Search the Dixie County Inmate Population

The Dixie County Inmate Population

Dixie County is a small rural county in North Florida, with Cross City as the county seat. The Dixie County inmate population is the group of people held in the county jail by the sheriff. Most are arrestees and pretrial detainees. A pretrial detainee is someone held while a case is still open, before a court decides guilt. The Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) tracks the jail's average daily population each month. In June 2025, FDC reported the Dixie County Jail at an average daily population of 62, a rate of 3.5 per 1,000 county residents based on a county population of 17,555.

Several things push that count up and down. Arrests add people. Bond decisions and first appearance hearings let some out within a day. Sentencing moves convicted felons into state prison, where the sheriff no longer holds them. Because the county is small, a swing of a few dozen people is a big percentage change. The sheriff sees the official Dixie County Sheriff's Office, led by Sheriff Darby Butler, who has run the agency since 2021.

The sheriff's homepage links the jail roster, contact details, and records tools in one place. Visitors can see those tools on the official site.

Reviewing the Dixie County Sheriff's Office homepage shows where the public jail and inmate search links live.

The homepage labels the jail roster "Arrest Search," and it points to the sheriff's online booking system that drives the rest of the lookup steps.

Dixie County Inmate Population Statistics

The headline numbers come from two sources. FDC publishes a monthly county detention report, and the Vera Institute of Justice publishes a county trend series. The sheriff does not post an official rated capacity, so the capacity figure here is attributed to Vera. The county has one sheriff-run jail. Cross City also holds state prisons, but those beds are counted by FDC, not added to the jail population.

The table below lists the most useful sourced figures for the Dixie County inmate population. Each row carries a source and a date. The sheriff's site did not publish a current bed count during research, so the capacity row is Vera's point figure for March 31, 2024.

Note: These are average daily population figures from monthly reports, not a head count on one fixed day, so a single number should never be read as the exact roster size right now.

Dixie County Inmate Population Trends

The longer view comes from Vera's county trend series. The Dixie County inmate population climbed for years, then fell. Vera reports a total jail population of 75 in 2012 that rose to 135 by 2019 and held near that level into 2021. After 2022 the trend dropped. Vera puts 2024 at 93.67, 2025 at 64.75, and 2026 at 71.

Monthly snapshots tell the same story of swings. FDC's 2024 monthly reports show 118 in February and 71 by November of the same year. That is a large move inside one year for a county this small. The drivers are familiar: arrest volume, how fast people bond out, and how quickly sentenced inmates transfer to state prison.

Who Makes Up the Dixie County Inmate Population

Not everyone in the jail has been convicted. A large share is pretrial, waiting on a case. FDC's June 2025 report puts the total pretrial share at 43.5%, with 27 felony pretrial inmates and no reported misdemeanor pretrial count that month. The rest are people serving short county sentences or held on other matters. A detainer can also keep someone in jail. A detainer is a hold placed by another agency, such as another county, the state, or immigration, that blocks release even after local bond is met.

Older demographic detail comes from Vera's 2019 county row, the last year with rich fields. That year Vera reported a total jail population of 135, broken out below.

• Pretrial vs sentenced - 43.5% of the June 2025 population was pretrial, per FDC; total sentenced custody was about 18.81 in Vera's 2019 row.
• Male vs female - Vera's 2019 row showed roughly 112 male and 20 female inmates.
• Race - Vera's 2019 row showed about 102 White and 31 Black inmates, with no Latinx count that year.
• Held for other agencies - Vera's 2019 row counted about 12 inmates from federal sources and 12 held for the U.S. Marshals.

Note: The demographic split above is a Vera data-series figure from 2019, so it shows the makeup of that period, not today's exact roster.

Dixie County Jail Capacity and Overcrowding

The sheriff's site does not publish an official rated capacity for the Dixie County Jail. The most useful capacity figure located is from Vera, which lists a rated capacity of 140 and a jail population of 115 on March 31, 2024. On that basis the jail was below its listed capacity. By June 2025 the average daily population had fallen to 62, well under the Vera capacity point.

No consent decree, court order, or overcrowding lawsuit against the jail was found in official sources. A consent decree is a court-approved settlement that sets rules an agency must follow. A federal funding request for a "Dixie County Jail Generator" appeared in a state budget filing, but that is infrastructure spending, not a reform finding. Because the sheriff posts no current bed count, treat any capacity figure as Vera's data point, not an official county number.

