The Clay County Inmate Population
The Clay County inmate population is held at one place, the Clay County Jail in Green Cove Springs. The Clay County Sheriff's Office runs the jail through its Detention Department. Most people there have not been to trial. They are booked after an arrest and held while their case moves. A smaller share are serving short county sentences. The word "population" can mean a few different things here. It can mean the live count on the public roster on a given day. It can mean the average daily population that the state tracks each month. It can also point to the much larger state prison count, which holds people only after they are sentenced and sent to the Florida Department of Corrections.
Those distinctions matter when you read a number. On June 3, 2026, the public roster listed 345 people (Clay County Sheriff's Office P2C roster, June 2026). That is a point-in-time snapshot, not a long-run average. The Florida Department of Corrections measures the average daily population each month, and its March 2025 figure for the jail was 394 (FDC County Detention Facilities report, March 2025). The count rises and falls with new arrests, bond decisions, the speed of court hearings, and transfers out to state prison. When a felony case ends in a prison term, that person normally leaves the county jail. The local roster drops them, and the state locator picks them up.
Clay County Inmate Population Statistics
A few core numbers frame the Clay County inmate population. The jail is rated for 490 beds (Clay County Sheriff's Office, 2026). Its average daily population was 394 in March 2025 (FDC, March 2025). There is one detention facility in the county. The figures below come from the sheriff's office and the state's monthly county detention reports. Each carries a source and a date so you can weigh it. The state has not published an annual booking total or an average length of stay for this jail, so those rows are left out rather than guessed.
The roster count and the state average measure different things. The roster is a live tally at one moment. The average daily population smooths a whole month into one figure. Read together, they show a jail that runs well under its rated beds. The state also reports an incarceration rate, the share of the county that is in the jail on an average day.
| Measure | Figure | Source / Year |
|---|---|---|
| Average daily population | 394 | FDC, March 2025 |
| Rated / bed capacity | 490 beds | CCSO Detention/Jail page, 2026 |
| Live public roster count | 345 | CCSO P2C roster, June 3, 2026 |
| Incarceration rate | 1.9 per 1,000 residents | FDC, April 2024 |
| County population used in rate | 231,042 | FDC, April 2024 |
Note: The 345 roster figure is a single-day snapshot and should not be read as the jail's long-run average, which the state reports separately.
Clay County Inmate Population Trends
The Clay County inmate population has moved within a fairly narrow band over the past two years. The state's monthly county detention reports give a clean read on the trend. The average daily population sat at 441 in April 2024, eased to 412 in October 2024, dropped to 359 in December 2024, then climbed back to 394 in March 2025 (FDC County Detention Facilities reports). The dip and recovery is a normal seasonal pattern in a jail this size. Holidays, court calendars, and the pace of new bookings all push the count around month to month.
One thread runs through every month: most people are pretrial. The pretrial share rose from 69.2 percent in October 2024 to 71.6 percent in March 2025 (FDC). In plain terms, roughly seven in ten people in the jail on an average day have not been convicted. They are waiting on a hearing, a plea, or a trial. That is the heart of the Clay County inmate population and the main reason the live roster matters to families.
| Period | Average Daily Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| April 2024 | 441 | FDC monthly report; incarceration rate 1.9 per 1,000. |
| October 2024 | 412 | FDC monthly report; 69.2% pretrial. |
| December 2024 | 359 | FDC monthly report; 69.9% pretrial. |
| March 2025 | 394 | FDC monthly report; 71.6% pretrial. |
| June 3, 2026 | 345 (live count) | P2C roster snapshot; not a monthly average. |
Who Makes Up the Clay County Inmate Population
The state's monthly reports break the Clay County inmate population into pretrial and sentenced, and into felony and misdemeanor pretrial holds. The makeup is steady. Felony pretrial detainees are the largest single group, and misdemeanor pretrial holds are a much smaller share. The figures below come straight from the March 2025 county detention report unless noted. The jail does not publish an aggregate race or sex breakdown, so those splits are left out. Individual roster records do show race, sex, and age for each person.
- Pretrial vs sentenced - About 71.6 percent were pretrial in March 2025 (FDC), meaning most are held before a conviction.
