The St. James Parish Detention Center is at 5800 Louisiana Highway 44, Convent, LA 70723. Call 225-562-2505 first, or the alternate jail line at 225-562-2504; the sheriff's dispatch at 225-562-2200 can also help after hours.

Start with the sheriff's inmate search. Online results can lag behind new bookings, so call 225-562-2505 to confirm custody and bond.

We couldn't confirm an online mugshot page for St. James, but the sheriff does release booking photos, so ask at 225-562-2378. Act 281 of 2024, in effect since August 1, 2024, allows release before trial. A paid-removal site has to delete a photo free within 7 days once it's shown proof of a dismissal, not-guilty finding, pardon or expungement. In Lutcher, ICE arrest photos are requested through ICE's FOIA office, federal arrest photos through the U.S. Marshals.

Try the St. John the Baptist jail in LaPlace at 985-359-8627, or the Ascension Parish Jail at 225-473-8674. The Lafourche Parish Correctional Complex answers at 985-449-4458.

Visiting and deposit rules at the Highway 44 center change, so call 225-562-2505 before you go. Our guides cover visits, mail, phone accounts, deposits and messages. How jail store orders work in Convent: our jail store guide.

Article 230.1 (text) sets a 72-hour limit, not counting weekends and holidays. A 23rd district judge at the Convent courthouse decides bail and any appointed lawyer; a missed deadline means release on recognizance.

Judges of the 23rd Judicial District decide the bond figure. Cash, property and signature bonds are all used, and a bondsman's fee can't exceed 12 percent. The clerk of court is in the same complex, P.O. Box 63, 225-562-2270. Our St. James bail guide walks through it.

The Convent courthouse hears these cases; the 23rd district attorney prosecutes. The public defender's office is on the courthouse's third floor and answers at 225-647-9673. Our court guide has more.

Tell booking staff every prescription and dose. St. James Parish arranges a jail doctor by yearly appointment or contract (R.S. 15:703), and that doctor decides what is dispensed at the Highway 44 center.

Release usually comes some hours after bond is posted. Before driving to Convent, call to ask if probation, ICE or another parish has filed a hold, because that would delay things.

A Convent hard-labor sentence transfers the person to the DOC, and about half of St. James's state inmates are held in local jails. Call 225-383-4580 for the facility; our Louisiana state prisons list describes each prison.

Call the sheriff's dispatch at 225-562-2200. Knowing which court wrote the warrant, and whether it lists a bond, tells you where to go next. The sheriff in Convent doesn't publish who is wanted, and Louisiana keeps no statewide search. An attorney can go with your relative to St. James Parish Jail Detention Center for the surrender. When a skipped Convent hearing caused it, the Highway 44 clerk, 225-562-2270, can say what the judge needs to reset it.

Under-17s go to juvenile court. Since April 19, 2024, Louisiana has prosecuted 17-year-olds as adults, so a 17-year-old arrested in St. James is booked into the Convent center.

St. James federal cases go to New Orleans, to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Its clerk is at 500 Poydras Street, Room C151, New Orleans, LA 70130, 504-589-7600, and custody before trial is decided under 18 U.S.C. 3142. The U.S. Marshals are in Suite 724, 504-589-6079, and the BOP inmate locator lists federal prisoners.

Booking prints from Highway 44 reach ICE, which may place a detainer. Posting bond won't drop it, but the extra stay is capped at 48 hours, and it expires unless ICE collects the person. Act 314 of 2024 requires Louisiana jails to cooperate. Search the ICE detainee locator; the field office is nearby at 181 James Drive W, St. Rose, LA 70087, detention line 888-351-4024.

Yes. Louisiana's free LA VINE service lets you register for an alert by call, text or email. You'll hear when someone at the Convent center is released or moved.

Call the center at 225-562-2505 to confirm the amount before paying. Bail for a St. James arrest is posted at the Highway 44 center or arranged with a licensed agent.

The detention center is at 5800 Louisiana Highway 44 in Convent, beside the parish courthouse; the Louisiana Sheriffs' Association lists 225-562-2504 as its prison phone, and the jail's main line is 225-562-2505. The 23rd Judicial District, which also covers Ascension and Assumption, holds St. James court sessions in Convent.

In Convent, a person who stays at the Highway 44 center must be charged within 30 days on a misdemeanor, 60 on a felony or 120 on a life-eligible offense (C.Cr.P. art. 701). A 23rd district judge then frees anyone the state cannot justify holding.

Convent arrests made with no warrant require a judicial probable-cause finding within 48 hours; if that review doesn't happen, the Highway 44 center releases the person on recognizance (art. 230.2).

Sixteen of the 122 St. James-sentenced state inmates are serving life, and admissions held about level, 44 in 2019 and 46 in 2025. State figures for Convent-area cases, from the DOC data files: - In DOC custody on Aug. 31, 2026: 122, about 604 per 100,000 residents. - Housed in local jails: 62 (51 percent). - Leading offense types: violent 49 percent, "all other" 18 percent. - Serving life: 16. - On probation or parole: 167 (118 on probation). - New admissions: 46 in 2025, 44 in 2019.

Ask the sheriff's office at 225-562-2200. The state Public Records Law (R.S. 44:1 et seq.) covers Convent's jail and arrest records; if a record cannot be provided immediately, the custodian has three working days to say when it will be. Initial reports of arrests are public, and pending investigative files are closed under R.S. 44:3.

• St. James Parish Sheriff's Office (dispatch): 225-562-2200.
• Lutcher: town hall 225-869-5823.
• Gramercy: town hall 225-869-4403.

The sheriff covers Convent, Vacherie and all unincorporated areas. Emergencies in Convent go to 911.