The jail staff is responsible for booking and processing all persons arrested by city police personnel, as well as holding some county inmates waiting a court hearing. The jail staff is responsible for the safety and welfare of those incarcerated, as well as fingerprinting and photographing persons for applications for employment, special permits, visas, and passports.

The Kingsport City Jail is a state certified 72-hour, short term holding facility. During 2009, the jail staff processed 4,054 persons for 8,078 charges. The number of prisoners processed as well as the number of charges placed decreased in 2009. The jail staff submitted 3,378 fingerprint cards to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for processing via the Automated Fingerprint Identification System in 2009 with an error rejection rate of .036%, well under the 18% error rate allowed by law.