How to find someone in jail

Begin with the law enforcement agency for the city or county where the arrest happened. Intake at a local detention center happens first, with police officers bringing people there before any court appearance.

Do these steps in the order listed:

1. Type the person's last name into the local sheriff's online jail roster.
2. If the arrest was only a few hours ago, phone the facility's intake line at a local jail number.
3. Look up free custody status and case details on VINE online or in its iOS and Android app.
4. When the person has already been sentenced, reach out to the state department of corrections, which USAGov recommends for state and local prison records.

Where states adopt the service, VINE sends real-time alerts 24/7/365 by text message, email, phone call, or in-app notification. In New York, Queens County Supreme Court notes you can also call 1-888-846-3469 from a touch-tone phone.

County detention centers take in newly arrested people for city police departments as well as county deputies. Even after a traffic stop, city officers often drive the person to the county's central intake building.

Several intake buildings may operate at the same time in large counties. Anyone needing to know how to find out if someone is in jail tonight should call the county's intake desk directly. The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office in Ohio, for instance, posts a dedicated intake line at 513-946-6139.

Once intake paperwork is finished, an online custody database shows the booking number, housing location, and current case details. A name stays off the website until staff put the person who was arrested into the computer during booking.

Compared with county systems, state databases refresh less often, and records in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections locator get updated every day.

City correction departments and sheriff's offices publish public logs that list recent departures and new intakes. Police may still hold someone at a local station, not the main jail, in the hours right after an arrest.

In some counties, you can also see who got arrested and has already been released from custody. Within Iowa, the Polk County Jail site lists releases covering the last 24 hours and the day before. You can also search records from the previous 365 days there.

Rather than photographs, most government custody lookups display only text, like names, birth years, and ID numbers. If people share a name, phone the intake desk and have the clerk check the booking number and birth year.

A projected discharge day is often posted in custody lookups, but a court hearing or a bail payment can move the day someone gets out. Families don't usually get a call from jail staff when someone is about to get out.

In Alabama, the Madison County Sheriff's Office makes no release calls, so you'll have to sign up with VINE. Federal prisoners in custody from 1982 onward have an expected inmate release date listed in the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator. But the First Step Act is causing federal sentences to be recalculated, so check back periodically for changes.

Get two details from the jail once discharge is approved: the pickup location, and how belongings come back.

If no record shows up, it usually means intake is still in progress, the person is under 18, or another government agency is holding them. People held in a local county detention center won't appear in state prison databases.

Only state custody is covered by state prison tools. Another option is a federal search on the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator. When the result reads Released, or Not in BOP Custody, and lists no facility, the person has left federal prison. Another law enforcement agency may still hold them, or they may be on parole, which means release in the community under supervision.

For immigration detention, the ICE Online Detainee Locator System is the tool to use. Use it to find adults 18 and older: people in ICE custody, or people Customs and Border Protection has held for more than 48 hours. Type in the 9-digit A-Number with leading zeros added if needed, and pick the country of birth.