The Detention Center
Lee County Detention Center
- Operated byLee County Sheriff's Office
- LocationOpelika, Alabama; Sheriff's Office at 1900 Frederick Road, Opelika, AL 36801
- Phone(334) 749-5651
Source: Lee County Sheriff's Office — Inmate Search · 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 Jay Jones
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff has legal custody of the county jail by law (Ala. Code 14-6-1); the Sheriff's Office runs the Lee County Detention Center and publishes its inmate search
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- HeadquartersW.S. 'Buck' Jones Administration Building, 1900 Frederick Road, Opelika, AL 36801
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Lee County Sheriff's Office · 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 Lee County
- Circuit Court: Alabama's Thirty-Seventh Judicial Circuit, which serves Lee County alone. Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and try felony cases.
- District Court: the Lee 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.
- NoteCounty commission site not found or opened.
- The boardLee County Commission
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's site leecosheriffal.gov (Alabama confirmed) home page and inmate search opened.
- The Sheriff's own site names Sheriff Jay Jones, matching the association-directory lead.
- Inmate search lists people currently detained at the Lee County Detention Center with booking date and charges.
- Sheriff site links Corrections, Corrections Division, Inmate Information, Visitation, By the Numbers and Sheriff pages, but every one of these sub-pages was refused by our reader, so capacity, bond, fees, PREA and other checks could not be read there.
- What was tried: guessed domains (leecountyal.gov, leecountysheriff.com/.org) refused or failed; one search found leecosheriffal.gov; county commission site not found.
- County seat not confirmed on a page opened.
- Not scored: Only home page and inmate search opened; Corrections, Inmate Information, Visitation and By the Numbers pages were all refused. Marking the rest 'not published' would claim more than was checked. Found published on the pages that did open: named, roster.
- 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 Lee 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