There is no county jail or sheriff in D.C. The city’s Department of Corrections (DOC) runs two adult buildings side by side in Southeast:

• Central Detention Facility, also known as the D.C. Jail, 1901 D Street SE, Washington, DC 20003. Men only, at low, medium and high custody. Command Center: 202-698-4932.
• Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF), 1901 E Street SE, Washington, DC 20003. It houses all women in DOC custody, plus some low and medium custody men and youths charged as adults. Command Center: 202-790-6601.

The DOC also places some women at Fairview, a privately run halfway house under contract, when a judge or the DOC allows it.

Call the DOC Records Office at 202-523-7060, or the Command Center at 202-698-4932 (D.C. Jail) or 202-790-6601 (CTF). Call either one. It gives general information on anyone at the D.C. Jail, CTF or a contract halfway house. Have the full name and date of birth ready, and the DCDC number (the DOC inmate ID) or MPD’s PDID number if you know them.

For online status and free alerts on moves or release, use VINELink and choose District of Columbia, or register by phone at 877-329-7894. The DOC explains both on its locate an inmate page. Our District of Columbia Inmate Search page gathers the links.

For the first day or so, people are with the police, not the DOC. They are booked at an MPD district station, then wait at the Central Cellblock, 300 Indiana Avenue NW (202-727-4222), for their first court hearing. Only those a judge holds are moved to 1901 D or E Street SE. Try the Cellblock or the station that made the arrest, or call Criminal Information at 202-879-1373 to check for a court date.

Yes. D.C. Superior Court publishes an active warrant list on its website. MPD can confirm a warrant too; call the district station for the area (numbers are in the last question). A person with a warrant should talk to a lawyer about turning in. The Public Defender Service (202-628-1200) can advise people who cannot pay a lawyer.

• Release terms come from a Superior Court judge at the first hearing.
• Arraignment Court C-10 opens at 11 a.m. weekdays and 12:30 p.m. Saturdays; no Sunday court.
• Most people go home on personal recognizance, often supervised by Pretrial Services.
• Cash bonds are uncommon and go only to the court.
• Criminal Finance Office, Room 4003, 500 Indiana Avenue NW: 202-879-1840.
• Cash or money order; no personal checks.
• Small weekend bonds under $1,000 may be paid electronically on request.
• Detention without bond is possible after a hearing.
• The DOC must release within 5 hours after a court-ordered release reaches the jail.
• Pretrial Services: 202-220-5500.

Read the full rundown on our District of Columbia bail page.

Felony presentments and serious U.S. misdemeanors are heard in Courtroom C-10 of the Moultrie Courthouse, 500 Indiana Avenue NW. D.C. misdemeanors and traffic crimes go to Courtrooms 310 and 316, and domestic violence cases to Courtroom 119. Charges are read aloud, counsel is named for anyone who needs it, the court rules on release and sets the next date. Our D.C. court process page explains the rest of the case.

Visits must be scheduled in advance, and many family visits take place by video. Ask the Command Center for the current rules, then read our visiting and video visit pages before you go.

Deposits fund the person’s commissary and phone accounts. Money orders can be mailed; never mail cash. Write the full name and DCDC number on every deposit. Our money and commissary pages list the current ways to pay.

People held by the DOC get a call at intake and then use phones in their housing unit. You cannot call in to them. Legal calls are set up on request. Read our phone, messaging and tablet guides.

Put the person’s full name and DCDC number on the first line, then the facility name and address: 1901 D Street SE for the D.C. Jail or 1901 E Street SE for CTF, Washington, DC 20003. Check our mail guide first.

The DOC keeps personal property for only 15 days because of limited storage. The person can authorize someone to pick it up, and that person must show current photo ID. ID cards and other documents are released only to the person named.

Youth charged in Family Court are held at the Youth Services Center, 1000 Mount Olivet Road NE, Washington, DC 20002, run by the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. Call 202-576-8418. Teens charged as adults go to CTF instead. Details are on the DYRS Youth Services Center page.

Call the Command Center for the building: 202-698-4932 for the D.C. Jail or 202-790-6601 for CTF. Give his full name, birth date and DCDC number and ask that the medical unit be told. His lawyer can also raise it with the judge.

