The Garland Detention Center is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operation for the temporary confinement of pre-trial individuals involved in the judicial process, as well as those individuals serving time assessed on misdemeanor Garland Municipal Court cases. City detention centers house pre-trial prisoners, thereby holding individuals who are presumed innocent, yet require maximum security prior to trial. Pre-trial prisoners, who unable to secure a release, will be held only a minimal time before being transported to another detention facility.

The mission of the Garland Detention Center is to provide clean and sanitary facilities for prisoners during their time of confinement. Every effort is made to provide humane treatment for each prisoner, and to insure their constitutional rights are protected while still maintaining necessary security.

The Garland Detention Center, in recent years, has consistently been one of the busiest jails in Dallas County, second only to the Dallas County Jail. The detention center has a capacity of 137 adult prisoners, plus a holding area for detained juveniles. Juveniles are normally not held more than six hours without either being released to a parent or guardian, or transferred to a Dallas County Juvenile Department detention facility.
 
Because of the volume of arrests throughout the year, prisoners charged with Class B misdemeanors or higher are transported to the Dallas County Jail as soon as their case is ready to be filed with the Dallas County District Attorney’s office.