- Felony pretrial - 243 people were held pretrial on felony charges in March 2025 (FDC).
- Misdemeanor pretrial - 39 people were held pretrial on misdemeanor charges in March 2025 (FDC).
- Federal holds - Federal prisoners are housed only when an arresting federal agency authorizes it (CCSO Jail Information).
Note: The jail does not post a public race or sex breakdown of its population, so only the pretrial and charge-level splits the state reports are stated here.
Clay County Jail Capacity and Overcrowding
The Clay County Jail is rated for 490 beds (CCSO, 2026). Measured against that line, the jail is not crowded. The March 2025 average daily population of 394 works out to roughly 80 percent of capacity (FDC, March 2025). The live roster count of 345 on June 3, 2026 sits at about 70 percent (CCSO P2C, June 2026). Both readings leave a real cushion of open beds.
No federal consent decree, court-ordered population cap, or new jail construction project tied to crowding was found in official sources for Clay County. The sheriff's office points to its record under Florida jail accreditation and inspection frameworks instead. Those standards, not the state prison system, govern how a county jail like this one is run and reviewed.
Laws Governing the Clay County Inmate Population
Florida law is why the Clay County inmate population is visible to the public at all. Chapter 119 makes jail booking and custody records public unless a specific exemption applies. That is the legal backbone of the online roster and of any records request. Other statutes set the standards for how county jails operate, define the exemptions that can shield juvenile or victim information, and govern how an old arrest record can be removed from public access. Each statute below carries a short plain-English note.
Key Statutes:
Florida Statutes § 119.01 - States Florida's public-records policy, which gives the public access to nonexempt agency records like jail bookings.
Florida Statutes § 119.07 - Sets the right to inspect and copy records and governs the fees and timing of a public-records request.
Florida Statutes § 119.071 - Lists exemptions that can limit release of juvenile, victim, active-investigation, or protected-address information.
Florida Statutes § 951.23 - Authorizes the Florida Model Jail Standards and the inspection rules that govern county and municipal jails.
Florida Statutes § 901.43 - Creates a process to request removal of arrest booking photographs from certain commercial websites.
Chapter 951 as a whole covers county and municipal prisoners and local jail administration, which is the body of law that applies to the Clay County Jail. For older records that have been sealed or cleared, Florida Statutes § 943.0585 governs court-ordered expunction of qualifying criminal history. Access is broad under these laws, but it is not absolute.
Clay County and the State Prison Population
The Clay County inmate population and the state prison population are two separate counts. The jail holds people before and during their case, plus short county sentences. When a felony case ends in a state prison term, the person leaves the county jail and enters the Florida Department of Corrections. No state prison sits physically inside Clay County, according to the FDC institution directory. So a sentenced state prisoner from Clay County is held somewhere else in Florida and tracked by the state, not by the local jail.
The lead-in for the population's clearest public window is the sheriff's own detention page. The Clay County Sheriff's Office Detention/Jail page describes the 490-bed jail, its command staff, and its medical unit.
That page is the official source for the 490-bed capacity figure used throughout these statistics, and it confirms the jail is a single county facility rather than part of the state prison system. For sentenced inmates who have moved on, the search shifts to the state locator covered further below.
How to Search the Clay County Inmate Population
Searching the Clay County inmate population starts with one tool, the sheriff's Police-to-Citizen inmate catalog. It is a free public roster with no login. You can search by name, or browse the full current list. The catalog covers people currently booked into the Clay County Jail. It does not cover sentenced state prisoners or federal detainees, who live in separate systems. The lead-in to the roster itself is the official catalog page.
The Clay County P2C Inmates Catalog is the live roster where each step below takes place.
That screen shows a text search bar, an advanced-filter button, a sort control, and a running count of results. To look someone up, work through these steps.
- Open the P2C Inmates Catalog at the sheriff's site.
- Type the person's last name in the search bar, then add a first name to narrow it.
- Use the advanced filter for age, charge text, arrest date, race, or sex if the name is common.
- Open the matching card to read charges, bond, arrest date, court date, and booking agency.
