The Detention Center
Marshall County Jail
- Operated byMarshall County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address423 Blount Ave., Guntersville, AL 35976
- HousesPre-sentenced and sentenced individuals
- VisitationRemote only, $0.20 per minute paid by visitor
- Bond transmittal fee$35.00 cash (Act 2012-535)
Source: Marshall County Sheriff's Office — Corrections · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✗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
- ✓Phone, video and commissary rates
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 Phil Sims
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office runs the Marshall County Jail (Ala. Code 14-6-1 gives the sheriff legal custody of the jail)
- 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: Marshall County Sheriff's Office — home page · 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 Marshall County
- Circuit Court: Alabama's Twenty-Seventh Judicial Circuit, which serves Marshall County alone. Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and try felony cases.
- District Court: the Marshall 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 opened (guessed domains refused; search budget spent).
- The boardMarshall County Commission
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Sheriff Phil Sims is named on the Sheriff's own home page.
- Corrections page names the Marshall County Jail, explains property and cash bonds (cash at the Circuit Clerk's office) and a $35 bond transmittal fee, and gives remote visitation at $0.20 per minute.
- Inmate roster disclaimer page on the Sheriff's site links to a current-inmates list; the list page itself was refused by our reader.
- No capacity, PREA, deaths-in-custody, inspection report, contracts or budget found on pages opened.
- What was tried: guessed domains refused; one search found marshallso.org; command-staff, sheriff bio, departments and roster list pages refused by our reader.
- 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 Marshall 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