Benton County Jail Population Data

How to Look Up Benton County Jail Population Data

Three sources hold population data for Benton County. The first is the Sheriff's Zuercher inmate roster, which is the live, official count maintained by the Detention Center. The second is the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, which publishes annual jail reports and county-level estimates. The third is Vera Institute Incarceration Trends, which posts county-level jail population context and historical trend lines.

The Sheriff's roster updates as bookings and releases happen. A snapshot of the public Zuercher API on May 19, 2026 returned a total_record_count of 617 for current/in-custody parameters. That figure is a live moment, not an annual average daily population. BJS and Vera report on a lag, with values typically delivered for prior-year coverage. The Sheriff's main page also publishes jail-stats summaries the office releases for the press.

Federal jail and prison statistics live at bjs.ojp.gov.

BJS publishes the Annual Survey of Jails and the Census of Jails, both of which feed Vera Institute county-level estimates.

Benton County Jail Capacity Overview

The Sheriff's jail page lists one main facility. There is no separate satellite facility within Benton County under Sheriff's control; outside agencies sometimes hold inmates here, and Benton County sometimes pays for outside boarding when overcrowded.

Occupancy at 92% leaves limited slack. Booking surges from large weekends, multi-agency operations, or court-week releases can push the facility close to or over rated capacity. Capacity was funded by a half-cent county jail tax when the facility was built.

Average Daily Population

Benton County does not publish a public annual average daily population dashboard. The most recent verifiable live count was 617 on May 19, 2026. BJS jail reports estimate Arkansas county jail averages and total inmate counts on a yearly cycle. Vera Institute publishes long-term county trend lines that include average daily population estimates derived from the BJS census. A formal annual ADP for Benton County should be confirmed against the Sheriff's annual report or directly with the Detention Center records desk at 479-271-1008.

Demographic Breakdown

The public Zuercher roster exposes race, sex, and age fields per inmate. It does not publish an aggregate demographic summary. Aggregated demographic ratios can be computed from a live roster pull, but those numbers shift with each booking. The roster's race options are American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Unknown, and White. Sex options are Female, Male, and Unknown. Age is computed rather than DOB-disclosed.

Pretrial vs Sentenced Population

The pretrial/sentenced split is not exposed as a single field on the public Zuercher portal. The hold-reason text on each inmate profile signals which category applies: a "Warrant" hold with a pending charge points to pretrial detention; a "Sentenced" or "ADOC" hold points to sentenced or transferring custody. BJS jail reports give the state-level ratio between pretrial and sentenced for Arkansas county jails as a whole.

Misdemeanor vs Felony Population

Charge severity is not labeled as a single aggregate column on the public roster. Charge text on each inmate profile names the statute, like "5-64-422(b)(1) - DELIVERY METH/COCA LT 2g," and the related warrant number, like "AW2500055." Severity has to be inferred from the statute and the bond. BJS data tends to show that smaller-and-mid-size Arkansas county jails hold a mix that runs heavier on pretrial felony detention and misdemeanor sentenced time.

Mental Health and Medical Population

The Sheriff's portal includes a cell block code MED136. That block points to the medical housing unit inside the Detention Center. The Sheriff's main page describes a non-linear direct/indirect supervision design with maximum-security pods, minimum-security pods, dormitory housing, and work-release barracks. Benton County also runs a Mental Health Court specialty program under Circuit Court Division III at 1204 SW 14th St., Suite 7, phone 479-696-9970. The program steers eligible criminal defendants into treatment instead of routine custody. Aggregate mental-health-in-custody counts are not exposed publicly.

National and State Context

National jail incarceration rates from BJS sit in the low hundreds per 100,000 residents. Arkansas county jail rates trend above the national average in most BJS reporting cycles. Vera Institute publishes a county-by-county view that places Benton County's jail rate inside the broader Arkansas range. The county-level rate per 100,000 should be pulled directly from Vera or BJS for any quoted figure to avoid mixing data years.

Population Trends Over Time

The Detention Center has operated since April 1999. Built for 669 beds, it has spent most of its life filled at high occupancy. The May 19, 2026 live count of 617 places the facility at roughly 92% of rated capacity. That kind of utilization is consistent with the long-term Vera trend lines showing Arkansas county jails running near or at capacity through the 2010s and 2020s. Historical Sheriff's reports, when published, are the cleanest county-side source for multi-year trend data.

