Search the Meade County Inmate Population

Meade County Inmate Population Overview

The Meade County inmate population is reported through two local Kentucky Department of Corrections jail-report lines. The secure jail is the Meade County Detention Center in Brandenburg. A second line, Meade JRC, covers Jail Restricted Custody beds tied to community or minimum-custody housing. Both are local jail population measures, not a count of every person from Meade County who may later move into a state prison or federal system.

The most current inspected official population source in the research is the Kentucky DOC Weekly Jail report for June 4, 2026. It reported 67 people in the secure Meade jail and 15 people in Meade JRC. Together, those two lines put the local Meade County inmate population at 82 people in 173 reported beds on that date. That count can change with arrests, bond decisions, court holds, state controlled intake, parole matters, and transfers.

Meade County Inmate Population Statistics

The local jail count is best read as a point-in-time figure. The DOC report separates the locked secure jail from the JRC line, which helps explain why a person may be in Meade County custody but not in the same security setting as a new arrest. Secure jail beds cover normal jail custody. JRC beds are a restricted-custody section used for lower-risk community or minimum-custody housing.

The Kentucky DOC weekly jail archive is the source used for the current capacity and population figures. The archive screenshot below shows where the statewide weekly reports are published. Meade readers should use the report date when comparing jail capacity because weekly snapshots can move up or down.

The archive is useful when a current roster does not answer a population question. It does not replace the jail roster for a named inmate search, but it confirms bed counts, population totals, and custody categories.

Meade County Jail Population Trends

Trend data in the research is limited to captured DOC weekly jail report snippets and the June 2026 report. Those snippets still show a useful pattern. The secure jail stayed below its 93-bed reported capacity in the captured 2026 weeks, while the JRC line stayed far below its 80-bed capacity. No official annual booking count, average length of stay, age table, or race and ethnicity table was located in the Meade sources.

The trend table should be read with care because some search snippets did not capture every secure jail row. Where the secure figure was not captured, the table keeps the gap rather than guessing. That is important for jail population work because a missing row is not the same as a zero count.

Meade County Custody Breakdown

The June 4, 2026 DOC rows give operational custody categories rather than a full demographic profile. The secure jail line showed 47 secure male inmates, 12 secure female inmates, 2 non-secure male inmates, and 6 non-secure female inmates. The same row also reported 20 Class D inmates, 2 community-custody eligible inmates, 4 controlled-intake inmates, and no federal inmates.

Meade JRC was narrower. It showed 15 non-secure male inmates and no non-secure female inmates. The JRC row included 9 Class D inmates, 5 community-custody eligible inmates, 1 alternative-sentence inmate, and no federal inmates. Class D is a Kentucky lower-level felony category. Controlled intake is a state-prison management category that can leave state-sentenced inmates temporarily housed in local jails.

Secure custody

Locked jail housing for normal local detention needs.

JRC

Jail Restricted Custody beds used for community or minimum-custody housing.

Controlled intake

A Kentucky DOC category tied to state-prison intake management.

Detainer

A hold or notice from another agency that may affect release.

Laws Governing Meade County Inmates

Kentucky law shapes both the jail population and the public access route for records. KRS 441.025 requires county fiscal courts to provide incarceration for prisoners arrested, sentenced, or held by court order. KRS 441.055 requires Kentucky DOC to adopt minimum jail standards for facilities housing state prisoners. Those laws explain why the DOC weekly report is a strong source for capacity and population data.

Records access runs through Kentucky's public-records law and local custodians. KRS 61.872 gives Kentucky residents the right to inspect public records unless an exemption applies. For booking photographs, KRS 61.8746 addresses commercial use of booking or official inmate photos when a publisher demands payment for removal. That law does not force the jail to post every mugshot online.

Search the Meade County Inmate Population

The current inmate search begins with the official detention-center path. The Meade County government page links to the detention-center website, and indexed official snippets identify a Current Inmate List on that jail domain. Direct access to that jail site failed during research, so the phone and records request fallback are not optional side notes. They are part of the Meade County inmate search process.

The Meade County detention-center page is the county source for the jail name, jailer, address, phone, fax, and link to the separate detention-center website. The screenshot below shows the county page that points users to the official jail site rather than to a commercial roster site.

Use the county page first, then the detention-center Current Inmate List if it loads. If it does not load, call the jail information line before assuming the person has been released or transferred.

1. Open the county detention-center page and follow the Detention Center Website link.
2. Use the Current Inmate List navigation item on the jail site when available.
3. If the roster fails, call the Meade County Detention Center at 270-422-2546.
4. For a sentenced state inmate or transfer, search Kentucky Online Offender Lookup.
5. For a court case after arrest, use KYeCourts public records guest access.
6. For custody notifications, use Kentucky VINE.

Meade County Roster Fields

The exact Meade current inmate list fields could not be inspected because the jail server reset direct connections from the research environment. The existence of the Current Inmate List is supported by official snippets from the detention-center domain. Because the field labels were not visible, the table preserves the known access point and marks the missing fields as unknown rather than using a generic jail roster format.

Older booking records, booking sheets, charge sheets, and booking photos should be requested through Meade County's open-records process when the live roster does not show the needed record.

Meade County Jail or State Prison

A Meade County jail search and a Kentucky DOC search answer different questions. The county roster covers current local custody, including new arrests, pretrial holds, short local sentences, and some state inmates held locally. KOOL covers Kentucky DOC offender records after a person enters the state corrections system or appears in DOC-linked data. Federal and immigration systems are separate again.

Meade County Detention Facilities

Meade County has no state prison, BOP federal prison, standalone ICE detention center, or separate municipal jail located in the official facility listings reviewed. The local detention infrastructure centers on the secure Meade County Detention Center and the separately reported JRC custody line on the same detention-center campus.

• Meade County Detention Center - the secure local jail for county arrests, court holds, sentenced misdemeanants, selected state inmates, parole violators, and other local holds.
• Meade Jail Restricted Custody - the JRC line for community or minimum-custody inmates reported separately by Kentucky DOC.

The two pages should not be read as two unrelated jails. They are separate custody topics because DOC reports them separately and because they serve different security and program roles.

Meade County Booking Records

When a person is no longer on the live roster, the next local channel is an open-records request. Meade County accepts requests through an online form, by email, and by mail. The request should name the person, date of arrest or booking, agency if known, case or citation number if known, and the exact record needed, such as booking sheet, booking photograph, bond sheet, or charge information.

The Meade County open-records page states that written copies cost 10 cents per page and non-written records are furnished at actual cost through the most economical process unlikely to damage or alter the record. The online form states that the Fiscal Court will respond within five working days and asks the requester to state Kentucky residency status.

Meade County Inmate Population FAQ