Perry County commissioners voted 5–0 at an emergency meeting on Tuesday to keep the county jail closed while they work through a new round of fire-safety problems and bring in an outside engineer to map out what it will take to reopen the beleaguered facility.
The James Hood Detention Facility has been shut down since September 2025, when an inmate escaped after knocking a hole through a wall.
While social-media posts this week claimed the Alabama State Fire Marshal had “shut the jail down,” county officials have stressed that the decision to close it came from a vote of the commission itself, not the state.
In a message to the Times-Standard-Herald, a spokesperson for the State Fire Marshal’s Office said the agency did not order the jail closed; instead, she said, commissioners voted to keep it closed while repairs are made. That vote followed an emergency meeting Tuesday morning, when the commissioners moved to close the facility until a list of deficiencies identified by inspectors can be addressed.
Many of the problems noted during recent inspections involve long-deferred repairs, some dating back to 2020. As part of Tuesday’s motion, commissioners also voted to hire a fire-protection engineer to conduct a full review of the building and provide a comprehensive report on what must be done to bring it up to code.
Sheriff Roy Fikes will still have access to the building as needed to remove equipment and records while work is underway.
Inmates have not been housed in the Perry County jail since the September escape. Prisoners have instead been sent to other counties, including Hale County and Cullman County, under housing arrangements handled through the courts and local police agencies.
The commission had already taken steps toward repairing the facility before the latest inspection. On Jan. 13, commissioners approved an $86,611 amendment to the county’s construction budget to cover repairs made at the jail after the escape. Those renovations included plumbing work and bathroom restorations.
Sheriff Fikes inspected and signed off on that phase of the project, though commissioners noted at the time that additional door adjustments, estimated at about $13,000, might still be needed because of building settlement.
A report last week by WSFA-TV in Montgomery outlined the broader scope of work now facing Perry County. County leaders told the station that after the initial escape-related damage was repaired, follow-up inspections uncovered significant plumbing, electrical, and fire-safety deficiencies throughout the building.
Among the fixes now required are a new fire-sprinkler system, relocation of the jail’s computer and IT room from upstairs to downstairs, further plumbing and electrical repairs, and painting cells while addressing other habitability concerns.
According to that report, the county has already spent about $98,000 from its general fund on jail repairs and now expects total costs to land somewhere between $200,000 and $250,000 before inmates can return. Officials also said Perry County previously received roughly $200,000 in COVID-19 funding to retrofit the jail but was forced to return about $150,000 of that grant when the county could not complete the work within the required time frame.
Because the building remains closed, inmates are being held hours away from Perry County, making it more difficult and expensive for families to visit and for deputies to transport prisoners back and forth for court dates. County leaders said that rising repair expenses have also led them to temporarily furlough jail employees, though sheriff’s office staff will continue operating out of other county facilities, including the Albert Turner Sr. Annex.
County officials had expressed hope that the most urgent repairs could be finished by late February, but also cautioned that the timeline will depend on contractor availability and the installation schedule for the new sprinkler system. Until then, Perry County inmates will remain housed in other counties, and the James Hood Detention Facility will stay dark while the county tries to bring it back into compliance.