Searching for Benton County Inmate Records by Name

This page covers aggregate jail population data. For a name-based lookup of who is currently booked in the Detention Center, use Benton County inmate records. For people who have already been released, use released inmates. The live roster updates in real time; the population data here trails the live count by design.

Where the Data Comes From

The Sheriff's Office produces the live custody data through the Zuercher portal at benton-so-ar.zuercherportal.com. The Sheriff's public-facing jail page at sheriff.bentoncountyar.gov/jail-detention publishes capacity, square footage, opening date, and design history. National context comes from bjs.ojp.gov and incarcerationtrends.vera.org. Citations to specific tables should match the data year of the source report.

Funding History and Jail Tax

The Detention Center was built with a half-cent county jail tax that funded the $16.8 million construction in 1999. The jail tax is the single biggest piece of how Benton County built and continues to operate the 669-bed facility. Tax-funded jails in Arkansas typically carry recurring operations budgets tied to the same revenue stream; line items include staffing, medical contracts, food service, vendor management, technology, and capital maintenance. The Sheriff's annual budget testimony before the Quorum Court is the cleanest local source for current-year operations numbers.

Comparing Benton County to Northwest Arkansas Peers

Benton County sits in the Northwest Arkansas region alongside Washington, Madison, and Carroll counties. Washington County's jail in Fayetteville is the largest peer facility, with population pressures of its own. Madison and Carroll County jails are smaller and route some sentenced inmates to Benton County under interagency agreements that show up as "Held For" entries on the roster. Population trends across the region track each county's growth, prosecution patterns, and ADC transfer cycle. Vera Institute's county trend dashboard compares peer counties on a multi-year basis.

Prison Policy Initiative publishes state-level incarceration context at prisonpolicy.org.

State-level rates and policy briefs are useful framing for any Benton County population number.

Arkansas State Prison Backlog Pressure

Arkansas county jails, including Benton County, carry sentenced state inmates while waiting for ADC bed space. That "ADC backlog" pushes county occupancy higher than the local case mix alone would predict. The "HOLD - ADOC for In-State Other" entries on the inmate roster are direct evidence of the backlog. Benton County Sheriff testimony and ADC weekly inmate status reports are the cleanest official sources on the backlog count at any given time.

Cell Block Configuration

The roster's cell block dropdown exposes the official housing codes inside the Detention Center. Active codes include B179 and B180; D109, D130, D149, D150, D153, and D154; E101 through E107; F107, F109, F112; H1 through H5; Intake; Booking; and MED136 medical. Legacy or inactive codes still listed include A, B, B2, C, F107-A2, F107-B1, F107-B2, F107-C1, F107-C2, F107-D2, Intake 1, and Intake 2. The mix reflects the 1999 design's combination of pods, dormitory, and barracks under non-linear direct/indirect supervision.

Staffing and Operations Notes

Staffing numbers are not exposed on the public portal but show up in Sheriff's annual budget testimony before the Quorum Court. The half-cent jail tax that funded construction in 1999 continues to fund operations. Vendor relationships with AccessCorrections (Keefe Commissary), RegentPay (Correct Solutions phone), CorrectPay (tech accounts), and Tyler Technologies (video/deposit support) all show up on the inmate funding side. Each vendor has its own customer service line; consolidated current vendor contacts sit on the Sheriff's inmate funding page.

Visitation and Operational Capacity

Visitation capacity is a function of facility design as much as population. The Sheriff's video-only visitation system, including the March 18, 2026 transition, was meant to standardize visit windows and capacity across general population, trustees, and remote visitors. General population gets two 15-minute visits per week. Trustees get extended hours during non-working time. Remote visitation is offered seven days a week at the visitor's expense. The cap on weekly visit minutes is itself a population-management lever: fewer in-person visit demands free staff for housing and medical operations.

Related Resources

For the live roster, use Benton County inmate records. To find people post-release, see released inmates. For underlying criminal cases, see criminal records and court records. For active warrants tied to the population, see warrant records.