The Detention Center
Fayette County Jail
- Operated byFayette County Sheriff's Office, Jail Division
- Jail address145 Johnson Avenue, Fayetteville, GA 30214
- Rated capacityOver 554 beds
- Staffing94 staff
- OperationsDedicated medical unit; about 900 meals served daily
- Bond fee$20 non-refundable bond fee (cash only) per bond
- Jail AdministratorMajor Hancock (Jail Commander)
Source: Fayette County Sheriff's Office — Jail Division · checked 2026-09-29
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
- BedsOver 554
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Barry H. Babb
- CurrentNamed in the Georgia Sheriffs' Association 2026 Directory; not confirmed on a county page
- Runs the jailYes — the sheriff's duties page lists receiving, confining, feeding and caring for people confined to 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: Georgia Sheriffs' Association 2026 Directory · 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 Fayette County
- Superior Court: the Griffin Judicial Circuit, which also serves Spalding, Pike and Upson. 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 Fayette 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.
- NoteFive-member Board of Commissioners; meets 2nd and 4th Thursdays at 5:00 p.m.
- The boardFayette County Board of Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff site opened: home, About Us, Duties of the Sheriff, Jail Division, Inmate Information, Inmate Lookup, Press Releases, and the jail telephone guide PDF.
- No opened sheriff page names the sheriff; the directory lead is used.
- prea = yes: the Jail Division page publishes a PREA hotline (1-888-951-2417) for reports on behalf of people in custody.
- bond_info = yes: the Inmate Information page explains cash, property (equity twice the bond) and transfer bonds, plus a $20 bond fee.
- fees = yes: $20 bond fee; the telephone guide lists account fees (up to $3.00 online / $5.95 by phone per transaction, up to $2.00 monthly statement fee) but no per-minute call rates.
- budget = yes: the county's FY2026 Operating and Capital Budget lists 'Jail Operations - Sheriff's Office' and 'Sheriff's Office - All Divisions' cost centers.
- The sheriff posts quarterly O.C.G.A. 42-1-11.4 (Criminal Alien Track & Report) jail reports.
- What was tried: https://www.fayettecountyga.gov root refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED); one search (restricted to fayettecountyga.gov) used to reach the budget and board pages.
- 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 Fayette 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