Calhoun County, Alabama — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Calhoun County Jail

Operated byCalhoun County Sheriff's Office
Jail address400 West 8th Street, Anniston, Alabama 36201
Rated capacityNot found
Jail AdministratorCapt. Jordan Shekels (Jail Administrator)

Source: Calhoun County Sheriff's Office — Jail · checked 2026-09-29

Transparency rating

Not scored. Calhoun County's and its sheriff's own websites could not be reached or read in the session that produced this record, so their disclosures were never examined. This is a gap in the research, not a finding about the county.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year builtNot found
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
BedsNot found

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Falon C. Hurst

Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office Corrections Division runs the Calhoun County Jail (Ala. Code 14-6-1 gives the sheriff legal custody of the jail)
How the office is filledElected, four-year term
Took officeSheriff's page says he was appointed by the Governor in 2025 and elected in 2026

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Calhoun County Sheriff's Office — Sheriff Falon Hurst · checked 2026-09-29

The Judges

Alabama's circuit and district judges are elected state judges. A district judge or magistrate usually sets bail soon after arrest; felony cases are tried in circuit court.

Who sets bail in Calhoun County

Circuit Court: Alabama's Seventh Judicial Circuit, which also serves Cleburne. Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and try felony cases.
District Court: the Calhoun County District Court. District judges are elected countywide to six-year terms; a district judge or magistrate usually sets bail soon after arrest.

Still needed

The county's bond schedule
Share of the jail population held pretrial
Median time from booking to first appearance

Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-29

The County Commission

They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.

What they controlThe county budget that funds the sheriff's office and the jail, and the jail building itself.
What they don'tDay-to-day operations. By law the sheriff has legal custody and charge of the jail and everyone held in it (Ala. Code 14-6-1). No state agency sets and enforces standards for the jail.
NoteFive commissioners elected by district; meets 2nd and 4th Thursday at 10:00 a.m.
The boardCalhoun County Commission →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

County site calhouncountyal.gov links to the sheriff's site calcoso.org; both confirmed Alabama.
Sheriff site lists Inmate Roster, Bonds, Commissary, Phone, Visitation, Inmate Accounts, Medical and Corrections Division pages, but our reader was refused on each (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED). roster, bond_info and fees are recorded 'no' only because those pages could not be opened — they may well pass on a human check.
Jail page names the jail, address and jail administrator; it shows no capacity, PREA, inspection or death-in-custody material.
County administrative page lists jail food and inmate supply bids but no budget document; no county budget found.
What was tried: www.calcoso.org root (refused), calcoso.org root (opened), /jail/ and /sheriff-falon-hurst/ (opened); /divisions-corrections/, /bonds/, /inmate-roster/, /inmate-phone/, /inmate-commissary/, /visitation/, /inmate-accounts/ (all refused).
Not scored: Every sheriff jail sub-page (roster, bonds, commissary, visitation, phone, corrections) was refused; only a brief jail page was read. Marking the rest 'not published' would claim more than was checked. Found published on the pages that did open: named.
State inspection/oversight: Alabama has no state agency that sets and enforces standards for county jails. The law that once gave a state agency jail-inspection duties was repealed in 2015.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Calhoun County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).

How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?

Your VOTE is POWERFUL.

The sheriff is elected — every Alabama sheriff's seat is on the November 2026 ballot. So are the commissioners who pay for the jail, and the judges who set bail.

Names verified 2026-09-29 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered