The Gadsden County Inmate Population
The Gadsden County inmate population spreads across three custody systems. The Gadsden County Sheriff's Office Bureau of Corrections runs the local jail, which holds people arrested in the county. Most are waiting for court. Some are serving short county sentences. A few are transports or holds for other agencies. This is the jail count, and the sheriff reports it.
The state count is separate. The Florida Department of Corrections operates several facilities inside Gadsden County, and those inmates are sentenced felons, not local jail detainees. A woman serving a state sentence at Gadsden Correctional Facility is in the state count, not the jail count. So is a man at Quincy Annex or the Gadsden Re-Entry Center. A short list of people carry federal or immigration holds, and they are tracked by yet another system.
What moves the jail count up and down is steady and local. Arrests add people. Bond and release at first appearance take people out. Sentencing and transfer to state prison shift people from the jail count to the state count. Because of that flow, the same person can appear in the jail today and the state locator a few months later.
Gadsden County Inmate Population Statistics
The clearest local figures come straight from the sheriff. The Gadsden County Sheriff's Office Bureau of Corrections page lists a jail rated for 157 inmates and an average population of about 190. That average sits above the rated capacity, a point the sheriff's own page makes plain. Independent county jail data from the Vera Institute adds a longer view of the average daily population and a jail rate per resident.
The Bureau of Corrections page is the source for the jail capacity and average figures. It also describes the bureau's role in custody, transport, and courtroom security. The screenshot below comes from that official sheriff page.
The Gadsden County Sheriff Bureau of Corrections page reports the jail capacity and average population used here.
That same page names the jail command staff and the work, education, and faith programs that run inside the facility, which gives the raw count a local context.
| Measure | Figure | Source / Year |
|---|---|---|
| Average daily population | about 190 | GCSO Bureau of Corrections page, 2026 |
| Rated / bed capacity | 157 | GCSO Bureau of Corrections page, 2026 |
| Jail average daily population | 140.33 | Vera Institute county data, 2024 |
| Jail population rate (per 100k, age 15-64) | 518.85 | Vera Institute county data, 2024 |
Note: the sheriff's roughly 190 average and Vera's 2024 figure of 140.33 are two different measures from two sources, so they are listed side by side rather than merged.
Gadsden County Jail Population Trends
The Vera Institute tracks Gadsden's jail population back to 1970, which turns a single snapshot into a trend line. The county count was low in the early decades, climbed through the early 2000s, then swung sharply around 2019 and 2020 before settling back. These are Vera's modeled annual averages, not a live sheriff count, and they are labeled that way.
The screenshot below comes from Vera's Florida dashboard, the public face of that dataset.
The Vera Institute Florida incarceration trends dashboard is the source for the year by year figures in the table.
Read together, the numbers show a jail population that rises and falls with arrests and policy rather than holding flat, which matters when a single recent figure gets quoted as the norm.
| Year | Average Daily Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 235 | Vera row, near the top of the long run. |
| 2018 | 130.5 | Vera row, a low point in the 2010s. |
| 2019 | 212.75 | Vera row, a sharp rise. |
| 2020 | 297.5 | Vera row, the peak; cause not assigned by the source. |
| 2021 | 132.5 | Vera row, a steep drop. |
| 2024 | 140.33 | Vera row; jail rate 518.85 per 100,000. |
| 2025 | 141 | Vera row. |
| 2026 | 141 | Vera row. |
Who Makes Up the Gadsden County Inmate Population
The sheriff's page does not break the jail count into male and female, pretrial and sentenced, or felony and misdemeanor. Those splits are not published for the local jail, so they are not guessed here. What is documented is the wider county context from the Census and a few historical jail data points from Vera.
Gadsden County is a small, rural north Florida county. The U.S. Census QuickFacts page reports the local picture that frames any jail count.
The U.S. Census QuickFacts page for Gadsden County supplies the demographic figures shown below.
These figures describe the county, not the jail roster, but they help explain the community the jail population is drawn from.
- County population sits at 43,826 as of the 2020 Census.
- Black alone share is 53.6 percent, which makes Gadsden a majority Black county.
- Persons in poverty stand at 20.7 percent.
- Historical jail makeup showed a heavily Black count in Vera's 2013 row, with 201 of 217 jail residents listed as Black; treat that as a single historical data point, not a current claim.