- If the person was sentenced and moved to state prison, switch to the FDC locator instead.
Note: The roster shows current bookings, so if a person was released or transferred, the entry can drop off and a public-records request becomes the fallback.
Current Inmate Lookup in Clay County
The live roster is the place for a current inmate lookup in Clay County. It loads from the sheriff's Police-to-Citizen system and shows people in custody right now. Restricted search is turned off, so you are not forced to enter a full name or date to browse. You can run a simple text search or open the advanced filters. The fields below come from the official search criteria the app uses.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Name | Text | No | Free text; main way to find a person. |
| First Name | Text | No | Free text; narrows a common last name. |
| Middle Name | Text | No | Free text. |
| Age | Number | No | Numeric age. |
| Charge | Text | No | Search by charge text or code; local abbreviations apply. |
| Arrest Date | Date | No | Date search formatted MM/DD/YYYY. |
| Race | List | No | W, B, A, I, P, U, or O values. |
| Sex | List | No | M, F, or U values. |
The race list spells out as White, Black or African American, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Unknown, and Other. The sex list is Male, Female, and Unknown. Charge search is handy when you know the offense but not the spelling of a name. It can be imprecise, though, because charge descriptions use short local codes.
Past and Released Inmate Records
The online roster is built for current custody, not history. Once a person is released or transferred, the entry can fall off the public list. The sheriff's office does not publish a rule for how long a released name stays visible, so do not assume a fixed window. For a booking that is no longer on the roster, the reliable path is a public-records request to the Clay County Sheriff's Office. The agency lets requesters stay anonymous, take the request by phone or in person, and does not require a reason.
Requests run through the sheriff's GovQA portal, the Public Records Section by phone, by mail to the Green Cove Springs campus, or in person at the David White Memorial Building. A request can ask for the booking sheet, charge and bond information, and the booking photograph for a named person and date. If the person was sentenced to state prison, their record moves to the state locator. Sealed or expunged cases may be withheld under Florida exemption law even on a formal request.
What a Clay County Inmate Record Shows
A roster record is a booking record, not a full criminal history. It shows who is in the jail now and why. Each card pulls the same set of fields. Some fields exist in the data but are hidden by the sheriff's display settings, such as date of birth, home address, arresting agency, and housing unit. The table below lists what the public actually sees on a Clay County inmate record.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Full name | Last, first, middle, and suffix if present. |
| Booking photo | A roster image when one is available; some entries have none. |
| Race, sex, age | Demographic fields shown for each person. |
| Height and weight | Physical descriptors from booking. |
| Arrest date | The date the person was booked into the jail. |
| Court date | The next court date when one is listed. |
| Primary charge | A charge code and a plain description. |
| Charges | Per-charge code, description, status, docket number, and bond. |
| Bond | Total bond plus each charge's bond type, status, and amount. |
| Booking agency | The agency that booked the person, often the sheriff's office. |
| Scars, marks, tattoos | Type, location, body part, and description when recorded. |
| Release fields | Exist in the data but are hidden by display settings. |
Charge status often reads PRE-TRIAL, which means the person has been charged but not convicted. A bond line of "awaiting bond hearing" means a judge has not yet set bond. A "no bond" line means release is not allowed until the court changes the hold. Those are different things, and one charge with no bond can keep a person held even when another charge has a dollar amount. Booking photos for current inmates also appear on the Clay County jail mugshots page.
County Jail vs. State Prison: Where to Look
The most common mistake in an inmate search is looking in the wrong system. The county jail and the state prison hold different parts of the inmate population and use different locators. Pretrial detainees and short county sentences sit in the Clay County Jail, found on the sheriff's roster. Sentenced felons move to the Florida Department of Corrections, found on the statewide locator. The table sorts out which is which.
| County Jail | State Prison (DOC) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who Is Held | Pretrial and short county sentences | Sentenced felons |
| Run By | Clay County Sheriff's Office | Florida Department of Corrections |
| Where to Look | P2C jail roster | FDC offender search |
| Stays Listed | While in local custody | Through the state sentence |
The bridge between the two is sentencing. A person can appear on the county roster for months while a case moves, then vanish from it the day they are received into state prison. If the jail roster suddenly shows no record for someone you know was held, the state locator is the next stop. A few terms help when reading either system.
