Merced books its new arrestees downtown at the Main Jail, 700 West 22nd Street, Merced, CA 95340 (209-385-7410). Many people are then moved about 15 miles south to the county's larger adult correctional center on West Sandy Mush Road in El Nido (209-385-7575), where most longer stays happen.

Merced County Inmate Search covers both jails and gives the housing site. Call 209-385-7410 for a booking that's only hours old.

Jailed defendants are brought before a judge within two days, Sundays and holidays not counted, at the downtown criminal courthouse at 2260 N Street. Its clerk answers 209-725-4113. See Merced court steps.

Most charges have a schedule amount the family can post in full or bond through a licensed agent. A judge may change the amount at arraignment. California courts now must look at whether someone can pay before keeping them in on money bail. See the Merced bail guide.

The Public Defender has offices at 1944 M Street in Merced (209-385-7692) and 445 I Street in Los Banos (209-710-6030).

Ask which jail holds the person, then book a visit and bring photo ID. Visits at El Nido follow a different schedule from the Main Jail. See Merced visiting and video visits.

Envelopes need the inmate's booking number and must go to whichever of the two jails houses them. Merced guides: postal rules, trust deposits, store, phone credit, messaging, tablets.

Youths are held at the county's juvenile justice complex, 2840 West Sandy Mush Road (209-381-1400). Juvenile Probation is at 209-385-7494.

Hang up. Merced deputies never ask for bail over the phone, and payment apps aren't used for bail. Call the Main Jail at 209-385-7410 to get real answers.

Federal arrests come from teams from the FBI and the U.S. Marshals. The case is filed in the Eastern District of California's Fresno Division in the courthouse in Fresno: 2500 Tulare Street, Fresno, CA 93721. The clerk's line: 559-499-5600. The court also gets a background summary from pretrial services. An initial hearing comes quickly with a U.S. magistrate. There is no bail chart in a federal case. A bail hearing decides release or detention, run under the 1984 Bail Reform Act.

Search the county roster; there the hold can be listed. Before trial, the Marshals Service can house the inmate in local jails. The Marshals Service office covering the Eastern District of California sits at 2500 Tulare Street, Suite 3501, Fresno, CA 93721. Phone 559-442-2858 to find a federal prisoner. After sentencing to prison, your loved one transfers to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), in most cases after some weeks. Find your loved one with the BOP inmate locator.

• Right after arrest, the person's prints are sent to federal databases. ICE can then file a detainer.
• With a detainer, the jail is asked to keep the person pending ICE pickup up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)). Merced jail staff apply California's SB 54, releasing people when the county case permits and limiting ICE cooperation, such as a transfer, to a judicial warrant in hand or a qualifying serious conviction.
• Making bail won't erase the detainer.
• Officers from ICE usually come for them before the deadline. If ICE stays away, this means release.
• Find the inmate on the locator once ICE takes custody; enter your loved one's A-number and birth country. Anyone lacking your loved one's A-number can use nation of birth, the day they were born and your loved one's full name.
• Only ICE picks the next facility.
• ICE manages detainers here out of its San Francisco office, at 630 Sansome Street, Room 590, San Francisco, CA 94111, tel. 415-365-8800.

If the court imposes prison time, the inmate is now a CDCR inmate under California's corrections department. The person waits in the local jail until the CDCR picks them up, which may take weeks. After that, the CDCR moves them to an intake unit to be processed. There, staff look up gang affiliation, their risk level, and medical and mental care. The next stop is a unit that fits them.

Check the CDCR inmate locator to see their unit. For prison details, see California prison pages.

No. The Merced jail roster gives Merced booking details without mugshots.

Section 13665 is the key law. It covers social media posts. It applies to most nonviolent arrests. Police can't post those mugshots online there. Posts must come down within 14 days. Exceptions exist for fugitives and public threats. The rule skips the sheriff's own site. Still, most California rosters show no photos.

For an ICE mugshot, send ICE's online public records request and wait for ICE's answer. Phone sheriff's staff at 209-385-7445 if you're a reporter seeking a mugshot that isn't public. The press and families cannot get federal booking photos. Federal officials hold mugshots back. The Marshals Service shares one only for a wanted person, to help make an arrest or alert people or when there is an urgent safety need.

• Merced Police non-emergency: 209-385-6905
• Los Banos Police non-emergency: 209-827-7070
• Atwater Police non-emergency: 209-357-6396
• Merced County Sheriff's Office: 209-385-7445

Livingston, Gustine and Dos Palos also have police departments.

Quite likely. Sheriff's deputies and police in Atwater, Los Banos and Livingston bring warrant arrests to the 22nd Street jail, and Dos Palos and Delhi arrests land there too. Search a name in the Superior Court's online records search to see the case. The Sheriff's Office checks local and statewide warrants by name over the phone. Carrying a warrant yourself? Defense attorneys here arrange surrenders often, and the West 21st Street clerk (209-725-4100) can tell you how to come back to court.