Laws Governing the Dixie County Inmate Population

Florida law makes jail and booking information public and sets standards for how a county jail runs. Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes, the state public records law, is the reason booking records, charges, and mugshots can be viewed online or requested in writing. Jail standards come from a separate statute. Death-in-custody reporting follows a federal framework run through the state. The key statutes are summarized below in plain English.

The Florida Model Jail Standards, published through the Florida Sheriffs Association, set the operational rules under Section 951.23. They cover jail administration, food, sanitation, medical care, and discipline. The sheriff does not post the local inspection packet, but Section 951.23 requires the jail to meet at least those standards.

Dixie County and the State Prison Population

Cross City holds a large state-prison presence run by FDC, not the sheriff. Cross City Correctional Institution has a listed capacity of 1,022 at the main institution plus 280 at its work camp. Cross City East Unit adds capacity of 432. These hold sentenced adult male state prisoners. They are physically in Dixie County, but their beds are not part of the county jail count.

After a conviction and a prison sentence, a person leaves the Dixie County Jail and becomes an FDC inmate. The lookup channel changes at that point. The county jail roster no longer applies, and the search moves to the FDC Corrections Offender Network. That state system covers felony offenders sentenced to state prison or state supervision, and it expressly excludes county jail and county probation.

How to Search the Dixie County Inmate Population

The official path is the sheriff's "Arrest Search" link, which opens the SmartCOP Jail View roster. It is hosted by SmartCOP / CTS America and is free with no login. The page opens on a "Booked Last 24 Hours" list, so recent arrests show before any name is typed. To find one person, you need a last name at minimum. A booking date range helps when a name is common.

The roster covers people currently or recently held in the Dixie County Jail. It does not cover sentenced state prisoners or federal detainees. Those need other locators, covered further down.

The SmartCOP Jail View roster shows the search form and the default recent booking results.

The form fields and result layout in that screenshot map directly to the walkthrough steps below.

1. Open the SmartCOP Jail View roster from the sheriff homepage "Arrest Search" link or the direct address.
2. For a recent arrest, scan the default "Booked Last 24 Hours" list before typing anything.
3. For one person, enter a last name. Add a first or middle name if too many results return.
4. Use the Begin and End Booking Date fields with the calendar picker if you know the approximate arrest date.
5. Choose a sort order, then click Submit. Use Reset to clear and start over.
6. Open the result to read the name, demographics, status, booking number, bond, and charges.
7. If the person was sentenced and moved to prison, search the FDC offender locator instead.

Current Inmate Lookup in Dixie County

The live roster is the first stop for anyone held now or booked recently. The page does not post a refresh interval, but bookings from the prior day appeared under the 24-hour list during research. A manual search needs at least one field. The table below lists the search fields exactly as they appear on the SmartCOP form.

If a recent arrest does not show, the cause may be spelling, a search that is too narrow, a release, or a transfer. Try a last name only first. When the roster still comes up empty, call the jail at (352) 498-1231 or the sheriff main line at (352) 498-1220.

Past and Released Inmate Records

Finding someone no longer in custody is harder. The SmartCOP form includes hidden release-date fields, which suggests the system has release-oriented search modes, but the sheriff does not post how long a released inmate stays on the public roster. No fixed retention window was published. So a released booking may or may not appear online.

For older or archived booking records, use the Sheriff's Records Division. Requests go in person at 214 NE 351 Highway, Suite L, Cross City, or by written mail to the Dixie County Sheriff's Office, P.O. Box 470, Cross City, FL 32628. Mailed requesters should include a self-addressed stamped envelope. If the case is under active investigation, the sheriff says the record will not be released, and mailed requesters get a return-mail notice. The county roster shows current bookings, while sentenced inmates move to the state locator after transfer. Booking photos for current inmates also appear on the jail roster mugshots page.

What a Dixie County Inmate Record Shows

A SmartCOP booking entry packs a lot into one screen. The photo sits beside a header with the name and basic demographics. Below that, a charges table breaks out each count with its statute, degree, and bond. The table below maps the main fields seen on a typical roster entry.

Two things are missing from the public entry. There is no housing unit, pod, or cell, and no court date. The arresting agency hides inside the court case number field, shown in parentheses, such as Florida Highway Patrol or Dixie County Sheriffs Office. Click the "[+]" by a charge to expand the fuller plain-language description.

