By David Sher
Jefferson County has more jails per capita than any other county in the U.S.
Twenty jails. TWENTY.
That’s not a typo.
To put this in perspective, New York City with nearly 15 times our population operates just 14 jail facilities..
Across Jefferson County’s 35 municipalities, there are 20 separate jail facilities: 18 operated by individual cities and 2 operated by Jefferson County.
While municipalities nationwide are getting out of the jail business, Jefferson County is locked in waste and litigation.
The Shocking Truth
A comprehensive 2020 study by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) revealed the shocking truth. Among all counties nationwide, only Cuyahoga County, Ohio has more municipally operated jails with 22, and Cuyahoga County’s population is approximately double that of Jefferson County. (Jeffco has 2 less jails, but way more jails per capita).
Nearly five years later, the situation has gotten more combative.
We’re not just leading America in government waste. We’re winning the national championship.
The System Is Now Completely Broken
The dysfunction reached new heights in 2024 when Birmingham filed a lawsuit against Jefferson County over jail services. This legal battle shows how our fragmented system has created conflict between government entities that should be cooperating.
Instead of regional cooperation, we have expensive legal disputes paid for by taxpayers.
The Staggering Financial Reality
Operating 20 separate jail facilities creates massive redundancy:
- Duplicated staffing costs across multiple locations
- Separate maintenance, utilities, and administrative expenses for each facility
- Legal liability insurance for every location
- Training and equipment costs multiplied across numerous sites
Each facility requires specialized correctional training, medical care capabilities, and expensive security systems, all funded by taxpayers.
Beyond direct operational costs, these scattered jails create enormous ongoing expenses:
- Legal Warfare: The 2024 lawsuit shows how dysfunction generates expensive legal battles between government entities
- Legal Liability: The Alabama Municipal Insurance Corporation actively recommends cities get out of the jail business
Proposed Merger of Over-the-Mountain Jails Failed
According to an article in al.com entitled, Seeds of Cooperation: Over-the-Mountain Jail, in 2007 there was a proposed “plan to merge the city jails of Homewood, Vestavia Hills and Mountain Brook under a regional jail authority.” It was touted as a “metro Birmingham example of intergovernmental cooperation.”
But the cities couldn’t agree on a plan. Each municipality ultimately built its own jail.
Other Counties Figured It Out
While Jefferson County’s system disintegrates into lawsuits, other Alabama counties embraced common sense:
- Mobile County operates one metro jail, with the city paying one-third of costs
- Madison County has Huntsville and Madison cooperatively share the county jail
- Tuscaloosa County houses municipal prisoners under contract
- Shelby County operates just three jail facilities for one-third our population
Solutions Exist But Leadership Fails
Clear solutions have been identified but remain ignored:
- Short-term: Cities could contract with facilities that have excess capacity
- Long-term: Expand the Jefferson County Jail system or create a regional jail authority
Regional cooperation could save hundreds of thousands annually per participating city. Instead, we get lawsuits and feuding between agencies.
The Real Outrage
ComebackTown has written about this waste for years, highlighting how 35 Jefferson County municipalities justify 35 fire departments, 27 police departments plus the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, 13 separate 911 call centers, and 20 jails.
But now it’s worse than waste. It’s complete governmental dysfunction. When Birmingham files lawsuits over basic jail services, the system isn’t just inefficient, it’s actively harmful to effective governance.
Every day these redundant facilities remain open, we throw away taxpayer money that could fund schools, roads, economic development, or real public safety improvements.
Time for Leadership
We need mayors with courage to admit this system is broken and embrace regional cooperation.
We need county commissioners willing to invest in consolidated solutions.
We need all officials to work together instead of pursuing expensive legal battles.
Most importantly, we need voters who will hold elected officials accountable for this expensive dysfunction.
Jefferson County’s fragmented 20-jail system isn’t just inefficient. It’s a monument to the failure of regional cooperation, complete with lawsuits and a daily insult to every taxpayer.
David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).
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Invite David to speak for free to your group about how we can have a more prosperous metro Birmingham. dsher@comebacktown.com
Thank you, David, for writing this. It is an eye-opener.
What are the arguments, if any, made by those who allow this situation to continue? And, is there self-dealing involved–that is, are any of the cities’ “elite” making money out of this arrangement?
Maury
Yes ! The timing is right for all the new Mayors and incumbents to talk about the issue of consolidating Jeff County services starting with the jails. It makes sense and would be an economic win for all the municipalities.
Thank you for keeping us informed.
Catherine Gilmore
Reduce the crime and need for jails will shrink.
I just saw online a stat that Birmingham is one of the most dangerous cities in the US. I saw one survey that had it in top 20 of the globe.
The over-the-mountain communities don’t want any part of crime coming out of Bessemer and Birmingham. I don’t have any hard stats on the subject but believe it’s a serious problem that will take decades to resolve.
Clean this up and you can cut jails in half.
Crime comes with poverty, low education, and a variety of issues that only Birmingham can resolve.
Merging cities, jails, schools, is not going to happen in my lifetime .
Leaders of Birmingham, this is on you.
I was born in Bham but sorry don’t want to live there.
The solution has to come from within .
Amen David. And our old city jail – where MLK Jr. crafted his incredible “letter from Birmingham jail” – could be converted into a new attraction for the city, in the swiftly developing Titusville community, helping add vitality and drawing more visitors to another historic neighborhood.
Put together a plan and publish it here and see what folks think about a unified jail for Jeffco and all municipalities.
Thank you, David, for this article. We have an election in Homewood next week and we need our candidates to address this!
The PARCA report you cite, https://www.cfbham.org/assets/2021/01/Jefferson-County-Jail-Report.pdf, was done when covid was a key factor in reducing the number of people in jails. Nearly six years later, perhaps it’s time for a new study to inform policymakers with current information. In any case, looking only for economies of scale in the ratio of officers to jail residents through consolidation is probably not optimal for effective safety and control. And certainly Tom Phillips’ comment about crime is crucial, and raises the question about whether and how jails and prisons may actually contribute to more, not less crime. Perhaps a newly funded PARCA report could address factors of effective detention in addition to opportunities for cooperation and consolidation.
John, new PARCA study might make sense, but too many prisoners is not our problem. Many jails are underutilized. I know for a fact that many days there is no one in the Mountain Brook Jail. And a Vestavia Hills councilman described the Vestavia Jail as a kind of ‘Barney Fife’ jail. The City of Birmingham has cut homicides by over 50% this year. A simple headcount of each jail compared to capacity might be a good indication of where we are. Keep in mind that we have almost twice the per capita number of jails compared to the county who has the most number of jails in the U.S.
This is an apples to oranges comparison. David knows the MB, Vestavia and Homewood jails are little more than temporary holding cells. Either inmates get released in a day or two with a desk appearance ticket or they go on to the Jefferson County Jail. The cost to run these “jails” is peanuts compared to what running the county jails cost and are not much of a tax burden on citizens.
Not a logical argument.
Brilliant column. If we can’t consolidate jails, what can we consolidate?
Have you ever spoken to the Jeffco Mayors’ Association about this?