The Detention Center
Spartanburg County Detention Center
- Operated bySheriff's Office
- Jail address950 California Avenue, Spartanburg, SC 29303
- Phone864-596-2607
- Division headMajor Chris Leso
- Rated capacityNot found
- Jail AdministratorMajor Chris Leso, Detention Services Division
Source: Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office — Detention Services Division · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
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 Bill Rhyne
- CurrentNamed in the South Carolina Sheriffs' Association directory; not confirmed on a county page
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff's own Detention Services Division page says detention operates as a branch of the Sheriff's Office
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: South Carolina Sheriffs' Association directory · 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 Spartanburg County
- Circuit Court: South Carolina's Seventh Judicial Circuit, which also serves Cherokee. 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 Spartanburg 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 not opened
- The boardSpartanburg County Council
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- What was tried: www.spartanburgsheriff.org (https and http), spartanburgsheriff.org root and recruiting.php refused our reader.
- One search found the Detention Services Division page on the sheriff's own domain; it opened.
- That page says the sheriff's office publishes Inmate Population and Inmates Booked and Released pages (current inmates, bail amounts, booking details); the pages themselves were not linked in what our reader received.
- No link list could be harvested from the division page, so capacity, budget, PREA, bond, fees, deaths, inspections and contracts could not be checked on sub-pages.
- Sheriff name not shown on the page opened; association directory name used.
- County government site not reached.
- Not scored: the sheriff's site refused our reader except one division page, and its sub-pages could not be reached. Marking the rest 'not published' would claim more than was checked. Found published on the pages that did open: named, roster.
- 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 Spartanburg 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