Look Up Madison County Jail Inmates

Madison County Jail Overview

Madison County Jail is a county jail and local confinement facility operated by the Madison County Sheriff's Office. The jail and sheriff's office use the same public address: 348 Medical Park Drive, Marshall, NC 28753. The sheriff is J.E. "Buddy" Harwood. The North Carolina Sheriffs' Association profile gives a direct jail number of 828-649-1877, while the sheriff's main office number is 828-649-2721 and fax is 828-649-2485.

The facility holds adults accused of crimes, adults awaiting first appearance or trial, defendants held on bond or no-bond orders, sentenced misdemeanants serving local time, and people held temporarily for court, transport, or other lawful local holds. No separate adult city jail, regional adult jail, federal detention center, ICE detention facility, or NCDAC state prison was found in Madison County. Local arrests from Marshall, Mars Hill, Hot Springs, or state agencies generally route back to the county jail, magistrate/court process, NC VINE, or NCDAC after sentencing.

Address, Phone, and Contact Card

Use the jail phone for immediate custody, visitation, mail, bond, and vendor questions. Use the written sheriff records process for formal records requests. The sheriff policy names Ashlynn Quintero or a successor as the records-process contact for sheriff records.

Madison County Jail Capacity and Population

The county's official pages reviewed for this project did not publish a current jail population dashboard, average daily population, or live roster count. A professional detention directory, the 2025 North Carolina Jail Administrators Association detention facility resource directory, reports Madison County Jail with a rated capacity of 68. Because that figure was not located on a county .gov capacity page, it should be read as NCJAA-reported rather than county-published.

No occupancy percentage should be calculated from these sources because there is no verified current population denominator from Madison County. For a broader county inmate population discussion, start at the Madison County inmate population home page.

How to Look Up an Inmate at Madison County Jail

No official Madison County NC county-hosted public inmate roster was found in the county or sheriff sources reviewed. The reliable lookup path is a fallback chain: call the jail for current custody, use the sheriff records request for non-exempt booking records, use NC VINE for custody notifications, use court records for charges and hearings, and use NCDAC only after the person is in state prison, probation, parole, or historical state custody.

1. Call Madison County Jail at 828-649-1877. Provide full name, date of birth if known, approximate arrest date, arresting agency, and any case or warrant number.
2. If a booking record, jail log entry, bond status, or booking photo is needed, submit a written sheriff public-records request by email, mail, or delivery.
3. Use NC VINE for custody-status notifications. VINE is useful when a person may move across jail, prison, probation, or parole status.
4. For charges, hearings, and court outcomes after a jail arrest, use the North Carolina eCourts portal or the clerk's office process described on Court Records After Jail Arrest.
5. Use the NCDAC Offender Public Information Search only for state prisoners, probationers, parolees, or historical state offender records. NCDAC says it does not include county jail information.

More detail on current and released jail records is available at Madison County Jail Inmate Records.

Visiting Someone at Madison County Jail

No official Madison County adult jail visitation schedule, dress code, ID rule, visitor entrance instruction, remote-video vendor, or holiday visitation rule was located in the official sources reviewed. That should be treated as a records gap, not as permission to borrow rules from another Madison County in another state or from a third-party jail page. Call the jail before traveling, especially if the person's custody status, housing classification, court movement, repair work, weather, or lockdown status may affect visiting.

Mail, Phone, and Money at Madison County Jail

No official Madison County jail mail format, scanned-mail vendor, inmate phone provider, tablet provider, commissary vendor, lobby kiosk rule, remote deposit provider, or fee table was located in the official source set. Do not pay a vendor, mail money, or send publications based only on an unverified search result. The safest approach is to call the jail first and ask for the current facility rule.

NCDAC money, phone, and tablet rules are state-prison rules, not Madison County Jail rules. A person sentenced to state prison may use NCDAC/ViaPath procedures after transfer, but those procedures should not be imported into the county jail page.

Booking, Intake, and Release

Madison County does not publish a detailed adult jail booking manual in the official sources reviewed, but the county detention-officer job description supports a local intake and custody workflow. Detention officers perform inmate intake, detention, care, and release work in the county detention center. They observe inmates, control behavior, move people internally and externally, transport inmates, and apply established jail procedures.

A typical Madison County arrest may involve arrest or surrender, transport to the jail or judicial official, identification, search and property inventory, fingerprints and booking photo, medical or mental-health screening, classification, first appearance and bond review, court case creation, and release or transfer. Release can occur by bond, court order, sentence served, dismissal, transfer to another county, transfer to NCDAC after sentencing, federal custody, ICE custody, or another lawful hold resolving.

For immediate bond questions, call the jail or Madison County magistrates. The research file lists magistrates at 828-649-2442 and the courthouse main/clerk number at 828-649-2200. Do not assume an online bond payment method or 24-hour payment rule from an unofficial source.

Jail Records Requests

The Madison County Sheriff's public-records policy is the main formal access route because no official county jail roster was found. Written requests can ask for booking records, arrest or commitment records, jail logs, bond information, release or transfer status, and booking photographs if available for public release. A strong request identifies the person, date of birth, arrest or booking date, arresting agency, charge or case number, and the specific record sought.

The sheriff normally acknowledges receipt within two business days. For requests that do not require extensive research, IT, or clerical resources, the office normally provides a follow-up within five business days. Email attachment or link delivery under 10 MB is free. Paper copies are $0.03 per single-sided 8.5x11 page or $0.05 per double-sided page. Physical media is charged at market rate, extensive special service can be billed at $20 per hour in six-minute increments, and a 75% deposit may be required when estimated fees exceed $50.

Jail Pod Restoration and Facility Repairs

Madison County issued a 2026 invitation to bid for Jail Pod Restoration and Facility Repairs at 348 Medical Park Drive in Marshall. The official bid materials describe refurbishment and restoration of existing prefabricated steel cells and locations in the facility. The scope includes removing coatings, fixtures, accessories, and damaged sections; replacing damaged cell wall and flooring sections; installing fixtures and equipment; applying coatings inside existing steel cells; and installing wall and floor finishes.

This repair information confirms active county facility work at the jail address, but it should not be overstated. The bid supports a facility-conditions note; it does not by itself prove overcrowding, unsafe conditions, a closure, or a change in public visitation. Call the jail before visiting because repair work, staffing, classification, court movement, weather, or lockdown may affect access.

Standards, Inspection, and Medical Care

Madison County Jail is governed by North Carolina local confinement standards. The N.C. DHHS Division of Health Service Regulation Jails and Detention Unit conducts semiannual inspections of county, municipal, and regional jails and monitors compliance with 10A NCAC 14J. Those rules address classification, housing, capacity, supervision, sanitation, medical, and facility operations.

N.C. Gen. Stat. 153A-221 requires minimum standards for secure custody, prisoner health and welfare, and humane treatment. N.C. Gen. Stat. 153A-225 requires a medical-care plan for local confinement facilities. Death-in-custody reporting also applies to local jails, state prisons, arrest-related custody, transport to incarceration, and other correctional settings.

Directions to Madison County Jail

Use 348 Medical Park Drive, Marshall, NC 28753 for maps and routing. The jail is in Marshall, off the US 25/70 corridor serving central Madison County. Drivers from Asheville or Weaverville generally approach through US 25/70 toward Marshall. Drivers from Mars Hill generally approach south or west toward Marshall before routing to Medical Park Drive. Drivers from Hot Springs generally follow the river and highway corridor toward Marshall.

Official sources reviewed do not publish a visitor parking map, public-transit route, parking fee, ADA entrance rule, locker policy, lobby hours, or visitor entrance procedure for the adult jail. Confirm parking, entrance, ID, prohibited property, and accessibility needs directly with the jail before arriving.