The Detention Center
Houston County Jail
- Operated byHouston County Sheriff's Office
- Related programHouston County Community Corrections, created in 1993 to relieve overcrowding in the Houston County Jail; runs a Work Release Facility opened 2002
Source: Houston County — Community Corrections · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
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 Donald Valenza
- CurrentNamed in the Alabama Sheriffs Association directory; not confirmed on a county page
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff has legal custody of the jail by law (Ala. Code 14-6-1)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Alabama Sheriffs Association directory · 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 Houston County
- Circuit Court: Alabama's Twentieth Judicial Circuit, which also serves Henry. Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and try felony cases.
- District Court: the Houston County District Court. District judges are elected countywide to six-year terms; a district judge or magistrate usually sets bail soon after arrest.
- 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.
- NoteChairman Brandon Shoupe; agendas and minutes posted, most recent 28 Sep 2026.
- The boardHouston County Commission →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- County site houstoncountyal.gov opened and confirms Houston County, Alabama; county seat Dothan.
- The county site links the Sheriff's Office to its own site, houstoncosoal.gov, but our reader was refused there (houstoncosoal.gov and www.houstoncosoal.gov), and also refused houstoncountyal.gov/sheriffs_office/. The sheriff's own jail pages were NOT examined, so roster, bond, fees and other jail checks may exist there.
- County site links a Budgets & Financial page (houstoncountyal.gov/administration/budgets_financial/) but our reader was refused, so the budget check could not be made.
- Only mention of the jail on the county site is on the Community Corrections page.
- Sheriff name taken from the Alabama Sheriffs Association directory lead; no own page that we could open names the sheriff.
- What was tried: houstoncountysheriff.com refused; no search spent.
- Not scored: Sheriff's own site houstoncosoal.gov and the county sheriff page were refused; no jail pages were 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 Houston 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