The Detention Center
Gwinnett County Jail
- Operated byGwinnett County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address2900 University Parkway, Lawrenceville, GA 30043
- Capacity"Capacity to house 2,000 to 2,600 inmates" (pre-trial detention facility)
- VisitationIn-person visitation prohibited; video visits via Securus
- Phone vendorSecurus Technologies
- Inmate accountsJailATM (fees shown only on kiosk/online)
- Current projectParking lot and security enhancement project at the Detention Center
- Jail AdministratorAssistant Chief Ben Haynes, Jail Operations Division Commander (Colonel Fernando Perlaza, Assistant Jail Commander)
Source: Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office — Locations · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓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
- ✗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
- Beds2,000 to 2,600 (capacity stated by the Sheriff's Office)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Keybo Taylor
- Runs the jailYes — Georgia sheriffs are the jailers of their counties by law (O.C.G.A. 42-4-1)
- CurrentNamed on the Sheriff's Office home and command staff pages
- 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: Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office — Command 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 Gwinnett County
- Superior Court: the Gwinnett Judicial Circuit, which serves Gwinnett 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 Gwinnett 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 members: full-time chairman elected countywide and four district commissioners
- The boardGwinnett County Board of Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff site confirmed Gwinnett County, Georgia (Lawrenceville). Command staff page names Assistant Chief Ben Haynes as Jail Operations Division Commander.
- County inmate-services page says the inmate search database is managed by the Sheriff's Office and links it (gwinnettcountysheriff.com/smartwebclient); that link itself was refused by our reader (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED).
- 2026 Budget in Brief shows Sheriff's Office $175.2M and Corrections $26.8M (Corrections is a separate county department).
- Bonding page explains cash, online cash, property and professional bonds; bond amounts are set by the courts.
- Inmate accounts page says fee amounts are on the kiosk and online only; no phone, video or commissary rates published.
- No PREA, deaths-in-custody, inspection or contract material found on the sheriff pages opened (divisions, bureaus, professional standards, FAQ, locations, contact-an-inmate).
- County seat: board page places the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center at 75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville.
- 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 Gwinnett 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