Sarasota County Sheriffs Off history

To quell the criticisms of the liquor storage at the jail, 500 spectators gathered behind the jail on December 7, 1925 to watch as Chief Deputy Dean destroyed $45,000 worth of illegal alcohol.

By February 1926, Chief Deputy Dean held a record for having been involved in more liquor raids than any other law enforcement officer in the state.

Keen returned to work in June of 1929 with a renewed sense of commitment to the fight against crime.

In a letter to the newspaper dated July 15, 1930, Sheriff Keen set out to explain his liquor raids in response to a raid on the Gem Café on lower Main Street, stating:

Prohibition laws were reversed with the passage of the 21st Amendment in 1933 and liquor was once again legal when produced and sold properly.

In June of 1948, Sarasota's fifth Sheriff Byrd Douglas Pearson and Deputy Gene Sweeting came across a 50-gallon still in the Phillippi Creek area.

In July of 1956, a modern jail was constructed under the helm of Sheriff Ross Boyer.

Sheriff Boyer lived above the jail until July 1962, when staffing was increased and the need for the Sheriff to live in the jail was no longer a necessity.

The recent renovation was designed to recreate the original “flavor” of the courthouse during its heyday.In August of 1975, under the direction of Sheriff Jim Hardcastle and at a cost of $5.3 million, a second jail was constructed to hold an additional 214 inmates.

The recreation area is also located on the roof of the East Wing.In November of 2002, at a cost of $15.5 million, a direct supervision wing was opened.

He worked as a prosecutor for the 12th Judicial Circuit before joining the sheriff’s office as its general counsel in 2005.

In 2009, the new “open” booking area was unveiled.

Nearly 180 inmates graduated various programs in 2011.

The Sarasota County Jail has a rated capacity of 1,026 and a classification capacity of 827 (appropriate space in order to ideally separate inmates and provide adequate programs). The total number of inmates processed into the facility in 2013 was 15,149.

The Sheriff budgeted over 25 million to operate the Sarasota County Jail in 2015.