The Detention Center
Dougherty County Jail
- Operated byDougherty County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address1302 Evelyn Avenue, Albany, Georgia
- Capacity1,230 beds
- TypePre-trial detention facility
- VisitationFree on-site kiosk visits (schedule 24 hours ahead); paid remote visits through HomeWAV; 15-minute visits
- Commissary depositsJailATM (online or lobby kiosk)
- Admissions2,286 admitted in the 2nd quarter of 2026 (HB1105 compliance report dated July 1, 2026)
- FY2024 jail spendingJail: final budget $19,555,898; actual $20,680,427 (FY2024 audited financial statements)
- FY2024 sheriff spendingSheriff's department: final budget $4,882,363; actual $4,665,568
- Jail AdministratorColonel Pamela Jinks Coley (Chief Jailer)
Source: Dougherty County, GA — Jail Facility · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗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
- Beds1,230 (as published on the county's Jail Facility page)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Terron K. Hayes
- Runs the jailYes — 'The Sheriff is the official jailer of the county and is responsible for the health, safety, and welfare of all inmates.'
- Office19th Sheriff of Dougherty County (per the county's Executive Staff page)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term (Georgia law)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Dougherty County, GA — Sheriff's Office Executive Staff · checked 2026-09-29
The Judges
Georgia's superior court judges are elected state judges who hear felony cases. For most charges a county magistrate sets bail soon after arrest; for the most serious felonies only a superior court judge can.
Who sets bail in Dougherty County
- Superior Court: the Dougherty Judicial Circuit, which serves Dougherty County alone. Superior court judges are elected circuit-wide in nonpartisan elections to four-year terms and hear felony cases; for the most serious felonies only a superior court judge can set bail.
- Magistrate Court: the Dougherty County Magistrate Court. For most charges a magistrate 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 Board of Commissioners
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. Some small counties have a sole commissioner; consolidated governments such as Athens-Clarke, Augusta-Richmond, Columbus and Macon-Bibb have a commission instead.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. By law the sheriff is the jailer of the county and appoints the other jailers, subject to the governing authority's supervision (O.C.G.A. 42-4-1). No state agency inspects the jail.
- NoteSeven elected commissioners; agendas and minutes page linked from the county home page.
- The boardDougherty County Board of Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Directory website https://doughertysheriff.com refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED); one search returned the Sheriff's pages inside the Dougherty County, Georgia government site dougherty.ga.us, which opened.
- Opened: Jail Facility, Sheriff's Office main page, Executive Staff, Contact Us, Judicial Court Services & Security, county home, Annual Budgets, Finance, FY2024 financial statements, HB1105 quarterly report.
- Jail Facility page names the Dougherty County Jail, gives 1,230 beds and address, visitation rules and vendors (HomeWAV, JailATM) but no fee rates.
- The Inmate Search link (dcso.policetocitizen.com) and the 2024 inmate handbook PDF were refused by our reader (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED); roster and handbook contents not verified.
- Court Services page says the Booking, Bonds and Fines section processes all bonds, but gives no posting steps or schedule.
- Annual Budgets page showed no documents; Finance page lists adopted budgets only through FY2019, so the FY2024 audited budget-vs-actual (Jail $20,680,427 actual) is cited.
- No PREA, inspection report, death record or contracts found on the pages opened.
- County seat recorded as Albany from the county government address on the county home page.
- State inspection/oversight: Georgia law makes the sheriff the county's jailer. The Georgia Sheriffs' Association, an association of the state's sheriffs rather than a state agency, publishes jail standards and a statewide monthly jail report.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Dougherty 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 commissioners who pay for the jail, and the judges who set bail.
Names verified 2026-09-29 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered