• Caldwell Correctional Center (sheriff): 671 Highway 845, Grayson, LA 71435, 318-649-5600.
• Sheriff's office: 201 Main Street, Suite 2, Columbia, LA 71418, 318-649-2345, business hours.
• Separate detention center: 701 Highway 845, not run by the sheriff, 318-649-2100.

Staff need a legal name and date of birth. In return you can learn custody status, the listed offenses, bail figure and booking number. If the center line is busy, try the sheriff's office.

Request it from the sheriff at 318-649-2345. Louisiana's Act 281, effective August 1, 2024, allows release before conviction. Removal sites that charge must delete a photo free within 7 days when the case is thrown out, never filed, pardoned or erased by expungement. ICE records go through ICE FOIA; federal photos belong to the U.S. Marshals. Caldwell's sheriff, not the local paper, controls whether a Grayson booking photo is handed to the press.

Bond or a transfer is likely. Neighboring jails: - Ouachita Parish Correctional Center - Jackson Parish Jail, 318-395-6400 - LaSalle Parish Jail, 318-992-7358 - Franklin Parish Detention Center - Catahoula Parish Jail - Winn Parish Detention Center

For small offenses in Columbia, Clarks or Grayson, officers often write a summons instead of making an arrest. Nobody is booked into the jail, but the person must show up on the court date printed on the paper, or a judge can issue a warrant.

Article 230.1 sets 72 hours from arrest, not counting weekend days or holidays, for a held person to see a judge. The 37th Judicial District judge reviews bail and counsel. If that window closes with no hearing, the person goes free on their own word.

A 37th district judge weighs the charge, past record and public safety before setting Caldwell bail. Relatives in Columbia can pay cash or pledge real estate, and some people go free on a signed promise. A licensed agent may post it for a fee of 12 percent or less. You can get the figure from the Grayson jail, then read our Caldwell bail guide. Bond records are kept by the Clerk of Court, 201 Main Street, Suite 1, Columbia, LA 71418, 318-649-2272; the mailing address is P.O. Box 1327.

Cases go to the 37th Judicial District Court at the Columbia courthouse. The district attorney's office prosecutes them from P.O. Box 839, Columbia, LA 71418, 318-649-7410. Grayson defendants unable to pay counsel are assigned the public defender at their first Caldwell hearing; that office serves only Caldwell and is at 301 Wall Street, Columbia, LA 71418, 318-649-2626, weekdays 8 to 5. See our court guide for more.

Call the jail at 318-649-5600, ask for the medical staff, and describe the prescriptions, doses and the pharmacy that fills them. Grayson medical staff make the final decision on what is given. If you fear the person may harm themselves, say so on that same call.

Call the Grayson jail at 318-649-5600 for current visiting hours and the ways to put money on an account, since those details change. Our general guides cover visiting, phone calls, messages, deposits and mail. For how jail store orders work in Grayson, read our jail store guide.

Usually a few hours after the bond clears, once the Highway 845 staff confirm no other parish or agency has a hold. Ask before you drive out, since the sheriff's office in Columbia and the correctional center in Grayson are separate stops.

Grayson often holds them until a state bed opens; then they go to intake. Try 225-383-4580 with the DOC number, or legal name and date of birth. Our Louisiana state prisons page lists sites.

Begin with the Caldwell sheriff's office at 318-649-2345, which handles warrants from the district court. If Columbia, Clarks or Grayson wrote the warrant, call that town hall, because each village handles its own minor cases. There's no posted list, and you can't search Louisiana warrants statewide online. When there is a warrant, the calmest route is surrendering at Caldwell Parish Correctional Center on Highway 845 with a lawyer. If it's for a missed hearing, the clerk's office, 201 Main Street, Suite 1, in Columbia, 318-649-2272, handles questions about getting back on the Columbia calendar.

Children under 17 are heard in juvenile court, and a judge there picks between Caldwell detention and sending the child home to family while the case goes on. Anyone who was 17 when charged on or after April 19, 2024, is treated as an adult and goes through the jail in Grayson.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, Monroe Division, hears it; clerk at 201 Jackson Street, Suite 215, Monroe, LA 71201, 318-322-6740. Under the Bail Reform Act (18 U.S.C. 3142), the magistrate judge uses a pretrial services report to decide on release with conditions or detention. The U.S. Marshals in Monroe, 201 Jackson Street, Room 213, Monroe, LA 71201, 318-322-8370, may place federal defendants in local jails. After sentencing, check the BOP inmate locator.

Fingerprints from a Caldwell booking reach federal record systems, and that can lead ICE to file a detainer. Paying the local bond will not remove it. The Grayson jail may keep the person up to 48 hours beyond their release so ICE can come, and without a pickup in that window, the hold ends. Act 314 of 2024 asks Louisiana agencies to cooperate with ICE. Check the ICE detainee locator, or call ICE's detention line for Louisiana at 888-351-4024.

Yes. Sign up for LA VINE, Louisiana's free alert service, with the person's name. It can call, text or email you, at no cost, when the Grayson jail releases or transfers them.

Fake bail calls do happen. Grayson never sells a release for gift cards or an app payment, so that caller is lying. End the call and phone Grayson directly at 318-649-5600 to check the real bond.

Louisiana law sets a limit. If the person stays in jail, the 37th district attorney must file charges within 30 days on a misdemeanor and 60 days on a felony, or 120 days if the crime carries a life term (C.Cr.P. art. 701). When the deadline passes, a Columbia judge holds a hearing and frees the person unless prosecutors show just cause.

Caldwell stands out for its rate: about 1,286 state inmates per 100,000 residents, and in Grayson's cases drug offenses outnumber violent ones. Most of them, 99 of 124, are held in local jails rather than state prisons. State figures for Grayson-area cases, from the DOC data files: - In DOC custody on Aug. 31, 2026: 124, about 1,286 per 100,000 residents. - Housed in local jails: 99 (80 percent). - Leading offense types: drug 34 percent, violent 27 percent. - Serving life: 4. - On probation or parole: 142 (56 on probation). - New admissions: 48 in 2025, 80 in 2019.

The Caldwell Parish Sheriff's Office, 318-649-2345, patrols the whole parish, including Riverton and the rural roads. The towns are small and are reached through their halls: Columbia at 318-649-6174, Clarks at 318-649-7218 and Grayson at 318-649-7148. Each town hall can connect you to its police chief. In an emergency, always dial 911.