Clayton County GA Jail

The Clayton County Jail at 9157 Tara Boulevard in Jonesboro is the main county detention facility for Clayton County, Georgia — the metro Atlanta county immediately south of the city that includes Jonesboro (the county seat), Forest Park, Riverdale, and Morrow, and hosts Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport within its boundaries. Operated by the Clayton County Sheriff's Office under Sheriff Levon Allen, the jail holds pretrial detainees on state and county charges, people serving Clayton County sentences, and various state and federal holds. Family-contact infrastructure uses Securus Technologies as the telephone carrier, requires postcards only for personal mail (no envelopes allowed), and offers both in-person and video visits with accounts created online. This guide walks through what families need to know.

About the Clayton County Jail and the south-Atlanta metro context

Clayton County lies immediately south of Atlanta and includes Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world. The Clayton County Sheriff's Office runs the county jail on Tara Boulevard in Jonesboro (the county seat), handling detainees arrested by the Sheriff's Office, county municipal police departments, and federal partners with holds at the airport and elsewhere in the county. Sheriff Levon Allen leads the office.

Every inmate at the Clayton County Jail has an LE# (Law Enforcement Number) assigned at intake. That number, plus the full legal name used at booking, is required on every letter, deposit, visit registration, and Securus phone-account setup. Confirm current custody status through the Clayton County Sheriff's inmate lookup or on AllRecentArrests.us before mailing or planning a visit.

Visitation at Clayton County: in-person AND video, book online

Clayton County offers both in-person and video visits, with accounts created online to book and complete visits. Register on the county's contracted video-visitation platform with your name, valid photo ID, and your loved one's name and LE#, complete visitor approval (which includes a background review), and schedule visits during available windows. Video visits from home carry a per-session or per-minute charge; on-site in-person visits at the jail are typically free or lower-cost depending on the current fee structure.

Confirm the current visitation schedule, format specifics, and any pre-scheduling requirements on the Clayton County Sheriff's Office website or by phone at (770) 477-4413. Visitors must be pre-registered and approved before scheduling; expect a background check as part of that process. Bring a valid government-issued photo ID for in-person visits and follow the sheriff's rules on dress and behavior.

Postcards-only personal mail: no envelopes allowed

Clayton County has one of the more restrictive personal-mail policies among Georgia county jails: only postcards are accepted for personal mail — no envelopes allowed. Address postcards to the inmate's full name and LE# at:

Clayton County Jail
9157 Tara Boulevard
Jonesboro, GA 30236

The postcard-only rule means you can send only one side of standard-postcard content per postcard, and multi-page letters must be broken into multiple postcards (each addressed with the LE#). Photos and drawings cannot be attached; if you want to send a photo, print it directly on postcard stock or use a photo-postcard service that allows a single-side image with the mailing panel on the back. Legal mail from an attorney or court, clearly marked as legal correspondence, is exempt from the postcard rule and is opened in the inmate's presence.

The postcard-only policy is designed to reduce contraband smuggled through mail and to speed processing at the jail; it does mean families need to plan mail differently than at facilities that accept traditional letters. Our how to send mail to an inmate covers the model in more depth.

How to send money to a Clayton County Jail inmate

Deposits for Clayton County Jail inmate commissary and communications accounts run through the sheriff's contracted deposit vendor, with typical options including online, phone, and lobby-kiosk deposits. Confirm the current deposit vendor and routing on the Clayton County Sheriff's Office website before sending. Standard per-transaction fees apply and scale with deposit amount. Our overview of how to send money to an inmate compares options.

Securus phone service and voicemail

Clayton County uses Securus Technologies as its telephone carrier. Phone accounts are registered online, allowing inmates to make outgoing calls during daytime and evening hours when not participating in a task or program. Family members set up prepaid AdvanceConnect accounts at securustech.net and register the phone numbers the inmate will call. Standard per-minute rates apply.