County Jail vs State Prison: Where to Look

Readers mix these up constantly, and Cross City makes it worse because the jail and the state prisons sit close together. The simple rule: pretrial detainees and short-sentence inmates are in the county jail under the sheriff, and sentenced felons are in a state prison under FDC. Each has its own locator. The table breaks down the difference.

A person can move from one system to the other. After sentencing to prison, the search shifts from the county roster to the state locator. The jail roster will no longer be the right tool.

State and Federal Inmate Search

For sentenced state prisoners, use the FDC offender locator. Search by last name, first name, or DC number. A DC number is six characters, either all numeric or one letter plus five digits. The page warns that data can change quickly and that county jail and county probation are not included.

The FDC offender search finds people sentenced to Florida state prison, including those at the Cross City facilities.

That form covers state custody, while federal and immigration cases need their own tools shown next.

Federal inmates use the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator, which covers people in federal custody from 1982 to today and searches by number or name. Immigration detainees use the ICE Online Detainee Locator. An ICE detainer in the county jail is not the same as ICE custody; the locator tracks people after transfer to ICE. For custody and release alerts, VINELink Florida sends notifications, but it is a notice tool, not a full roster. No federal prison or ICE facility sits inside Dixie County.

Dixie County Detention Facilities

Three facilities make up the local detention picture, and they split across two governments. The sheriff runs the county jail for arrestees and pretrial detainees. FDC runs the two state-prison facilities in Cross City for sentenced adult men. The list below shows who each holds and which locator applies.

• Dixie County Jail - county arrestees and pretrial detainees held by the sheriff and searched on the SmartCOP roster.
• Cross City Correctional Institution - sentenced adult male state prisoners under FDC, including the Cross City Work Camp satellite unit.
• Cross City East Unit - sentenced adult male state prisoners under FDC, with Cross City Correctional Institution as its parent.

Dixie County Inmate Population FAQ

How big is the Dixie County inmate population?

FDC reported an average daily population of 62 for the Dixie County Jail in June 2025, a rate of 3.5 per 1,000 county residents. Earlier in 2024, monthly reports ranged from 118 in February to 71 in November. The county is small, so the count swings sharply from month to month. These are average figures, not a head count on one fixed day.

How do I search the Dixie County inmate population?

Use the sheriff's "Arrest Search" link, which opens the SmartCOP Jail View roster. It is free and needs no login. The page opens on a 24-hour booking list. For one person, type a last name, add a first name if needed, and submit. The result shows the booking number, charges, bond, and a mugshot.

Can I look up a released or past inmate?

Sometimes online, but not always. The roster has hidden release-date search fields, yet the sheriff posts no retention window for released bookings. For older records, file a public records request with the Sheriff's Records Division in person or by mail with a self-addressed stamped envelope. Active-investigation records are not released.

What is the difference between the jail and the Cross City prisons?

The Dixie County Jail holds local arrestees and pretrial detainees under the sheriff. Cross City Correctional Institution and Cross City East Unit hold sentenced state prisoners under FDC. They sit close together but are run by different governments. The jail uses the SmartCOP roster; the prisons use the FDC offender locator.

Are Dixie County mugshots public?

Yes. The SmartCOP roster shows a booking photo for each visible entry, with an "Enlarge Photo" link. Florida public records law makes these images open unless an exemption applies. The sheriff does not post how long a photo stays online after release. Booking photos not shown online can be requested through the Records Division.

What share of inmates are pretrial?

FDC's June 2025 report put the total pretrial share at 43.5%, with 27 felony pretrial inmates that month. Pretrial means held while a case is open, before any conviction. The figure is a monthly snapshot, not a permanent ratio, but it shows that a large part of the population has not been sentenced.

Why might someone not appear on the roster?

Common reasons include a spelling difference, a search that is too narrow, a release, or a transfer to state prison. The booking may also still be processing. Try a last name only, then call the jail at (352) 498-1231 if the person still does not show.

Dixie County Inmate Population Terms

Custody words can be confusing. The short glossary below defines the terms that come up most when reading the roster or a population report.

Pretrial detainee

A person held while a case is still open, before a court decides guilt.

Average daily population (ADP)

The average number of people held over a reporting period, not a single-day head count.

Detainer

A hold placed by another agency that can block release even after local bond is met.

Personal recognizance (PR) bond

Release based on a written promise to appear, without posting the full cash amount.

Classification

The jail process that decides housing and security level based on charge and history.

Rated capacity

The number of beds a facility is designed to hold; the figure here is from Vera, not the sheriff.