Houston County Jail, Alabama Jail Roster

The Houston County Sheriff’s Office Inmate Listing is the direct online roster for the Houston County Jail in Dothan, Alabama. It shows current detainees held at the county facility on North Foster Street. Alabama law requires the sheriff’s jail register to be open to public inspection, so this roster is a genuine public record. Confirm numbers and hours before visiting or calling the jail.

Looking for someone booked tonight? See Houston County booking contacts for phone-first contact info.

Searching the Houston County jail roster

Open the Houston County Sheriff’s Office Inmate Listing to reach the live roster. The portal is hosted on the Sheriff’s official site at houstoncosoal.gov and reflects current bookings at the Houston County Jail.

1. Navigate to the inmate listing page linked above.
2. Search by the person’s last name. The roster also supports searches by first name, booking date, and charge description — entering a last name alone is usually enough to locate a match.
3. Review the results. Each record typically shows the inmate’s name, booking date, listed charges, and current housing status within the facility.
4. If the name does not appear, note the exact spelling used and try a partial last name before concluding the person is not in custody.

The Houston County Jail is located at 411 N Foster Street in Dothan. The facility’s jail-specific line is (334) 677-4808 for inquiries the online roster cannot answer.

What the roster does (and doesn’t) show

Juvenile detainees do not appear on the public roster. Anyone under 18 held in connection with a delinquency matter is processed through Alabama’s separate juvenile court system, not the adult county jail, and their records are not publicly accessible through this portal. Federal detainees housed under contract at the county facility may also be absent from the roster. Sealed or expunged records are similarly excluded by law.

The roster covers only people physically held at the Houston County Jail. Someone who has been released on bond, transferred to an Alabama Department of Corrections facility to serve a state sentence, or moved to another county will not appear. Charges listed reflect what was entered at booking and may not match later court filings. A record showing no charges yet is not unusual in the hours immediately following an arrest, before paperwork clears the booking desk.

If someone was just booked tonight

Call the Houston County Jail at (334) 677-4808 — that is the fastest way to confirm custody tonight. It’s a long night. The online roster may not yet reflect a booking that happened in the last few hours, so the phone is more reliable right now.

Bond is not set at booking. You won’t get a bond amount tonight, and that’s normal. A judge sets bond at first appearance, which typically happens within the first day or two after booking. Calling the jail now confirms that your person is in custody and can tell you when first appearance is scheduled — that’s the information that matters most right now.

Visitation won’t be available tonight. That part is the hard part. In-person visits at the Houston County Jail are scheduled, not walk-in, and the facility does not accommodate same-night visits. Phone and video options through ICSolutions are available once an account is set up — the Sheriff’s Office maintains telephone and video visitation information on their site. Check the commissary page for how to put money on an account.

Tomorrow morning, call the Circuit Clerk’s office at the Houston County Courthouse, 114 North Oates Street in Dothan, to get case information once it’s entered. The courthouse opens at 8:00 AM on weekdays. If you need an attorney, the Alabama State Bar Lawyer Referral Service can connect you with counsel, or check eligibility for a public defender through Alabama’s indigent defense locator. Waiting until morning is the right call — the system moves on its own schedule tonight.

If someone isn’t on the Houston County roster

A name missing from the Houston County roster most often means the booking record hasn’t cleared the intake desk yet — this is especially common in the hours right after an arrest. The online listing reflects the jail’s database, and there can be a gap between physical booking and when the record appears publicly.

• Transferred to state prison: If the person is serving a sentence rather than awaiting trial, they may be in an Alabama Department of Corrections facility. Search the Alabama Department of Corrections inmate lookup by name.
• Held in a neighboring county: Arrests made near county lines or involving multi-agency operations sometimes result in booking at Dale, Henry, Geneva, or Coffee County jails. Contact those sheriffs’ offices directly.
• Released: Bond may have been posted, or the person may have been released on recognizance. Alabama uses money bail with judicial discretion; a 2022 constitutional amendment also allows courts to deny bail entirely for certain violent offenses after a hearing.
• Federal custody: Federal charges result in booking at a federal facility, not the county jail. The Houston County roster will not show federal detainees.
• Juvenile system: Anyone under 18 is processed through Alabama’s juvenile court system, which is entirely separate from the adult jail. Contact the Houston County Juvenile Court for information on a minor.
• Victim notification: If you need custody-status alerts going forward, Alabama runs its own state notification system through the Attorney General’s office — not the national VINE network, which Alabama left in 2024. You can also check VINELink as a supplemental resource, though Alabama’s own system is the authoritative source.

If you can’t find them in Houston County

A nationwide records search may help surface custody records from other counties, other states, or federal facilities that the Houston County roster cannot display. The tool below is designed to search across multiple jurisdictions and may include records that local portals often leave out — though per-jurisdiction completeness varies and results should be treated as one source among several.

Sponsored: Nationwide Records Search (we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you).

This tool is not a consumer reporting agency under the FCRA and may not be used to screen anyone for employment, housing, credit, or any other purpose covered by that law.

Resource comparison: Houston County inmate lookup