The Washington County Inmate Population
Washington County runs a single local jail, the Washington County Jail in Chipley, and the Washington County Sheriff's Office holds the people booked into it. On June 3, 2026 the sheriff's public roster listed 99 people in custody. That count is the live picture of who sits in the county jail today. It is a point in time, not an average, so it rises and falls as fast as the booking desk works.
The number you see depends on a chain of choices. An arrest adds a person. A bond payment or a release order takes one off. A sentence to state prison moves someone out of the county count and into the Florida Department of Corrections count instead. Two state prisons also sit inside the county, but the people held there are not part of the county jail population and are not run by the sheriff. Keeping those two systems apart is the first step to reading the numbers right.
Washington County Inmate Population Statistics
Two sources describe the size of the Washington County inmate population. The sheriff's roster shows the live count, and the Vera Institute of Justice publishes a longer jail-population trend built from federal jail data. The figures below name a source and a year for each line. No number here is invented, and where the sheriff has not published a current figure, none is shown.
The roster also breaks down by sex. Of the 99 people listed on June 3, 2026, 87 were male and 12 were female. The race fields on that same snapshot showed 73 white, 21 Black, and a handful marked unavailable or other. Read those splits as a single day's photo, not a yearly average.
| Measure | Figure | Source / Year |
|---|---|---|
| Public roster count | 99 people | WCSO/OCV roster JSON, June 3, 2026 |
| Roster sex split | 87 male, 12 female | WCSO/OCV roster JSON, June 3, 2026 |
| Total jail population | 106 | Vera county data, 2026 |
| Jail population rate | 531.5 per 100,000 (age 15-64) | Vera county data, 2024 |
| 2019 rated-capacity field | 186.415 | Vera county data, 2019 (historical) |
Washington County Inmate Population Trends
Over the past decade the Washington County inmate population has moved in a narrow band. Vera's county dataset puts the jail population near 92 in 2015, climbing toward 120 by 2017, then peaking at roughly 137 in 2019. The count then eased through the early 2020s and settled close to 100 again. The 2026 figure of 106 sits right in that long-run middle. These are Vera estimates drawn from federal jail collections, and some yearly fields are imputed, so treat them as a trend line rather than an exact head count.
| Year | Jail Population (Vera) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 106 | Limited detail beyond the total. |
| 2025 | 104.75 | Limited detail beyond the total. |
| 2024 | 88 | Rate 531.5 per 100k, age 15-64. |
| 2023 | 92.75 | Rate 560.19. |
| 2022 | 108.75 | Rate 660.37. |
| 2021 | 103.5 | Rate 643.38. |
| 2020 | 99 | Rate 600.36. |
| 2019 | 136.75 | Highest year in the series. |
The Vera trend and the sheriff's live roster will rarely match to the person. They count on different days and in slightly different ways. The roster is today. The trend is a yearly estimate. Both are useful, and reading them together gives a fairer sense of the Washington County inmate population than either one alone.
Who Makes Up the Washington County Inmate Population
The county jail mostly holds people whose cases are not finished. Some wait for a first appearance. Some wait for trial. A smaller share serve short county sentences. The sheriff's roster does not publish a clean pre-trial versus sentenced split, but Vera's 2019 detail gives a sense of the mix: that year it estimated about 92 people in pre-trial custody and roughly 49 serving sentences out of a total near 137.
- Pre-trial vs sentenced - Vera's 2019 data split the jail near 92 pre-trial and 49 sentenced.
- Male vs female - the June 2026 roster ran 87 male to 12 female.
- Race - that same snapshot showed about 73 white and 21 Black, with a few unlisted.
- Held for other agencies - Vera's 2019 file counted roughly 11 people held for federal authorities, all of them for the U.S. Marshals.
Note: the sheriff's roster reports a holding-facility code and custody status for each person, but it does not publish a daily demographic report, so the broad breakdown above leans on Vera's older estimates.
