Etowah County Jail Roster Overview
The official custody roster is hosted by the Etowah County Sheriff's Office. The roster landing page at etowahcountysheriff.com/roster-choose separates current inmates from people released within the last 48 hours. Both lists are free public pages. The research crawl on May 27, 2026 observed 670 current roster entries and 17 released-in-48-hours entries, but those numbers change as people are booked, released, transferred, or moved to another authority.
The roster is useful for immediate Etowah County Detention Center custody questions. It is not a certified criminal-history report, a complete court docket, or a statewide prison locator. The sheriff's roster disclaimer says the information is maintained for convenience and cannot be certified as accurate or authentic by the detention center. A roster profile also warns that charges and bail amounts may change after court appearances, so bond companies and anyone trying to post bail should verify the current amount, charges, and case numbers with detention staff.
How to Use the Etowah County Inmate Roster
Start with the county roster when the person may be physically held at the Etowah County Detention Center. The search does not require a booking number, and the roster uses name search, sorting links, profile links, and a separate release list. If a name is common, use age, booking date, booking number, arresting agency, charge text, and bond status to avoid mixing two records.
- Open the official roster landing page and choose Current Inmates for a person who may still be in custody.
- Use Search By Name. The observed placeholder says to enter a first or last name; no wildcard or minimum-character rule was posted.
- If spelling is uncertain or the booking is recent, browse by Date and use the Newest to Oldest or Oldest to Newest sort controls.
- Open View Profile from the result card to see the fuller public profile with booking number, demographics, arresting agency, booking date, charges, and bond field.
- If the person recently bonded out, was released, or was transferred, search the released list because the roster landing page limits that list to releases from the past 48 hours.
- If no record appears, call 256-549-5408 or email booking@etowahcounty.org before assuming the person is not in custody. Recent processing, spelling, release timing, another county, ADOC transfer, federal custody, or ICE custody can all change the lookup path.
Etowah County Roster Search Fields
The public roster is simpler than many statewide databases. It does not publish date-of-birth filtering, case-number search, charge-code filtering, housing-unit search, or a booking-number search box on the inspected page. Its strength is quick name browsing for current ECDC custody and very recent release entries.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search By Name | Text | Unspecified | Observed prompt accepts first or last name. The page does not post wildcard guidance. |
| Search | Button | N/A | Runs the name search against the current or released roster being viewed. |
| Show All | Button | N/A | Clears the name search and returns the full roster view. |
| Name | Sort link | No | Allows browsing by name when spelling or first name is uncertain. |
| Date | Sort link | No | Useful when the booking or release happened recently. |
| Current | Tab/link | No | Shows people currently listed at the Etowah County Detention Center. |
| Released | Tab/link | No | Shows people released from ECDC within the prior 48 hours. |
| Pagination | Page links | No | The current roster crawl showed multiple pages, so browsing may require next or numbered links. |
What an Etowah County Inmate Profile Shows
An inspected current-inmate profile used booking number ECSO26JBN005275, with the observed booking-number pattern reading as ECSO plus two-digit year, JBN, and a six-digit sequence. That pattern is an observed roster format, not a separate legal identifier like an Alabama DOC AIS number. The county profile is a booking record display, so it is more limited than a full court file.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Mugshot | A single public booking image when available, with some roster areas able to show photo-not-available placeholders. |
| Name | Public name in uppercase first and last name format. |
| Booking # | Local jail booking number, such as ECSO26JBN005275. |
| Age | Age in years. Date of birth was not visible in the inspected profile. |
| Gender and Race | Short demographic fields visible on the profile. |
| Arresting Agency | The agency associated with the arrest, booking, or hold. |
| Booking Date | Date and time of booking, shown in month-day-year and time format. |
| Charges | Plain-English charge labels. The inspected sample did not show statute code, count number, warrant number, or court case number. |
| Bond | Dollar amount, $0.00, or No Bond style status depending on the entry. |
| Release Date | Visible on released roster entries, not on the inspected current profile. |
Important omissions matter. The inspected public profile did not show housing unit, court date, height, weight, eye color, hair color, street address, magistrate, formal case number, release projection, or per-charge statute details. For filed court information, use the Etowah County Circuit Clerk records process at etowah.alacourt.gov/record-request-and-copies/ or the Alabama court portal, not only the jail profile.
