The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Department of Corrections is made up of 686 certified corrections officers and civilian personnel and encompasses three correctional facilities for the secure, humane, corrective and productive detention of individuals incarcerated in Duval County. The largest of these facilities is the John E. Goode Pretrial Detention Facility (PDF) located in downtown Jacksonville, adjacent to the Police Memorial Building and conveniently located near the Duval County Court House. A state-of-the-art facility when opened in April 1991, the PDF is a twelve-story building with an inmate capacity of 2,189. All individuals arrested in Duval County pass through the portals of the PDF where they are booked on their criminal charges. Prior to a first appearance hearing many individuals will be released through various legal avenues. Individuals not eligible for release will be housed at PDF until disposition of the criminal charges.

Supervised prisoner crews operating under strict guidelines work in many troublesome areas where citizens dump trash, where deterioration of a neighborhood has occurred, and other "critical-need" areas where citizens have asked for help. MCC goes beyond the "warehousing" of prisoners concept to try and give prisoners a skill they can use upon their release back into the community, while at the same time, creating a prison environment of strict discipline to assist them in rebuilding a positive character.

Our other facility is the Community Corrections Division which is a work release center. Eleven years ago, the Department of Corrections working in adjunct with the court system and community based substance abuse treatment programs set-up an in-house Substance Abuse Treatment Program (S.A.T.) for male and female inmates. Corrections personnel assigned to CCD also monitor a Week-end Commitment program and a Home Detention Program for another several hundred inmates.

These three facilities together house a total of 3,148 inmates. It is important to note that while we do offer a wide variety of programs designated to bring about positive change in the lives of inmates, there are certain aspects aside from the obvious one of having one's societal freedom denied that are reminders that jail is not a place to be. The following policies differentiate a corrections setting in a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office facility from other detention facilities nationwide.

1. Inmates are not served coffee while incarcerated.
2. JSO does  not provide television. However, an abundance of acceptable reading materials are available (no pornographic materials allowed).
3. No smoking or other tobacco products are allowed.
4. Inmates are afforded opportunities to exercise outside of their cells. However, they will not find weights or body building facilities.
5. Sentenced inmates are put to work in a number of different areas: Some are assigned to housekeeping and maintenance in the corrections facility, some are assigned to supervised community work crews, cleaning public property and some are assigned to a chain gang where they work to clean our ditches and roadways.
6. Each inmate is served a nutritious meal three times a day. These meals are planned by our in-house dietician. Inmates receive a bologna sandwich for their lunch, along with fruit. To ensure no religious edicts are compromised, we do not serve pork.

More information on the Department of Corrections can be found by viewing the Sheriff's Office Department of Corrections 2005 Annual Report