Washington County Jail Capacity and Overcrowding
The sheriff's office has not posted a current rated capacity for the Washington County Jail on the pages reviewed for this site. The only capacity figure on record is a historical one. Vera lists a rated-capacity field of about 186 for 2019, drawn from federal jail data rather than a current county document. With a 2026 jail population near 106 and that older capacity mark near 186, the county does not read as crowded on paper, but the honest answer is that no fresh sheriff-published capacity exists to compare against.
No consent decree, jail-conditions lawsuit, death-in-custody case, or new-jail construction plan turned up in the official sources reviewed. Without a current capacity report from the county, this page does not claim a crowding level it cannot source.
Laws Governing the Washington County Inmate Population
Florida law is why most of the jail data is open to begin with. The state's public-records chapter treats booking and custody records as public unless a specific exemption applies, and a separate statute sets the standards county jails must meet. A booking photo law adds a narrow rule aimed at the websites that sell mugshot removal. Reading the lead-in below, the Florida public-records statute page lays out the inspection right in full.
The screenshot at Florida Statutes 119.07 shows the core public-records duty as the state legislature publishes it.
That statute is the legal backbone behind the sheriff's online roster and the records-request process the county uses for anything not posted online.
Key Statutes:
Florida Statutes § 119.011 - defines public records, agencies, and criminal justice information, so most arrest and custody facts are treated as open.
Florida Statutes § 119.07 - requires a records custodian to allow inspection and copying at reasonable times and to cite any exemption used to withhold.
Florida Statutes § 951.23 - sets the standards for county and municipal detention facilities, the rules that govern how the jail itself runs.
Florida Statutes § 907.043 - the Citizens' Right-to-Know Act, which frames a public register for pretrial release programs.
Washington County and the State Prison Population
A person arrested in Washington County who is later sentenced to prison leaves the county count and joins the state count run by the Florida Department of Corrections. That move happens only after sentencing and a reception and classification step. Two FDOC prisons stand inside the county, the Northwest Florida Reception Center and its Annex, both at the same Sam Mitchell Drive address in Chipley, with listed capacities of 1,303 and 1,415. A Washington County defendant can be sent to either of those or to any other prison in the state, since assignment is a state decision and not a local one.
How to Search the Washington County Inmate Population
The main way to search the Washington County inmate population is the sheriff's online inmate roster. It lists the people currently in the county jail, each on a card with a name, a booking photo, and a link to a fuller profile. You reach it from the sheriff's site under Jail and Inmate Info. To follow the lead-in image below, the live roster page shows the search box and the card layout exactly as a visitor sees it.
The image at the official WCSO inmate roster shows the Type to Search box, the mugshot cards, and the status-notification links.
You do not need an account. A last name is enough to start, and the steps below walk through a single lookup.
- Open the roster at wcso.us/inmateRoster.
- Type the person's last name into the Type to Search field.
- Use the Sort and Filters controls to narrow a common name, or page through the cards.
- Click Read More on the matching card to open the full profile with charges and bond.
- If the person was sentenced to prison, search the Florida DOC locator instead, since the county roster will not list them.
Current Inmate Lookup in Washington County
The roster is a current-custody tool powered by an official OCV and VINE integration. The data feed inspected on June 3, 2026 carried 99 records, all marked in custody and all tied to the county jail's holding-facility code. The page sorts by name or by booking date and pages through results in groups of ten. The search fields are simple, and the table below lists what the roster actually accepts.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type to Search | Text search | No | Free-text match over the visible roster cards. |
| Sort | Sort control | No | Name A-Z or Z-A, date oldest or newest. |
| Filters | Drawer button | No | Filter button shows, specific options not exposed. |
| Read More | Link | n/a | Opens the full inmate profile. |
| Notify Me of Status Change | Link | n/a | Opens the VINELink notification page. |
Past and Released Inmate Records
The roster shows current inmates. Once a person is released, their card drops off, and the sheriff has not published how long a booking stays visible. For someone no longer listed, the county's records division is the route. The custodian is Terisa Hayes, reachable at records@wcso.us or 850-638-6070, and requests can also go through the online records form. Charge outcomes and dispositions are a different matter. The sheriff's FAQ says those are kept by the Clerk of Court, not by the sheriff, so a finished case is checked through the court system rather than the jail roster.