Securus voicemail is available at Clayton County, typically at a cost of $0.75 per message. This voicemail feature lets family members leave messages for inmates that get delivered to their tablet or kiosk — useful when the inmate is unavailable to take a live call. Our guide to calling an inmate covers setup and cost-management tips.

Court dates, bond, and release in Clayton County

Georgia criminal cases in Clayton County are handled through the Clayton County Superior Court (felonies) and Clayton County State Court (misdemeanors and preliminary matters), with case records searchable through the Clayton County Clerk of Superior Court website. Bond decisions in Georgia can be handled through commercial surety with a licensed Georgia bail bondsman (typically for a 10-15 percent non-refundable premium), through cash bond, or, in some cases, on personal recognizance. If your loved one has been arrested in Clayton County, look them up on the sheriff's inmate lookup and use the county court records to check case status.

Clayton County runs two separate facilities

The federal jail census counted two Clayton County facilities. This one, the Clayton County Jail in Jonesboro, is run by the Sheriff's Office at 1,920 beds and holds both men and women. The Clayton County Correctional Institution in Lovejoy is a separate 256-bed facility, all male, and was recorded as not holding people beyond 72 hours. If paperwork names Lovejoy rather than Jonesboro, it is the other facility.

Both Clayton County facilities, by size

Because this record is not itself a custody facility, the numbers worth knowing belong to the two that are. The most recent federal jail census, covering 2019, counted them separately:

• Clayton County Jail, Jonesboro — run by the Sheriff's Office — a rated and design capacity of 1,920, a peak population of 1,799
• Clayton County Correctional Institution, Lovejoy — a separate operation — a rated and design capacity of 256, a peak population of 259

The difference between them is not just size. The Jonesboro jail holds both men and women and was recorded as holding people beyond 72 hours. The Lovejoy institution was recorded as all male and as not holding people beyond 72 hours, and it is run as its own operation rather than by the Sheriff's Office. Note also that Lovejoy's peak population of 259 exceeded its 256-bed capacity during the reporting year.

Those are census figures for a single reporting year and are now several years old, so treat them as the scale of each facility rather than a current count. Neither figure describes this record — this address is the hospital, and it holds no one on its own authority.

How much room the Clayton County Jail has

The federal jail census gives three different capacity figures for the Clayton County Jail, and the gaps between them are the useful part. In its 2019 count the facility had a design capacity of 1,920 and a rated capacity of 1,920. Its highest population during that reporting year was 1,799. The design figure is what the building was drawn for, the rated figure is what the jurisdiction says it can hold, and the peak is what actually happened.

That peak sits within the design figure, which suggests the jail was not routinely operating beyond the population it was built for during that year. Short-term pressure still happens — a single busy weekend can strain intake and medical screening without moving an annual number.

The same count recorded 1,444 adult men and 333 adult women held at the facility. A jail holding both means separate housing, and often separate visiting and program schedules, inside one building — which is a common reason two people booked the same day end up on different routines.

These are census figures for 2019, so they describe that year rather than today. Treat them as the scale of the facility and confirm anything current with the sheriff's office.

Who was held at the Clayton County Jail

On the day of the 2019 federal jail census, the Clayton County Jail held 1,777 adults: 1,444 men and 333 women.

Women were 19% of that count. Jails typically run separate housing for men and women, and the smaller side of the population often means fewer program places, fewer visiting slots and less movement — a practical disadvantage that rarely gets stated anywhere.

The census also recorded this as a facility that holds people beyond 72 hours, rather than a short-term lockup that transfers everyone onward almost immediately. That matters for planning: it means someone can serve a full short sentence here, and that mail, deposits and visiting are worth setting up rather than waiting out.

These are census figures for a single reporting year and are now several years old. Treat the split as the shape of the population rather than a current count.

How the Clayton County Jail compares with other jails in Georgia

The 2019 federal jail census counted 170 jails in Georgia. Ranked by rated capacity, the Clayton County Jail was the 5th largest of them, at 1,920 beds.