County Jail, ADOC, BOP, ICE, and VINELink
Etowah County custody records are split by agency. The county jail roster covers people currently shown at ECDC and people released from ECDC within 48 hours. The Alabama Department of Corrections inmate search is for currently incarcerated ADOC prisoners, generally after sentencing and transfer. The Bureau of Prisons locator is a federal sentenced-prison and federal custody locator, not an Etowah jail roster. The ICE Online Detainee Locator System is the immigration custody channel. ICE announced in 2022 that it would discontinue use of ECDC, so old Etowah ICE history should not be treated as proof of current local ICE custody.
| Custody Question | Where to Look | Main Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Current county jail custody | Etowah County Sheriff's Office current roster | Informational only; verify bond and charges with detention staff. |
| Released from ECDC today or yesterday | 48-hour release roster | Release list is limited to the recent window stated by the sheriff page. |
| Sentenced Alabama state prisoner | ADOC inmate search by AIS, first name, or last name | Current ADOC inmates only; no historical data online and Youthful Offender inmates excluded. |
| Federal sentenced prisoner | BOP Inmate Locator | Federal pretrial detainees may be under U.S. Marshals authority before BOP appears. |
| Immigration detention | ICE ODLS by A-number or biographical search | No under-18 search; exact-match and country-of-birth rules apply. |
| Custody notification | VINELink | Notification tool, not the full roster profile or bond record. |
The ADOC locator fields are distinct from the county booking fields. The official ADOC search page shows AIS, first name, and last name fields, plus a current-only warning and a 50-result cap.
Use the ADOC screen after a person leaves the county jail for state prison, not for an active county bond or new Etowah booking.
Etowah County Jail Facility Contact Card
Etowah County has one primary physical detention facility in the facility map. Municipal arrestees and county detainees may be booked into ECDC rather than a separate public city jail roster. The Sheriff's Office is led by Sheriff Jonathon W. Horton, and detention inquiries use a more specific custody phone and email than the general non-emergency line.
Etowah County Detention Center
827 Forrest Avenue
Gadsden, AL 35901
Custody: 256-549-5408
Non-emergency: 256-546-2825
Email: booking@etowahcounty.org
Office hours: Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Booking Process Before a Roster Record Appears
The Etowah sheriff's detention page describes Booking as the entry and exit point of the detention center. Intake includes a search of the incoming person, property inventory in the person's presence, property storage, an interview for personal and emergency contact information, booking photographs, identification-number checks, fingerprinting, and checks for warrants or holds from other agencies. Staff then review release eligibility based on charges, bond conditions, probation or parole issues, and outside warrants.
For people not eligible for immediate release, the process continues through medical and mental-health checks, initial security classification, housing assignment, clothing issue, shower access, and placement of personal clothing or property into storage. Cash at booking is placed into a kiosk account that can be used for detention-center purchases. The county communications bid packet required jail-system integrations for booking, release, and location updates, but that is not a promise that every public roster field is instant or certified.
Visitation Schedule and Communication Records
A 2024 Etowah County inmate communications bid packet lists three daily visitation windows for ECDC and describes a communications environment with inmate kiosks, friends/family visitor kiosks, phones, tablets, PINs, and commissary integration. Confirm the current visit method, visitor identification requirements, and any schedule changes with detention staff before traveling or scheduling.
| Visit Period | Days | Hours | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Morning | Sunday-Saturday | 8:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. | Schedule from the 2024 county bid packet. |
| Afternoon | Sunday-Saturday | 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. | Confirm whether a visit is on-site kiosk or remote/video. |
| Evening | Sunday-Saturday | 6:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m. | Last visits connected or scheduled at 8:30 p.m. |
Phone, App, Email, and In-Person Lookup Options
When the web roster does not answer the custody question, use the direct custody line at 256-549-5408 or booking@etowahcounty.org. The sheriff's general non-emergency number is 256-546-2825 and is shown as a 24-hour non-emergency line. In-person custody business points to the Sheriff's Office and detention center at 827 Forrest Avenue, Gadsden, while court records after arrest point to the Circuit Clerk at 801 Forrest Avenue, Suite 202.
The official Etowah County Sheriff's Office app is listed on Google Play and the Apple App Store. Store listings describe crime reporting, tip submission, public safety news, and an inmate-search feature in Apple version history. Because the public browser roster is directly documented and app reviews reported inmate-loading problems in 2025, the browser roster remains the more reliable starting point for Etowah County inmate records.
Commissary and Inmate Funds
The sheriff detention page says cash found in a person's possession at booking is placed into a kiosk account that can be used to purchase detention-center items. The 2024 county bid packet states that ECDC had a Keefe Commissary Network integration point or would integrate with the commissary company chosen by the facility. No official public fee table was located for deposit methods, kiosk charges, online deposit fees, or mail deposit rules.
Note: Confirm custody status, release status, visitation method, and any money-deposit rules with ECDC before sending funds or scheduling a visit.