Chattooga County Inmate Population

Chattooga County does not operate its own jail. If you are trying to find someone arrested in Chattooga County, the inmate population data you need will come from state-level tools or neighboring county facilities. People arrested in Chattooga County are held at regional jails or transferred to nearby counties for detention. This page explains how the system works, which search tools to use, and what your rights are under Georgia law when looking for Chattooga County inmates. The county seat is Summerville, located in the northwest corner of the state. The sheriff still handles arrests and law enforcement, but the actual detention happens elsewhere.

Chattooga County Inmate Population Access

Chattooga County is one of the Georgia counties that does not run its own jail. This is not as rare as it might sound. A number of smaller counties in Georgia either closed their jails due to cost or rely on agreements with neighboring counties to house inmates. When someone is arrested in Chattooga County, the sheriff processes the arrest and then transfers the person to a facility in a nearby county.

This setup means the Chattooga County inmate population is spread across other locations. There is no single building in Chattooga County where you can go to see all local inmates. Instead, they may be held in Walker County, Floyd County, or another nearby facility depending on available space and existing agreements. The sheriff's office in Summerville can tell you where a specific person is being held after an arrest in Chattooga County.

The cost of running a jail is significant for a small county. Staffing, medical care, food, and maintenance all add up. For Chattooga County, it made more sense to pay per-day fees to other counties than to keep a full jail open. This arrangement is legal and common in Georgia.

Finding Chattooga County Inmates

Since there is no local jail, you need to use broader tools to find Chattooga County inmates. Start with the state search tools.

The GDC Find an Offender page searches all facilities in Georgia. Enter a name and the system will show you where the person is being held, even if it is a different county's jail. The GDC Offender Query tool has more filters. You can search by name, GDC ID, or facility. This is the best way to track down someone arrested in Chattooga County who is now being held somewhere else.

VINELink Georgia is useful for ongoing tracking. Register and the system will notify you when an inmate's status changes. This works regardless of which facility holds the person. The Georgia Sheriffs' jail report publishes jail population data statewide, though Chattooga County will not show its own facility numbers since it has no jail.

The screenshot below shows the GDC offender search tool, which is the main resource for finding anyone in the Georgia corrections system, including people arrested in Chattooga County.

This free tool does not need an account and works on any device.

Chattooga County Inmate Population Facilities

People arrested in Chattooga County may end up in several different facilities. The most common options are jails in neighboring counties within the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit. Walker County and Floyd County both operate jails that have housed Chattooga County inmates in the past. The specific facility depends on bed availability and the nature of the charges.

For state-sentenced inmates, the Georgia Department of Corrections assigns the facility. That could be anywhere in the state. The GDC website tracks all inmates in state custody. For pretrial inmates from Chattooga County, the sheriff arranges the placement. Call the Chattooga County Sheriff in Summerville to find out where a specific person is being held. They keep track of all inmates from the county, even though those inmates are physically in other facilities.

Chattooga County Inmate Population Records

Even without a local jail, Chattooga County still generates inmate records. Arrest reports, booking records, and transfer documents are all kept by the sheriff. Under O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70, these are public records. You can request them from the sheriff's office in Summerville.

O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72 lays out what is open and what may be held back. Basic arrest and booking data is public. Ongoing investigation files and some medical records may be exempt. For records about inmates held at other county jails, you may need to contact that county's sheriff as well. For state records, use the GDC Open Records page or the GovQA portal.

Note: Under O.C.G.A. § 42-9-53, some parole board records have extra restrictions on access.

Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit

Chattooga County is part of the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, which also covers Catoosa, Dade, and Walker counties. Court cases from Chattooga County are heard by judges in this circuit. The speed at which cases move through the court directly affects how long inmates from Chattooga County stay in detention.

Because Chattooga County does not have its own jail, the court schedule matters even more. An inmate held in Walker County on Chattooga County charges still needs to appear in the Chattooga County court. Transporting inmates between facilities and courthouses takes coordination between the sheriffs of both counties. Under O.C.G.A. § 42-8-40, some offenders may be placed on probation rather than held in jail, which is particularly relevant for a county that must pay another county for each day an inmate is detained. The Chattooga County inmate population is effectively managed through a combination of court processing speed, bail decisions, and probation use.

Nearby Counties

Chattooga County is in northwest Georgia. These neighboring counties operate their own jails and may hold inmates arrested in Chattooga County.