Every agency in the county, from Jackson police to the California Highway Patrol on Highway 88, books adults into the Amador County Jail in Jackson, next to the Sheriff's office. It is a small jail, so people with long sentences sometimes serve part of them on alternative programs. Note that Mule Creek State Prison near Ione holds state prisoners only; it is not Amador's jail.

Enter the last name in Amador County Inmate Search. If nothing comes up, call 209-223-6521. Have a birth date ready.

The Superior Court is at 500 Argonaut Lane in Jackson (criminal clerk 209-257-2604). Jailed Amador defendants reach a judge inside two days (Sundays and holidays excluded), often on video from the jail. See Amador court steps.

People held in the Jackson jail attend court in person or by video, whichever the court arranges, and CourtCall bookings belong to the parties in a case. Anyone who is a party in a separate civil, family or probate case can register with CourtCall if that judge allows it.

The court's judges set a countywide bail schedule. The jail can release someone who posts that amount, in cash or with a licensed bondsman, before arraignment. The judge reviews it at the hearing and must weigh ability to pay. Our Amador bail guide has more.

Yes. The Public Defender's office is at 201 Clinton Road in Jackson (209-223-0877). The judge appoints it at arraignment when a person can't afford a lawyer.

Visits are scheduled ahead, and visitors must bring photo ID. A jail this small runs a tight schedule, so call 209-223-6521 for current times. See Amador visiting and video visits from home.

Letters reach Amador inmates at 700 Court Street, Jackson, CA 95642, with the booking number under the name. Plain paper only. See mail rules, deposits, commissary, calls, messages and tablets.

Jail medical staff screen people at booking. Call the jail with the medicine name, dose and prescribing doctor so a nurse can verify it.

Amador County has no juvenile hall. Probation (209-223-6229) sends youths who must be detained to another county's facility under contract, mainly El Dorado County's Juvenile Treatment Center in South Lake Tahoe. Juvenile cases are confidential.

Treat it as fraud. Amador deputies and the Jackson court only take bail at the jail or the clerk's window, never by gift card. Ring 209-223-6521 on your own.

It usually starts when the IRS and the Secret Service make the arrest. Federal hearings in this county happen in the federal building in Sacramento, 501 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814, for the Eastern District of California, Sacramento Division. The clerk in Sacramento takes calls at 916-930-4000. Within a day or so, the inmate meets a federal magistrate judge. Release isn't a preset figure in the federal courts. Applying the 1984 bail statute, the judge runs a short hearing to decide what conditions apply. Pretrial services interviews the inmate and gives advice to the judge.

Check the county inmate list; there the hold might appear. Before trial, U.S. Marshals can place federal prisoners in a county jail. The district's Marshals office in Sacramento can say where they're held: 916-930-2030, 501 I Street, Suite 5600, Sacramento, CA 95814. A federal prison sentence means a transfer into Federal prison, sometimes weeks later. The federal inmate locator shows where they're held.

• During booking, fingerprints go to Homeland Security. If ICE decides the inmate may be deportable, it may send a detainer.
• With the I-247A, ICE asks the Jackson jail to hold the inmate for federal agents up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)). In Jackson, the jail releases people on the local schedule under California's Values Act (Gov. Code 7284.6), sharing release details with ICE or transferring someone only when a judge signed a warrant or certain serious convictions apply. After those 48 hours end, the hold request has run its course.
• A posted bail does not clear an ICE hold.
• Immigration officers usually come for them before time runs out. If ICE never collects them, that means the person goes free.
• Loved ones can look for them online at the locator site; it needs the person's A-number plus their birth country. Without the person's A-number? Use the person's full name with DOB and native country instead.
• This area is handled by ICE's San Francisco ERO office, at 630 Sansome Street, Room 590, San Francisco, CA 94111, phone 415-365-8800.
• The next stop is up to ICE.

California's prison system, the CDCR, houses people sentenced to state time. The person usually waits in the Jackson jail for a state transfer. Their first stop is a reception unit for processing. Staff sort each person for security level, gang connections, and medical and mental care. The next move is a facility that matches them.

Families can search for them by name with the CDCR inmate locator. For visits and mail, read our California prison guide.

You can find a Amador name in the Amador jail roster, but no mugshots come with it.

California's rule is Section 13665. It covers social media posts. Nonviolent arrests are the main target. Agencies may not post those photos there. Photos posted there expire after 14 days. Fugitives and threats are the exceptions. The rule skips the sheriff's own site. Many California jails post no pictures at all.

Media outlets after an arrest photo can ring the sheriff's office on 209-223-6513. To get an immigration mugshot, file ICE's online FOIA request. ICE has to approve it. Families and reporters cannot see federal mugshots most often. Only in narrow cases, the U.S. Marshals Service releases one: to find an escaped inmate or fugitive, if a photo might help track them down, warn locals, or meet a pressing public safety need.

• Jackson Police: 209-223-1771
• Ione Police: 209-274-2456
• Sutter Creek Police: 209-267-5646
• Amador County Sheriff's Office non-emergency dispatch: 209-223-6513

Plymouth, Amador City and rural areas are covered by the Sheriff.

If the trouble began with a missed hearing, the Superior Court clerk on Argonaut Lane, 209-257-2600, is a friendly place to start; staff can say whether the judge will reset it. The court's online case search shows open cases too. Amador Sheriff's deputies serve nearly every local warrant along Highway 49 and confirm them by phone, statewide hits included. A quieter route than waiting for a knock on the door is a surrender planned by a lawyer, at a time agreed with the Court Street jail. Bring a photo ID and any paperwork from the case when you go.