Panola County Jail Overview
Panola County Jail is operated by the Panola County Sheriff's Office under Sheriff Shane Phelps. Official sheriff and county sources place the jail at 300 James Rudd Drive in Batesville. The county sheriff page says the sheriff is the county jailer under Mississippi law and describes corrections duties that include managing the county jail, overseeing inmate safety and welfare, keeping detailed jail dockets, and protecting prisoners from harm.
Official sources did not publish a formal security-level label, a housing-unit map, accreditation status, or the year the jail opened. The research supports a cautious description: this is a county jail used for pretrial custody, local sentenced custody, state holds, probation and parole violation holds, fugitive or foreign-warrant holds, and occasional USMS housing shown in roster charge descriptions. It is not a state prison, federal prison, or ICE detention facility.
The county sheriff page identifies the sheriff's statutory jail role and local office duties.
That county-government source is important because it ties jail management, inmate safety, and jail dockets to the sheriff rather than a separate jail authority.
Panola County Jail Population
The jail's rated capacity was not located in official sheriff, county, or MDOC sources. The best local population number in the research is the current roster count from the official OCV feed. On June 19, 2026, the current-inmates feed listed 85 entries. That is a public roster snapshot, not a formal average daily population and not a bed-capacity figure.
The roster count includes mixed custody reasons. Current entries reviewed in the research included local charges, probation violations, parole violations, failure-to-appear or contempt charges, foreign warrant and fugitive holds, state inmate status, and USMS housing language. That mix is why a missing or confusing Panola County Jail roster entry may require a court, MDOC, BOP, ICE, or records-clerk check.
Lookup Panola County Jail Inmates
The correct online system for Panola County Jail is the Panola County Sheriff's Office inmate roster. It covers current county jail custody and is separate from MDOC's state prison search. The sheriff site also has a recent-arrests feed, which is useful when a booking is new or a person may have been released from the current list.
- Open the sheriff's inmate roster from the Jail Info menu or use the direct roster link.
- Search or scan by full name. The public records use uppercase names as entry titles.
- Save the booking number, inmate ID, booking date, and charge descriptions before calling the jail.
- If the person is not listed, call 662-563-6230 and ask for jail or records assistance.
- If the person has been sentenced or transferred, search MDOC, BOP, or ICE depending on the custody type.
The official OCV current-inmates feed is the data source behind the roster interface.
The feed shows why booking number and inmate ID are useful. They let jail staff or the records clerk identify the exact booking event more quickly.
Panola County Jail Address
Use the sheriff's James Rudd Drive address for jail visits, mail inquiries, records requests, and custody checks. The Mississippi DPS Crime Stoppers page uses the variant James Redd Drive, but the sheriff OCV contact card and county sheriff page use James Rudd Drive, so that is the primary spelling for this facility.
Panola County Jail
300 James Rudd Drive
Batesville, MS 38606
662-563-6230
Office hours shown by sheriff OCV footer: 8:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M., Monday through Friday
Jail Records Staff
Jail Administrator Bobby Meek
jrm@panola.com
Jail Administrative Assistant Latoya Taylor
latoya.taylor@panolacountysherffms.com
Panola County Jail Visits
The sheriff jail-information source says video visitation is available, but it does not publish the schedule, approval rules, dress code, remote versus on-site rules, or fees. Do not assume a walk-in visit is allowed. Call the jail before traveling, especially if the inmate was just booked, moved to court, placed on a hold, or transferred to state custody.
| Topic | Official Panola Detail | Use in Practice |
|---|---|---|
| Video visitation | Listed as yes | Call the jail for schedule, sign-up, and fee details |
| In-person visitation | Not published | Do not rely on assumed visiting days |
| Visitor ID | Not published | Bring government ID and confirm requirements |
| Dress code | Not published | Ask the jail before arrival |
| Attorney visits | Not published | Attorneys should call jail or court staff for professional visit procedures |
Note: Confirm custody and visit rules before travel because releases, court trips, lockdowns, and transfers can change access quickly.
Panola County Jail Mail and Money
The jail-information source identifies two service channels. Commissary food deposits use Commissary Deposit, and inmate phone information is listed through City Tele Coin. Panola County did not publish a local fee table, deposit limits, kiosk details, mail scanning rule, postcard-only rule, or tablet program in the official sources reviewed.
| Service | Provider or Detail | Fees / Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Commissary food deposits | commissarydeposit.com | Not published by the Panola source |
| Inmate phone information | City Tele Coin | Rates not published by the Panola source |
| Video visitation | Marked yes by sheriff jail information | Schedule and fees not published |
| Mail format | Call to confirm before mailing | No official Panola mail policy located |
For mail, use a confirm-first format: inmate full name and inmate ID or booking number, Panola County Jail, 300 James Rudd Drive, Batesville, MS 38606. Call first for the current prohibited-items list.
Panola County Jail Booking
Panola County official sources do not publish a detailed intake timeline. The public roster still shows what becomes visible after intake: booking number, inmate ID, booking date, booking time, date of birth, race, gender, charges, charge IDs, charge descriptions, charge codes, and mugshot image. Those fields can appear after an arrest by the sheriff's office, a municipal police department, Mississippi Highway Patrol, or another agency.
The Justice Court page explains the next court step for many local arrests. Justice Court handles misdemeanor cases outside incorporated municipalities and traffic citations from MHP or the sheriff in unincorporated areas. It also handles initial felony duties, including bail or bond, initial appearances, preliminary hearings, probable-cause decisions, and search warrants. A booking charge can later differ from the court charge after prosecutor or court review.
- Booking
- The jail intake event that creates a booking number and public roster entry.
- Detainer or hold
- A request or order to hold someone for another agency or case.
- Classification
- A jail assessment used for custody, safety, and housing decisions.
Panola County Jail Records
No dedicated online public-records request form for the sheriff's office was located. Use the sheriff's main office, records clerk, and Mississippi Public Records Act route for booking records, jail docket entries, incident reports, or mugshots not visible online. The records clerk identified in the OCV divisions resource is Gail Cauthen at gail.cauthen@panolacountysheriffms.com.
A narrow request is more useful than a broad one. Include the inmate's full name, date of birth if known, booking number if known, booking date, the exact record requested, requester contact information, and preferred delivery method. Mississippi law allows actual-cost fees for search, review, duplication, and mailing. It also allows redactions when exemptions apply.
Panola Jail Transfers
Panola County Jail is only one part of the custody path. A person may leave the county roster because of release on bond, dismissal, transfer to court, transfer to MDOC after sentencing, state probation or parole action, federal agency custody, or immigration custody. MDOC is the right search tool for sentenced state prisoners. BOP is the right search tool for federal sentenced inmates. ICE ODLS is the right search tool for immigration detainees.
The MDOC inmate search page uses name or MDOC ID number for state custody lookups.
Use MDOC only after the case has moved into state custody. A new Panola County arrest still belongs in the county jail roster and court channels first.