The Detention Center
Morgan County Jail
- Operated byMorgan County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address119 Lee Street NE, Decatur, AL 35601
- CapacityCan house up to 994 inmates (sheriff's corrections page)
- Daily population620 (as stated on the corrections page when read 29 Sep 2026)
- OpenedCurrent facility opened 2006; annex completed 2016
- Staff108 corrections officers
Source: Morgan County Sheriff — Corrections · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓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
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built2006
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds994
Since then
- Annex completed 2016
The Sheriff
Sheriff Ron Puckett
- Runs the jailYes — by law the sheriff has legal custody and charge of the county jail (Ala. Code § 14-6-1)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term; seat on the 3 Nov 2026 ballot
- Named on own siteSheriff's message page names Sheriff Ron Puckett, Sheriff of Morgan County, Alabama
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Morgan County Sheriff — Message from Sheriff Puckett · 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 Morgan County
- Circuit Court: Alabama's Eighth Judicial Circuit, which serves Morgan County alone. Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and try felony cases.
- District Court: the Morgan 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.
- NoteSheriff's Government Offices page links the Commission at morgancounty-al.gov; that page was refused by our reader, so agendas/minutes were not opened.
- The boardMorgan County Commission
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's own site morgancountysheriffal.gov (Alabama) opened; corrections page names the Morgan County Jail, gives capacity 994 and a daily population of 620.
- Current-inmates roster (roster.php) is the Sheriff's Office's own in-custody list (555 listed when read).
- 'Bonds: How Are They Set?' page explains own-recognizance, cash, property and bondsman bonds and gives example bail-schedule ranges.
- Visitation page: non-contact facility, all visits online through JailATM; no rates published.
- Bid Solicitations page lists no jail contracts (only an expired armored-vehicle bid).
- No PREA, deaths-in-custody, inspection report or budget material found on pages that opened.
- What was tried: guessed domains (morgancountysheriff.com/.org, morganso.org, morgancountyal.gov/.org) refused or do not resolve; inmate-funds, command-staff and site-map pages and the Commission site morgancounty-al.gov were refused by our reader — fees, jail administrator and budget there could not be checked.
- 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 Morgan 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