The Detention Center
Birmingham Jail; Bessemer Jail
- Operated byJefferson County Sheriff's Office, Corrections Division
- Birmingham Jail address2200 Rev Abraham Woods, Jr., Blvd, Birmingham, AL 35203 (sheriff's site); 809 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. N, Birmingham, AL 35203 (county site)
- Bessemer Jail address1822 2nd Ave. N, Bessemer, AL 35020 (county site); next door to the Bessemer sheriff's headquarters at 1826 2nd Avenue North
- Average populationAbout 1,000 inmates between the two facilities
- Annual bookingsAbout 43,000 inmates processed in and out each year
- Staffing185 deputies across both facilities
- Who is heldState and federal inmates awaiting trial (county site)
- Pre-trial releaseA Pre-Trial Release Office at both locations
Source: Jefferson County Sheriff's Office — Corrections · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✗How to post bond — not published
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
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 Mark Pettway
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff has legal custody of the county jail by law (Ala. Code 14-6-1); the Sheriff's Corrections Division runs jails in Birmingham and Bessemer
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Headquarters2200 Rev Abraham Woods, Jr., Blvd, Birmingham, AL 35203
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Jefferson County Sheriff's Office — Corrections · 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 Jefferson County
- Circuit Court: Alabama's Tenth Judicial Circuit, which serves Jefferson County alone. Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and try felony cases.
- District Court: the Jefferson 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.
- NoteBoard page and agendas/minutes could not be opened by our reader.
- The boardJefferson County Commission
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Two jails: Birmingham Jail and Bessemer Jail, both run by the Sheriff's Corrections Division (Alabama confirmed on both sites).
- Sheriff's Corrections page names Sheriff Mark Pettway and gives average population of about 1,000 across both jails; no rated bed capacity found.
- The county's own County Jail page and the sheriff's Corrections page link the Sheriff's inmate inquiry on sheriff.jccal.org (the inquiry page itself was refused by our reader).
- The two official sites give different street addresses for the Birmingham Jail; both are recorded as published.
- Visitation rules are published on both sites; a Pre-Trial Release Office is mentioned but no step-by-step bond guidance or bail schedule was found on the pages opened.
- What was tried: guessed domains (jeffersoncountyal.gov, jeffersoncountysheriff.com/.org) refused; jccal.org home returned only a notice page; sheriff sub-pages (leadership, meet the sheriff, court services, home) and the inmate inquiry refused by our reader; licenses.jccal.org timed out.
- Budget, PREA, deaths, inspections, contracts and fees could not be checked beyond the two pages opened; recorded as no from the pages opened.
- County seat not confirmed on a page opened.
- 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 Jefferson 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