That puts it among the largest jails in the state, and size changes the experience in ways worth anticipating. Big jails run more formalised systems — scheduled visiting slots that fill, classification that moves people between units, and phone and deposit vendors handling enough volume that the process is automated rather than personal. You will generally get further by following the published procedure exactly than by asking staff to make an exception.

This ranking covers only the jails the census counted, and reflects that one reporting year. It is a guide to scale, not a current league table.

What the Clayton County Jail is set up to do

The federal jail census records each facility's designated functions — the roles it is set up and authorised to perform. In its 2019 count, the Clayton County Jail was recorded as holding adults awaiting trial or serving a sentence, holding people awaiting return to probation or parole custody and running a work release program.

Equally useful is what it is not designated as: acting as a reception or intake centre for other facilities, holding juveniles, operating as a dedicated medical facility, operating as a dedicated mental health facility and holding people in protective custody. That is a statement about the facility's formal role, not about the services inside it — a jail without a dedicated medical or treatment designation can still provide on-site care, but specialised needs are more likely to be met by transporting someone out to a hospital or a specialist facility. If that applies to your family member, ask early who provides the care and where.

These designations come from the 2019 census, so treat them as the facility's established role rather than a current service list.

Emergencies, avoiding scams, and your first steps

For urgent family emergencies such as a death, serious illness, or birth, call the Clayton County Jail at (770) 477-4413 with the inmate's name and LE# and ask that a chaplain or unit staff relay the message. If you are worried about a loved one's medical care, mental health, or safety inside, contact the Sheriff's Office directly and keep a written record of who you spoke with and when.

Be cautious about paying third-party sites — the Clayton County Sheriff's Office inmate lookup, Securus for phone and voicemail, and the sheriff's contracted deposit and video-visit vendors are the authoritative and only fully reliable channels. If someone you love has just been booked into the Clayton County Jail, focus first on the essentials: confirm booking through the sheriff's inmate lookup and note the LE#, register with the county's online video-visitation platform and complete visitor approval, plan personal correspondence using postcards only (no envelopes) with the LE# on each, fund an initial deposit through the sheriff's contracted vendor, and register your phone number with Securus for calls (and consider the voicemail feature at $0.75/message). Look up the case number in the county court records and, if bond is set, contact a licensed Georgia bail bondsman.

Airport-area federal holds and the ICE context

Because Clayton County contains Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, federal law enforcement including US Customs and Border Protection, DEA, and ICE handle a steady volume of arrests at the airport. Some of those arrests result in holds at the Clayton County Jail on state charges or on federal holds pending transfer. If your loved one was arrested at the airport, the case-handling agency (federal vs. state, ICE hold vs. criminal case) determines who to contact for release information — the ICE Online Detainee Locator at locator.ice.gov covers federal immigration detention specifically, and federal criminal cases show up on PACER. For county-level custody, the sheriff's inmate lookup is authoritative.

Clayton County jail: leadership and reform context

Sheriff Levon Allen, who leads the Clayton County Sheriff's Office, has worked on a range of jail-conditions and modernization issues since taking office. The postcards-only mail policy at Clayton County is part of a broader operational approach aimed at reducing contraband and streamlining mail processing, though it does limit families' options for correspondence more than at facilities that accept traditional letters. If you have specific concerns about the postcards-only rule (particularly for medical documents, complicated legal materials, or child-drawn art), reach out to the sheriff's office at (770) 477-4413 to ask whether exceptions apply for particular categories of mail.

Airport-related detention: separating criminal from immigration cases

The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport context is important to understand because different agencies handle different types of airport arrests. Domestic criminal cases (state or federal criminal charges) typically go through the Clayton County or federal court system, with the person held at the county jail or a federal facility. Immigration-related detention by ICE goes through a completely separate system, with the person typically held at an ICE detention facility rather than the county jail. If your loved one was arrested at the airport and you can't find them at the Clayton County Jail, check the ICE Online Detainee Locator at locator.ice.gov and the federal PACER system for federal criminal cases.