Federal agents such as the FBI, ATF, DEA or Secret Service may make an arrest on a federal charge. The case goes to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse, 333 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20001. Clerk: 202-354-3000. The first hearing is before a U.S. magistrate judge. Federal court uses no bail schedule. Release depends on the Bail Reform Act, and a detention hearing is held if prosecutors ask for one.

If the person is not released, the U.S. Marshals Service decides where to hold them. That can be a local jail used by the Marshals, so call the DOC Records Office at 202-523-7060 to ask whether the person is at the D.C. Jail or CTF. The Federal Public Defender, 625 Indiana Avenue NW (202-208-7500), represents people who cannot pay.

After a federal sentence, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) assigns a federal prison and arranges the move. Track the person with the BOP inmate locator using a name or BOP register number.

Step 1. When MPD books someone, the prints go to the FBI, and ICE is alerted to possible matches.

Step 2. ICE may send a detainer on Form I-247A. It asks the jail to tell ICE before release and to hold the person up to 48 hours past their release time. That 48-hour clock never pauses; Saturdays, Sundays and holidays all count.

Step 3. D.C. law changes what happens next. Under D.C. Code 24-211.07, the District will not keep anyone past their release time for ICE without a warrant or order from an Article III federal judge or a U.S. magistrate judge. The I-247A by itself is not enough.

Step 4. Without such an order, the DOC also may not give ICE a person’s release date, address or photo, let ICE use jail space, or open the jail to ICE for a hand-off. Those limits do not apply to people held on federal criminal charges. ICE interviews need a judicial order or the person’s request, with a lawyer present unless the person waives one. The District does not ask about immigration status.

Step 5. The law does not block cooperation that federal law requires, or the sharing of citizenship and immigration status information under 8 U.S.C. 1373.

Step 6. If ICE takes custody, search the ICE detainee locator with a name and country of birth or an A-number. The ICE Washington Field Office, 14797 Murdock Street, Chantilly, Virginia, covers D.C. at 703-633-2100.

Under the National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act of 1997, anyone sentenced to prison for a D.C. Code felony serves that time with the federal Bureau of Prisons. They are not federal prisoners in the legal sense. The case stays a D.C. case, but the bed is federal. Until the BOP moves them, they wait at the D.C. Jail or CTF.

The BOP’s Designation and Sentence Computation Center in Grand Prairie, Texas, picks the prison after it gets the court’s sentencing papers, the probation report and Marshals records. It looks at the security level and supervision the person needs, medical and program needs, and the prison’s security. The BOP tries to place people within 500 driving miles of their release home, but a D.C. resident can be sent much farther. The BOP will not share a pending designation or transfer date. Read the BOP designations page.

Once moved, the person shows up on the BOP inmate locator. Our District of Columbia prisons page explains the background.

No. D.C. mugshots are not shown in the D.C. DOC inmate locator, and VINELink has no photos either. A photo taken at an MPD station belongs to the police department, so ask MPD in writing; the department decides whether to release it.

For a photo taken by ICE, submit an ICE FOIA request.

Federal booking photos are usually kept private. An exception: the Marshals Service sometimes releases a picture when it is hunting a dangerous fugitive or someone who escaped.

• DOC Records Office: 202-523-7060
• D.C. Jail Command Center: 202-698-4932
• CTF Command Center: 202-790-6601
• Central Cellblock: 202-727-4222
• Superior Court Criminal Information: 202-879-1373
• Public Defender Service: 202-628-1200

• MPD headquarters, 441 4th Street NW: 202-727-9099
• First District, 101 M Street SW: 202-698-0555
• Second District, 3320 Idaho Avenue NW: 202-715-7300
• Third District, 1620 V Street NW: 202-673-6815
• Fourth District, 6001 Georgia Avenue NW: 202-715-7400
• Fifth District, 1805 Bladensburg Road NE: 202-698-0150
• Sixth District, 5002 Hayes Street NE: 202-698-0880
• Seventh District, 2455 Alabama Avenue SE: 202-698-1500

Not sure which district? Use MPD’s district finder. In an emergency, call 911.