- Pretrial
- A case is pending with no final conviction or sentence; the person is charged but not convicted.
- Bond
- A court-set condition of release, paid in cash, posted through a surety agent, or granted on a promise to appear.
- No bond
- A status where release is not allowed by paying money until the court changes the hold.
- Detainer
- A hold placed by another agency that can keep a person in custody even after other charges clear.
- DOC
- The Florida Department of Corrections, the state prison system for sentenced inmates.
State and Federal Inmate Search
Three more locators cover the slices of the inmate population that the county roster cannot. The Florida Department of Corrections runs the search for sentenced state prisoners. The Federal Bureau of Prisons runs the federal locator. Immigration custody has its own locator through ICE. No state prison, federal prison, or current ICE detention facility was found inside Clay County, but residents of the county can end up in any of these systems. The lead-in to the state search is the official offender menu.
The Florida Department of Corrections offender search menu is the entry point for finding a sentenced state prisoner by name or DC number.
From that menu you can run a state inmate search and reach the full profile, which includes the DC number, current facility, and sentence details. For federal custody, use the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator, and for immigration custody use the ICE Online Detainee Locator System. The U.S. Marshals Middle District of Florida handles federal pretrial custody for this region. To get release alerts across these systems, register with Florida VINELink.
County Population and the Incarceration Rate
The size of the Clay County inmate population only means something against the county's own size. The state's monthly report uses a county population of 231,042 to set the jail's incarceration rate at 1.9 per 1,000 residents in April 2024 (FDC, April 2024). For broader demographic context, the U.S. Census Bureau keeps a current profile of the county. The lead-in to that profile is the Census QuickFacts page.
The U.S. Census QuickFacts profile for Clay County gives the population base used to put the jail figures in scale.
Reading the jail count next to the county population shows how small a share of residents is in custody on any given day. It also explains why a swing of a few dozen people in the jail barely moves the incarceration rate.
Clay County Detention Facilities
Clay County's detention map is simple. There is one local custody facility, the Clay County Jail, and no separate annex, work-release building, regional jail, or state prison inside the county. Every part of the local inmate population is held at that single jail. The list below names it and notes who is held there.
- Clay County Jail - Holds Clay County pretrial detainees, county-sentenced inmates, people awaiting first appearance or transfer, and federal prisoners only when an arresting federal agency authorizes it.
Because there is only one facility, every county custody lookup points to the same roster. Sentenced state prisoners and federal detainees are held elsewhere and tracked by their own agencies.
Clay County Inmate Population FAQ
How big is the Clay County inmate population?
It depends on which measure you use. On June 3, 2026, the public roster listed 345 people (CCSO P2C, June 2026), a single-day snapshot. The state's average daily population, which smooths a full month, was 394 in March 2025 (FDC). The jail is rated for 490 beds (CCSO, 2026), so it runs well under capacity on both readings. The count changes daily with arrests, bond decisions, and transfers.
How do I search the Clay County inmate population?
Use the sheriff's free Police-to-Citizen Inmates Catalog. Type a last name, add a first name, and open the matching card for charges, bond, arrest date, and court date. You can also filter by age, charge, arrest date, race, or sex. The roster covers people in the county jail now. If the person was sentenced to state prison, search the Florida Department of Corrections locator instead.
Can I look up a released or past inmate?
The online roster is built for current custody, and a released or transferred name can drop off it. The sheriff's office does not publish how long a name stays visible. For an older booking, file a public-records request with the Clay County Sheriff's Office. You can stay anonymous and do not have to give a reason. Sealed or expunged records may be withheld under Florida exemption law.
Are most people in the Clay County jail convicted?
No. Most are pretrial, meaning they are charged but not convicted. The pretrial share was 71.6 percent in March 2025 (FDC), so roughly seven in ten people in the jail on an average day are waiting on a hearing, plea, or trial. Felony pretrial detainees are the largest group. Sentenced state prisoners are not counted here, because they are held by the state.