The Detention Center
Pinellas County Jail
- Operated byPinellas County Sheriff's Office (Department of Detention and Corrections)
- Jail address14400 49th Street North, Clearwater, FL 33762
- BedsAbout 3,385 (South ~1,600; Central 1,000; North 785), per the sheriff's corrections page
- Average daily populationAbout 3,000
- CommandDepartment of Detention and Corrections, commanded by a colonel; more than 1,000 sheriff's office members
- Annual budgetExceeding $155 million (sheriff's corrections page)
Source: Pinellas County Sheriff's Office — Department of Detention and Corrections · checked 2026-09-28
Transparency rating
7/10Open- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗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
- BedsAbout 3,385 (sheriff's corrections page)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Bob Gualtieri
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Department of Detention and Corrections runs the Pinellas County Jail
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- In office sinceAppointed by the governor in 2011; elected 2012, re-elected 2016, 2020 and 2024 (sheriff's own bio page)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Pinellas County Sheriff's Office — Sheriff Bob Gualtieri · checked 2026-09-28
The Judges
Florida's circuit and county judges are elected state judicial officers, not county officials. A judge sets the first conditions of release at first appearance, within 24 hours of arrest.
Who sets bail in Pinellas County
- Circuit Court: Florida's Sixth Judicial Circuit, which also serves Pasco (Fla. Stat. 26.021). Circuit judges are elected circuit-wide to six-year terms and hear felonies.
- County Court: the Pinellas County Court. County judges are elected countywide to six-year terms and hear misdemeanors.
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-28
The Board of County Commissioners
They pay for the jail. In most counties the sheriff runs it; in some, the county does.
- What they controlThe sheriff's budget, including its separate line for corrections and detention: the sheriff submits it by June 1 and the board may amend, increase or reduce it (Fla. Stat. 30.49). The board also owns the jail building, and it decides by ordinance whether the sheriff or a county corrections department runs the jail (Fla. Stat. 951.061).
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations where the sheriff runs the jail. The sheriff is separately elected, and can appeal the board's budget cuts to the Governor and Cabinet sitting as the Administration Commission. No state agency inspects the jail; peer inspectors from other sheriffs' offices do.
- NoteCounty government site could not be opened (fetch refused); agenda/minutes URL not recorded.
- The boardPinellas County Board of County Commissioners
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office now uses pinellassheriff.gov; the old pcsoweb.com address redirects there.
- The sheriff runs the jail through its Department of Detention and Corrections.
- Capacity (~3,385 beds across South, Central and North divisions) and ~3,000 average daily population are published on the corrections page.
- Budget: the sheriff's budget page posts the FY2025-26 adopted budget; the corrections page states the detention budget exceeds $155 million. The budget PDF itself could not be opened.
- Fees published: $20 booking/administrative fee (inmate info page), $10 medical sick-call co-pay (healthcare page), extra video visits $0.16 per minute beyond four free 30-minute sessions a week (visitation page).
- Bond page covers card payment (up to $2,500 per charge), surety and cash bonds.
- PREA page gives zero-tolerance statement and reporting channels; no PREA audit reports were found.
- Roster: 'Who's In Jail' search at whosinjail.pinellassheriff.gov is the sheriff's own lookup, linked from its corrections and bond pages (the app did not render for our reader).
- No deaths-in-custody information, inspection report or contracts were found on the pages opened.
- What was tried: pcsoweb.com root, pinellas.gov, pinellascounty.org and the FY25-26 budget PDF were refused by the fetcher; one search used.
- State inspection/oversight: Florida requires every county jail to meet the Florida Model Jail Standards and to be inspected each year, but the inspectors come from other sheriffs' offices, not a state agency, and state law does not require the reports to be published.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Pinellas 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. So are the county commissioners who pay for the jail, and the judges who set bail.
Names verified 2026-09-28 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered