Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin says Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway and leaders on the Jefferson County Commission are unfairly blocking the city’s use of the county jail and the city is suing to resolve the issue.

Woodfin, who complained that the county was initially attempting to overcharge the city, sued Pettway today and is asking a judge to order the county to sign required state forms and accept inmates from the city.

Woodfin called the lawsuit in Jefferson County Circuit Court a move of last resort.

“The City of Birmingham contends that Sheriff Pettway is required by … Alabama laws and Rules of Court, to accept into custody at the Jefferson County Jail individuals arrested by Birmingham Police officers … ” city lawyers wrote in the suit.

Birmingham for years has faced a lingering question surrounding its aging city jail and its challenged conditions. The county jail already housed people arrested on felony charges. Woodfin said the city reached an arrangement with the sheriff to house its inmates.

For a brief period, people arrested for misdemeanor offenses in Birmingham were taken to the Jefferson County jail, rather than city jail. That started on Jan. 1 of this year.

But the deal soured in less than two weeks when Pettway refused to house additional city inmates, said Woodfin. He said negotiations collapsed over how much the city would have to pay the county.

David Agee, deputy chief for the Jefferson County sheriff, said Pettway is aware of the lawsuit but declined to comment about it. “We cannot respond to pending litigation and it will be addressed in a court setting.”

Jimmie Stephens, president of the Jefferson County Commission, said it wasn’t the county’s role to absorb over the city’s jail services.

“I do not feel it is the Jefferson County Commission’s responsibility to bail that city of Birmingham out of a problem that they created for themselves,” Stephens told AL.com this morning. “Jefferson County put taxpayer dollars into our facility to make sure that it was up to date and was able to service the citizens of Jefferson County. The city of Birmingham did not do that.”

Stephens said he has met with Woodfin to discuss the jail issue, but the mayor failed to present a long term goal. He also said there are already about 850 inmates in the county jail that holds 1,053 people.

“If we were to take the city of Birmingham’s prisoners, we would be obligated to take the prisoners from all 32 municipalities,” Stephens said. “That would throw the jail directly into an overcrowding situation and cause an undue hardship on the citizens of Jefferson County to have to pay for a new facility.”

The mayor said talks with Pettway and the commission go back two years. He also said Stephens tried to gouge Birmingham by charging exorbitant rates compared to what other cities were charged.

A breakdown between Woodin and the county came in 2023 when Stephens called for $110 per inmate per day at $3 million a year versus the previous $65 daily rate at $1.77 million annually. Woodfin called that rate unfair when other cities, such as Tarrant, pay the $65 rate.

Regarding the rate Tarrant paid to use the county jail, Stephens called the mayor’s comparisons imbalanced because that arrangement was temporary – just six weeks – while that city worked on upgrades to its own jail. Just six inmates were housed during that time, he said.

“You can compare apples to oranges all day long. They are both fruit, but they don’t taste anything alike,” Stephens said.

Still, a workaround was found in late December with Pettway accepting the inmates under the state statue.

Woodin stressed that today’s lawsuit was not a personal attack on Pettway. Woodfin offered his strongest criticism to the Jefferson County Commission leadership, which has authority over Pettway’s budget.

Instead, Woodfin singled out  Stephens, with whom he has clashed over price negotiations for housing city inmates.  He said Stephens leads a group of commissioners with a political vendetta against the city.

The five-member county commission has a three-member Republican majority and two Democrats from Birmingham. Pettway is also a Democrat.

“Partisan politics play a deep role in this,” Woodfin said. “We are victims of that.”

Cities do not have to operate jails, but counties do, under the state regulation.

Charging misdemeanor offenses using state statutes rather than municipal codes puts defendants under the custody of the county instead of the city. Woodfin’s lawsuit asks a judge to order Pettway to follow the state law and accept Birmingham’s prisoners.

The county is not reimbursed for prisoners charged through this process.

Stephens, who objected to the partnership, said in late December that Pettway had assured him that he would not accept the city’s inmates. Stephens at the time told AL.com that the county jail was already 85 percent full, and that adding misdemeanor city inmates would add to the burden.

He has called the arrangement between Pettway and Woodfin a manipulation of the law that set a new and expensive precedent that could cost the county.

Stephens today stands by his previous statements.

“So if the responsibility falls upon me, so be it,” he said in an interview today. “I am going to do what is in the best interest of all citizens of Jefferson County.”