Randolph Detention Center Releases
Randolph County Detention Center is the primary county jail identified for Randolph County release work. It is operated by the Randolph County Sheriff's Office in Wedowee, and it is the local facility tied to most county booking, current-custody, bond, court-order, and short-sentence questions. A person who leaves this facility may go home, move to court-ordered supervision, post bond while the case continues, complete a county jail sentence, or be transferred to another agency. The path matters because the proof of release follows the agency that controls the next step.
A direct local release is best confirmed through the sheriff's booking or release record, a court case-action entry, bond paperwork, or direct detention-center confirmation. A transfer to the Alabama Department of Corrections inmate search is different. That person may no longer be in Randolph County custody, but they are not released from incarceration. Later state prison release, discharge, parole, or mandatory supervision has to be checked through ADOC, Alabama VNS, the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles, or a public-records request to the state custodian.
| Release route | What it means | Where to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Bond or court order | The county jail custody episode ends while the court case may continue. | Sheriff release record, bond paperwork, Randolph County Circuit Clerk, Alacourt. |
| Time served or sentence completion | The local jail sentence or custody event ends. | Sheriff jail register entry, release sheet, court sentence or disposition. |
| ADOC transfer | County custody ends, but state custody begins or continues. | ADOC current search while incarcerated, ADOC public records, VNS, ABPP. |
| Other agency pickup | Another jurisdiction assumes custody. | County transfer entry plus the receiving agency's record. |
The Randolph County Sheriff's Office current inmate roster is useful at the start because it can rule in current local custody. It is not a release archive. Research found no separate published 24-hour or 72-hour release feed for the county. If a name is gone from the current roster, treat that as a lead that needs confirmation from records, court, or the next custody agency.
Confirm a Randolph Release
The practical release search begins with the live roster and then moves to records. The roster table observed in the research displayed photo, name fields, age, sex, booking date, race, height, and weight, plus a last-updated timestamp. It did not show a release-date column in the visible list. That means a searcher can use the roster to see whether the person is still listed, but the final release fact usually has to come from the sheriff, the court, or a state or federal system.
- Check the active Randolph County roster for the person's name and booking date. If the person appears, they are still listed in local custody at that moment.
- If the person was recently booked but no longer appears, call the detention center administrative route or ask for the booking and release entry tied to the booking date.
- Search the Randolph County court record through the local Circuit Clerk or Alacourt Access for bond, disposition, sentencing, warrant recall, or transfer action.
- If the jail stay ended by transfer to ADOC, check ADOC current custody first, then use ADOC public records for historical release or discharge details.
- For state supervision after release, contact the ABPP Wedowee Field Office or review ABPP public hearing and results sources when parole is involved.
A missing roster row is not the same as a release record. It may mean release, transfer, a name variation, restricted data, or a roster update gap.
Alabama's VNS and VINELink tools can help in some cases, but they should be matched to the case type. The Alabama Victim Notification System is for people convicted in Alabama and sentenced to ADOC custody. VINELink Alabama may provide custody or case status where a participating feed exists. A pending Randolph County jail case still points back to the sheriff and court records for release confirmation.
Detention Center Contact
The detention center record path is local. The sheriff's office page lists the Randolph County Jail mailing route, main phone, and fax, while the detention-center page gives the physical facility address, the administrative phone option, and office hours. Administrative staff can explain whether a request can be handled by phone, needs a written public-records request, or should be routed to a specific custodian.
Randolph County Detention Center
340 Probilt Drive
Wedowee, AL 36278
Phone: (256) 357-4545 Option 2
Administrative hours: Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m., excluding authorized holidays
Facility operation: 24 hours per day, 7 days per week
Randolph County Sheriff's Office
Randolph County Jail
P.O. Box 347
Wedowee, AL 36278
Phone: 256-357-4545
Fax: 256-357-2790
A narrow request works better than a broad one. Ask for the jail register entry, booking sheet, release date and time, release type, and booking photo if available as a public record for the named person and approximate booking date. The county's open-records request page says requests must identify records with reasonable specificity, and it warns that vague or overly broad requests do not have to be answered. For sheriff jail records, follow the sheriff or detention center custodian's direction.
About Randolph Detention Center
Randolph County's current jail is newer than many county detention facilities. The county's jail-history source says it opened for prisoners in February 2021, was built with 27,181 gross square feet, and was designed to hold male and female detainees across minimum and maximum security areas. The same source gives the listed capacity as 110 beds, with expansion design potential to 156 beds without major construction.
The county history page also says the building was designed by JMR+H Architecture of Montgomery and cost about $11.7 million. Those facts do not change the release process, but they explain why the current jail roster and the modern detention center are central to Randolph County release checks. The facility is not a state prison, federal prison, or ICE detention center. It is the local county detention point for bookings that the sheriff holds.
The county history page documents the detention-center background at Randolph County jail history.
That facility context supports the records route: current custody appears in the sheriff roster, while release confirmation belongs in the booking, jail register, release, court, or transfer record.
Property After Release
Randolph County has one concrete release-aftercare rule worth noting. The detention-center information source says that if a detainee is released before purchased commissary items are delivered, the released detainee has seven days from the release date to retrieve those items. That rule does not prove release by itself, but it shows why the exact release date can matter after a person leaves the facility.
This is also a good example of why administrative hours and facility operation are different. The detention center runs all day and night, but administrative questions about records, property, commissary, and copies generally follow posted business hours. If the issue is urgent custody status, use the facility phone route. If the issue is a record copy, expect staff to direct the requester to the proper public-records process or records custodian.
The source for the detention address, office hours, and commissary pickup rule is the sheriff's detention center information page.
The seven-day pickup detail is local to this facility source and should be checked with detention staff before a released person travels to collect property.
Roster Limits for Releases
The public roster is built for current custody. It is still one of the most useful sources because it can show whether a person is presently listed in the Randolph County jail and can provide identifiers for a precise records request. The visible roster fields also help distinguish similar names. A booking date, age, sex, race, height, weight, and photo can help staff find the right booking episode when a requester later asks for the release entry.
For release confirmation, the same source has limits. Research did not find a published retention rule for released roster entries. It also did not find a separate recent-release feed. Tested release-style URLs did not reveal a distinct release window, and likely recent-release endpoints returned 404 during the sweep. The safer method is to use the roster as the first check, then verify through the sheriff record, court record, ADOC/VNS/ABPP, BOP, or ICE depending on where the custody path went.
The active roster source is the Randolph County inmate roster.
Use roster details as search clues, not as the final proof that a completed release occurred.