Gadsden County Jail Capacity and Overcrowding
Capacity is where the local data gets pointed. The sheriff lists a rated capacity of 157 and an average population of about 190. By the sheriff's own figures, the jail runs roughly 33 people over its rated beds on an average day. That is a real overcrowding signal, not an outside estimate.
The April 3, 2025 Public Safety Coordinating Council meeting notes back this up. The jail administrator reported that the jail was 35 years old as of April 1, 2025, and that overcrowding was one of the standing challenges, along with salaries, more inmates with mental health needs, medical disabilities, and contraband. The same notes also report a strong record on inspections, with the jail passing its annual inspection at 100 percent for four years running. Both things are true at once. The building is full and aging, and it has been clearing its inspections.
Laws Governing the Gadsden County Inmate Population
Florida law is why these numbers are public at all. The state's public records framework makes jail and booking information an agency record unless an exemption applies, and a set of jail standards statutes governs how county detention facilities are run and inspected. A few key sections are worth knowing in plain terms.
Key Statutes:
Florida Statutes Chapter 119 makes most agency records, including jail booking and population data, open to inspection and copying unless a specific exemption applies.
Florida Statutes 951.23 defines county and municipal detention facilities and requires operators to follow standards at least equal to the Florida Model Jail Standards.
Florida Statutes 951.2302 requires inspections of county and municipal detention facilities and sets out what happens when a facility falls short.
Florida Statutes 944.151 requires the state corrections department to review safety and security and report findings each year for state facilities.
The Florida Sheriffs Association explains that the Florida Model Jail Standards are the minimum a county jail must meet. Florida's death in custody reporting runs through FDLE, which began collecting that data on October 1, 2019.
Gadsden County and the State Prison Population
The state prison population inside Gadsden County is far larger than the jail population, which surprises many people running a county search. Gadsden Correctional Facility alone reported a population of 1,229 in its 2023 federal audit, with a 12-month average of 1,240. Add Quincy Annex and the Gadsden Re-Entry Center, and the state count inside the county runs into the thousands.
Those people are not in the jail and are not searched on the county roster. Once a Gadsden County defendant is sentenced to state prison, the person leaves the sheriff's count and enters the state system. From that point, the Florida Department of Corrections Offender Search is the right tool. This split is the single most common source of confusion in a Gadsden inmate search, so it runs through the lookup half of this page as well.
How to Search the Gadsden County Inmate Population
For someone in local custody now, the search starts with the sheriff. The official Gadsden County inmate lookup page embeds a booking portal known as SmartWEB. During the research for this page, that portal timed out and could not be inspected, so the steps below lead with the official page and keep the phone and records channels close at hand.
You need a last name to start. A booking number helps if you have one.
The Gadsden County Sheriff inmate lookup page is the official online starting point.
If the embedded portal does not load, the detention center phone line is the reliable fallback for a current custody question.
- Open the sheriff inmate lookup page and let the SmartWEB booking portal load.
- Enter the person's last name using the fields the live portal shows.
- If the portal is down, call the detention center at 850-875-8844 for a current custody check.
- For a booking record or photo not visible online, send a public records request to the sheriff at smuralles@sheriff.gadsdencountyfl.gov.
- If the person has been sentenced to state prison, switch to the Florida DOC Offender Search instead of the county roster.
Current Inmate Lookup in Gadsden County
The county booking portal could not be inspected during research, so the exact county roster fields are not shown here. Inventing them would risk being wrong. What can be shown is the Florida DOC search, which is fully public and documented. Its fields are a good model for the kind of inputs an inmate locator uses, and it is the correct tool once a person is sentenced to state prison.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Name | Text | No, one or more fields | Up to 30 characters; begins-with matching. |
| First Name | Text | No, one or more fields | Up to 15 characters; begins-with matching. |
| DC Number | Text | No, one or more fields | Six characters; numeric or one letter plus five numbers. |
| Search aliases? | Checkbox | No | Checked by default. |
| Match limit per page | Dropdown | No | 10, 15, 20 default, up to 50. |
The Florida DOC system refreshes inmate information and photos weekly, while release dates and location changes update nightly. The county jail roster, by contrast, is the right place for someone arrested this week and not yet sentenced.
