Colorado inmate search

County sheriffs in Colorado operate the local jails where people are held after an arrest. Every sheriff keeps separate custody records, so you must contact the county where the arrest occurred.

Denver is a consolidated city and county, and its Denver Sheriff Department runs 2 sites: Downtown Detention Center plus Denver County Jail. Families will never get a call from deputies demanding money for a release.

Within Mesa County, the Mesa County Sheriff's Office is the agency operating the Mesa County Detention Facility. Anyone booked there usually appears before a judge no more than 48 hours after booking. You can pay cash bonds at the Sheriff's Records lobby or online after calling 970-244-3960.

Every county sheriff has a separate lookup tool, so what you see depends on the jail. Because the jail booking process is slow to post a name online, call the jail directly when a booking just happened.

The Mesa County Detention Facility roster lets you look someone up by booking number, last name, or date of birth. The roster gives the names of people held there now, along with bond. That bond appears only once a judge has seen the person, no later than 48 hours after booking.

You won't find booking photos on the Denver Sheriff Department inmate search. To get photos, you must email the Denver Police Department.

Also called CDOC, the Colorado Department of Corrections holds people who are serving a state prison sentence following a conviction. Recent local arrests and people awaiting a county trial won't appear here, because those people are held by county sheriffs in local jails.

Use the CDOC Offender Search tool to find a state prisoner. The department reports ongoing technical problems with this locator, so a search may come back with no results or old records. When the online search returns blank or outdated details, phone the department directly and ask where the person is housed.

Also known as COVINE, Colorado VINE lets you check the custody status of inmates held in participating Colorado county jails. The Larimer County Sheriff's Office VINE resource says the service operates in partnership with the County Sheriffs of Colorado.

After you find the person, you can register to get automatic updates about custody status at no cost. That's useful while you wait for word of a release or a transfer. If you don't have internet access, call the toll-free COVINE line 24 hours a day at 1-888-263-8463 to check custody or register.

SB20-161 requires every county to run a pretrial services program, although money bail is still allowed. A judge has 4 types of release to choose from:

• A promise to come back to court without paying money, called an unsecured personal recognizance bond
• An unsecured personal recognizance bond that adds conditions other than money
• Bond with a monetary condition
• A bond carrying secured real estate conditions

You can skip paying the entire cash bail by paying a fee known as a premium to a bail bonding agent, who posts a bail bond that guarantees court appearance. No state rule fixes a percentage for this fee. Still, the Code of Colorado Regulations requires cash-bonding agents and professional cash-bail agents to file a Premium Fee Statement each year by January 15. A $50,000 qualification bond is also posted by professional cash-bail agents. Complaints about overcharging go to the Colorado Division of Insurance, the regulator for these agents. See C.R.S. § 10-2-415.5, §§ 10-2-404 to 406, and §§ 10-23-102 to 10-23-105.