City & County Jails in Georgia
Georgia - Inmate Search - All County Jail Rosters
Clicking on any of the Georgia Counties or Cities below will direct you to a list of all the City Jails, County Jails and Juvenile Detention Centers in that specific County.
Search for any jail in Georgia
Georgia county jails and state prisons
Georgia has 159 counties, more than any state except Texas. The sheriff runs the jail. Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, and Gwinnett each operate more than one building. A rural county often has a single jail and, if it is full or closed, sends people to the next county under Georgia Code section 42-4-4. City police departments have holding rooms, not county jails. A published total of 183 jails is a building snapshot, not a statute.
There is no statewide jail board of the kind some states appoint. The sheriff is responsible for the people in the jail, for medical aid, and for moving them if the building is unsafe. Minimum standards and inspections sit with the sheriff’s office and the county, not with a governor-appointed panel of people who have been locked up.
Jails in Georgia hold people before trial and people serving a misdemeanor. A misdemeanor can mean up to 12 months in the county jail. A felony sentence goes to the Georgia Department of Corrections. A federal sentence goes to the Bureau of Prisons, which has institutions in Atlanta and Jesup.
How many county jails are there in Georgia?
Count sheriffs, not buildings. Each of the 159 counties has a sheriff responsible for adult detention. Metro Atlanta accounts for most of the extra buildings. When a jail holds someone for another county, for the state, or for the U.S. Marshals, it bills a contract rate. That rate is not a statewide fee.
State prison is a separate map. The Department of Corrections runs close-security and medium-security prisons, contracts private prisons, and uses transitional centers and county correctional institutions for some state inmates. Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson handles intake and death row. Augusta State Medical Prison is the medical hub. A figure of 34 prisons and 50,000 people is in the right range for the state system, but the daily count moves and the department’s own monthly profile is the number to use.
How many juvenile detention centers are there in Georgia?
The Department of Juvenile Justice, Division of Secure Facilities, runs 19 Regional Youth Detention Centers and 6 Youth Development Campuses. Capacities run from about 30 beds to about 200. An RYDC is a short-term lockup for a youth waiting on a hearing, a community placement, or a transfer. A YDC is where a committed youth serves a longer placement. In 2025 the department shifted two RYDCs, Wilkes and Cadwell, toward transition and short-term treatment rather than ordinary detention. Both kinds of facilities provide school, medical care, and family visits.
A youth at an RYDC is usually waiting on juvenile court. A youth at a YDC has been committed. Georgia’s juvenile court generally covers youth under 17. Search the county of the arrest. The listing shows which RYDC that region uses.
What the first days in a Georgia county jail are like
Booking is a queue: identity, prints, a medical screen, a search, property bagged, one call. The person has not been convicted. The pod still runs on counts. In a metro jail the wait for a bunk can run overnight. In a rural jail the unit is smaller and harder to separate. Food is plain, the uniform does not fit, and sleep is broken. Withdrawal from alcohol, opioids, or methamphetamine can start before first appearance.
Deputies who apply the rules the same way to everyone run a quieter floor. Uneven enforcement is how contraband moves. Fulton and DeKalb can separate by risk. A 30-bed South Georgia jail often cannot, and a full jail there means a ride to the next county.
Most Georgia jails sell tablet time, video visits, and deposits through a vendor. Those accounts can be shut off. Each county page on this site lists the jail phone, the vendor, and the way to send money for that sheriff’s office.