Past and Released Inmate Records
Finding someone no longer in custody depends on where they went. A released person may drop off the county roster, and the sheriff's site does not publish how long a released booking stays visible. For a past booking record or photo, the route is a public records request to the sheriff as the agency that created the record. Florida's public records law supports that request, subject to exemptions.
If the person was sentenced and moved to state prison, the Florida DOC release search is often the better path than the population search, because the state updates release information nightly. For victims who want to be told about a release or transfer, Florida's VINELink service sends custody notifications and is separate from both the jail roster and the state locator.
What a Gadsden County Inmate Record Shows
Because the live county profile could not be captured, the fields below describe what a booking record generally contains, drawn from the booking process the sheriff confirms. The exact labels on the live portal should be read from the screen when it is reachable, and the descriptions here stay general for that reason.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Name and Identifiers | The person booked and any internal jail identifier. |
| Booking Date and Time | When the jail processed the arrest. |
| Arresting Agency | The agency that made the arrest, which may differ from the jail. |
| Charges | The booking allegations, which can differ from the charges a prosecutor later files. |
| Bond | Any release amount or hold shown by the jail system. |
| Custody Status | Whether the system lists the person as held; read the live label from the portal. |
A booking record is one custody source, not a full criminal history. The arresting agency, the jail, and the court each keep their own records, and the booking charges are not the same as a conviction.
County Jail vs. State Prison: Where to Look
The county jail and the state prison are two different systems with two different lookups. The jail holds people before trial and on short county sentences. The state prison holds sentenced felons. A person can pass from one to the other after sentencing, so the right tool depends on the stage of the case. Booking photos and roster detail on the county side give way to a state profile once the person is in Florida DOC custody.
| County Jail | State Prison (DOC) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who Is Held | Pre-trial and short sentences | Sentenced felons |
| Run By | Gadsden County Sheriff | Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) |
| Where to Look | Sheriff inmate lookup / SmartWEB | FDC Offender Search |
| Stays Listed | While held; release timing not published | Through sentence; release updates nightly |
State and Federal Inmate Search
Beyond the county jail, several public locators each cover a different slice of the inmate population. Sentenced state prisoners are in the Florida DOC system. Federal sentenced inmates are in the Bureau of Prisons locator. Immigration detainees are in the ICE locator. None of these replaces the county roster, and each answers a different question.
The Florida DOC Offender Search menu is the state starting point for sentenced inmates, releases, escapes, and supervision.
For federal custody, the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator searches by register number or name, and immigration detainees are looked up in the ICE Online Detainee Locator System. The jail roster how-to, the field tables, and the access channels are covered in more depth on the Gadsden County jail inmate records page.
Gadsden County Detention Facilities
Four facilities hold part of the Gadsden County inmate population, and they do not all answer to the same system. One is the county jail. Three are state prisons run by Florida DOC. Knowing which is which prevents a wasted call to the wrong place.
- Gadsden County Jail holds local pretrial detainees and people serving short county sentences.
- Gadsden Correctional Facility is a state contract prison for sentenced female inmates.
- Quincy Annex is a state prison unit for adult male inmates, tied to Liberty Correctional Institution.
- Gadsden Re-Entry Center holds adult male state inmates in transition and re-entry custody.
Gadsden County Inmate Population FAQ
How big is the Gadsden County inmate population?
The sheriff's Bureau of Corrections page reports a jail rated for 157 inmates with an average population of about 190. The Vera Institute lists a 2024 average daily jail population of 140.33. The state prison population inside the county is much larger, with Gadsden Correctional Facility alone reporting 1,229 in its 2023 audit.
How do I search the Gadsden County inmate population?
Start with the sheriff inmate lookup page for someone in the local jail. If the portal does not load, call the detention center at 850-875-8844. If the person was sentenced to state prison, use the Florida DOC Offender Search instead. Federal and immigration custody use the BOP and ICE locators.
Can I look up a released or past inmate?
Sometimes online, sometimes by request. A released person may drop off the county roster, and the sheriff does not publish how long a record stays. For a past booking record or photo, send a public records request to the sheriff. For a state release, the Florida DOC release search updates nightly.
Why does a Gadsden search return state prisons?
Because three Florida DOC facilities sit inside the county. A person at Gadsden Correctional Facility, Quincy Annex, or the Gadsden Re-Entry Center is a sentenced state inmate, not a county jail detainee, and is searched through the state locator.