-visit, commissary or booking rates found. The InteleVisit flyer gives no prices.
- No inmate roster, bond guidance, contracts or death-in-custody material found on the county site. The sheriff page links the SLED offender registry, which is not a jail roster.
- PREA policy PDF and PREA investigation report PDF opened but had no machine-readable text.
- Search used: 1 (this county).
- 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 Saluda 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