What a Washington County Inmate Record Shows
Each roster profile carries a set of public fields. A sample profile reviewed on June 3, 2026 showed the person's name, a booking photo, a local inmate ID, demographic details, custody status, the booked date and time, the holding facility, the reporting agency, and one or more charges with a bond field. It did not show a date of birth, a housing pod, a court date, or a projected release date. The table below maps the fields you will see.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Name and Mugshot | Full name in uppercase with a booking photo served through the VINE image service. |
| Inmate ID | A local identifier such as WCSO10MNI005188. |
| Booked Date | Date and time the person was booked into custody. |
| Custody Status | A status code such as IN, with the date it was recorded. |
| Holding Facility | The facility code FLWASHINGTONJA for the county jail. |
| Charges and Bond | A charge code and description with a bond amount and bond-type field. |
County Jail vs. State Prison: Where to Look
Pre-trial detainees and people serving short sentences sit in the county jail, so the sheriff's roster covers them. Sentenced felons move to a Florida DOC prison, which has its own statewide locator. Picking the wrong system is the most common search mistake, especially here, where two state prisons share the county with the local jail. The table below shows which tool covers which part of the population.
| County Jail | State Prison (DOC) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who Is Held | Pre-trial plus short sentences | Sentenced felons |
| Run By | Washington County Sheriff's Office | Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) |
| Where to Look | WCSO inmate roster | FDOC offender search |
| Stays Listed | While in current custody | Through the sentence, refreshed weekly |
State and Federal Inmate Search
Beyond the county jail, three more locators cover the rest of the population. The Florida DOC inmate population search covers people sentenced to state prison or state supervision. The Federal Bureau of Prisons locator covers federal inmates held from 1982 forward. The ICE Online Detainee Locator System covers immigration detainees. None of these will list a county pre-trial inmate, and the county roster will not list a state or federal prisoner, so the search has to match the kind of custody.
Washington County Detention Facilities
Three detention facilities sit inside Washington County, and they hold very different groups. The lead-in image below shows the sheriff's own homepage, the front door for the county jail roster and the agency's other public tools. Reviewing the WCSO homepage gives the agency's branding, contact details, and app link in one view.
Each facility below has its own page with lookup steps, contact details, and visitation notes.
- Washington County Jail - the county's only local jail, holding people booked after local arrests.
- Northwest Florida Reception Center - a Florida DOC state prison and reception center for sentenced adult men.
- Northwest Florida Reception Center Annex - a state prison annex for sentenced adult men, run by the DOC.
Washington County Inmate Population FAQ
How big is the Washington County inmate population?
On June 3, 2026 the sheriff's roster listed 99 people in the county jail. Vera's county dataset puts the 2026 jail population near 106. The two figures count on different days and in slightly different ways, so they will rarely match to the person. Both point to a small county jail population that hovers around 100.
How do I search the Washington County inmate population?
Use the sheriff's inmate roster at wcso.us/inmateRoster. Type a last name into the search box, then open the matching card with Read More to see charges, bond, and booking details. If the person was sentenced to prison, use the Florida DOC offender search instead, since the county roster only carries current local custody.
Can I look up a released or past inmate?
The roster drops a person once they are released, and the sheriff has not posted how long a card stays up. For older booking records, file a request with the WCSO records division at records@wcso.us or 850-638-6070. For the outcome of a case, the Clerk of Court holds the disposition, not the sheriff.
Are the two prisons in the county part of the jail population?
No. The Northwest Florida Reception Center and its Annex are state prisons run by the Florida DOC, not the county jail. The people held there are searched through the state offender locator and are not counted in the sheriff's roster.