Look Up Inmates at the Alachua County Department of the Jail

Department of the Jail Overview

The Alachua County Sheriff's Office operates this jail under Jail Director Major Dorian Keith, with Sheriff Chad D. Scott leading the agency. It holds adult men and women in local custody: people booked after an arrest, pretrial detainees, and those serving sentences of up to one year. The county roster is the public way to see who is currently held. People sentenced to state prison are transferred out of the county jail and are searched in the state corrections system instead.

The facility page describes a 1,148-bed, 314,000-square-foot building completed in January 1994 and upgraded in 2007 and 2009. It is accredited by the Florida Corrections Accreditation Commission, received its fourth Excelsior award in October 2023, and is organized around a Security Operations Division and a Support Services Division. Medical and mental-health care is provided under contract by Wellpath and monitored through the Jail Director's Office.

Department of the Jail Capacity and Population

Capacity here is reported in two frames. The public jail page uses a bed count of 1,148 with an optimum housed population of 975. The sheriff's annual reporting uses a design capacity of 970 and a maximum operating capacity of 1,140. The Florida Department of Corrections reported an average daily population of 906 in June 2025, which sits below both capacity figures. The 2024 annual report listed a full-year average of 889.

Booking volume was 6,176 in 2024, with 6,085 releases the same year, per the sheriff's annual report.

How to Look Up an Inmate at the Department of the Jail

Use the county jail roster, the correct system for this facility. Start at the ACSO inmate search page, which links to the public lookup at asosite.alachuasheriff.org. The search accepts a partial name and is not case sensitive. The full step-by-step lives on the jail inmate records page.

1. Open the sheriff's inmate search page and follow the official link to the public roster.
2. Search by last name, first name, or booking number, or use View All for the whole roster.
3. Open the profile to confirm the person is held at this jail.
4. Expand the case and charge rows for bond, status, statute, and housing pod.

Department of the Jail Address and Contact

The jail and its booking, classification, and commissary functions are reached through the numbers below. Visitors should use the jail address rather than the sheriff's administration building.

Visiting Someone at the Department of the Jail

Visits are scheduled 24 hours in advance through the VideoVisitAnywhere system, and help is available at (352) 491-4511. Inmates not on disciplinary confinement get two hours of non-contact visitation per week, which can be split into two one-hour sessions with two visitors each. Visitation begins 24 hours after first appearance, or 24 hours after booking for those not first-appeared. Visitors bring a valid photo ID, clear a metal detector, and cannot carry phones or cameras into the visitation area. The published hours are housing-based, so confirm the pod first.

The sheriff's inmate services page is shown below.

That page collects the visitation, phone, mail, and deposit rules that apply to everyone held at this jail.

Mail, Phone, and Money at the Department of the Jail

Mail, phone, and deposits each follow set rules. Non-legal mail must be a pre-stamped postcard with the inmate's full name and a complete return address. Calls are outgoing only, run daily from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. through Securus, and are capped at 15 minutes. Money can be added by lobby kiosk, money order, AccessCorrections.com, or Access Securepak, and the inmate's MNI number is required.

Booking and Intake at the Department of the Jail

Booking is run by the Booking Support Bureau around the clock. After transport to the jail, staff search the arrestee for contraband, take fingerprints through the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, and take digital photographs for identity and to record scars, tattoos, and marks. Property is logged, an account is set up, and a medical and mental-health screen follows. Every new arrestee appears before a judge within 24 hours by closed-circuit television from the jail, with family attending at the Criminal Courthouse at 220 South Main Street. Classification, which assigns housing by charges, history, and risk, follows first appearance.

Programs and Reentry at the Jail

The jail runs its reentry and classification work through the Inmate Support Bureau, which includes classification supervisors, a programs unit, a transition specialist, a jail diversion specialist, and a jail release coordinator. Classification assigns and reclassifies housing by security risk, behavior, medical and mental-health needs, and holds, and it tracks gain time for county-sentenced inmates. Gain time here is discretionary and not a right, awarded for good behavior, willingness to work, and meritorious conduct.

The jail diversion specialist, funded by a state mental-health and substance-abuse grant, screens eligible inmates for diversion programs, while the jail release coordinator works to move people out on time to help manage the population. The inmate handbook names release-preparation resources, including Meridian mental-health services and the Corner Drug Store, and a county feature has framed the jail's path forward around addiction treatment, education, and reentry rather than expansion.

Public Records and Older Bookings

When a record is not visible on the live roster, the sheriff's public-records process is the fallback. Requests can be filed online through the agency's JustFOIA portal, in person at the Records Customer Service Window at 2621 SE Hawthorne Road from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, and by phone to jail records at (352) 491-4444. A requester does not have to explain the purpose and generally does not have to give a name.

Fees apply only when a request runs to 20 or more pages or takes more than 15 minutes of staff time, at $0.15 per single-sided page plus staff time, with redactions where the law requires. Booking photos for current inmates appear on the jail mugshots page, while an older booking usually has to be requested rather than searched online.

About the Department of the Jail

The county jail was transferred to sheriff operation on January 18, 1998, through an interlocal agreement, and a 2025 county feature said the County Commission has contracted with the sheriff for nearly three decades to run it. The jail reports compliance with the Florida Model Jail Standards and NCCHC accreditation, and it operates a Jail Diversion Specialist and a Jail Release Coordinator aimed at managing the population. Local news has reported on in-custody deaths and related staffing investigations, which the sheriff has said it investigates. For court charges that follow a booking here, see court records after a jail arrest.

Medical and mental-health care is provided under contract by Wellpath and monitored through the Jail Director's Office, with a contract monitor responsible for keeping inmate health services to standard. The jail also sits in the busy NE 39th Avenue corridor, close to state and juvenile facilities, so visitors should double-check they are heading to the county jail at 3333 NE 39th Avenue rather than a neighboring facility. The agency's administration building, by contrast, is across town at 2621 SE Hawthorne Road.