Take these steps in order:

1. Open the custody name search in your browser.
2. Type the last name into the box. Add the first name too if many people share that last name.
3. If nothing comes up, try another spelling, a nickname or a middle name.
4. Note whatever the page shows about the person, such as a booking date.
5. Phone the jail at 906-875-0651 with those details and ask about the charge and the bond.

The search is best for one quick question: is this person in custody? Jail staff handle the rest of your questions.

Here are the usual reasons:

• Booking is not finished. New arrests can take hours to appear.
• A town police department has the person. A city or township officer may keep a person at the station before a transfer to the jail.
• They are already free. They may have posted a small interim bond with the jail, or a judge freed them at the first hearing.
• A different county holds them. Someone wanted elsewhere may sit in that county's cell.
• A spelling difference. Try another order or form of the name.
• A young person. A person under 18 is not placed with grown prisoners.

Call the jail at 906-875-0651. The Sheriff's Office page says that office is staffed all day and night, every day, and its administrative line is 906-875-0650.

The Sheriff runs a single adult jail here, called the Iron County Jail and Correctional Facility. The jail shares the courthouse building at 2 South Sixth Street, Suite 18, Crystal Falls, MI 49920. Staff answer at 906-875-0651. Our facility page has more.

Call and ask who the jail holds. Ask if the jail holds women as well as men, and whether it keeps people before trial, after sentencing or both. Ask too if anyone may be sent to another jail. The courthouse jail is the only adult facility on record. We have no record of an annex, a city lockup or a work release center.

• When the arrest happened in a different county, that county's Sheriff holds the person. Look for the right jail on our list of Michigan jails.
• When state troopers made the arrest, call their Iron Mountain post at 1916 N. Stephenson Ave., Iron Mountain, MI 49801, 906-774-2122.

We have not been able to confirm that the search displays mugshots. Michigan's Attorney General ruled (OAG 1979-1980 No 5593) that police file photos of suspects are public records. The agency may still refuse a copy when release would badly and unfairly intrude on someone's privacy.

To ask for a mugshot, send a written request under Michigan's FOIA law, MCL 15.231 and later sections, to whichever agency made the arrest. For a deputy's arrest, phone 906-875-0650 or write to the Sheriff's Office, 2 South Sixth Street, Suite 18, Crystal Falls, MI 49920.

• A picture ICE itself took is requested through ICE's records request form.
• Photos taken by federal agents are rarely shared, though the U.S. Marshals Service may release one, for instance to help find a fugitive.

A free state service named MI-VINE can call you when custody changes. That includes a release, a transfer to another place and an escape, plus court events. Register at VINELink or phone 800-770-7657, which works at all hours.

We cannot promise that every local booking is covered, so ask the jail at 906-875-0651 whether Iron County is included. A direct call remains the surest way to hear that someone is out.

Crime victims can also give their contact details to the Prosecuting Attorney, 2 S. Sixth Street, Suite 1, Crystal Falls, MI 49920, 906-875-6628, so notices reach them.

Michigan law sets the path:

1. A judge or magistrate must see the person promptly. Video from the jail is common.
2. For certain minor offenses, when no magistrate is reachable, the deputy running the jail may take an interim bond. A domestic violence arrest is held until a judge or magistrate sets the bond.
3. At the arraignment in District Court, the usual order is release on the person's signed promise to appear, or an unsecured bond that needs no cash up front. The judge may add conditions such as a curfew or a ban on contacting someone.
4. Cash bail is allowed only if the judge states on the record that nothing milder will protect people or secure a return to court. A person's race, religion, gender or income cannot drive the choice.

Where money bail is set, you may leave a deposit of one tenth with the court clerk, or hire a surety agent the court approves. Under the court rule changed on May 1, 2026, the court may hold the deposit only after a conviction for an offense covered by MCL 780.66. Without a conviction the money comes back, minus fines or costs owed. A missed hearing means losing the bond.

To learn which agents this court approves, call the District Court Clerk, Suite 5, 2 S. Sixth Street, Crystal Falls, MI 49920, 906-875-0619. The state insurance department's consumer line is 877-999-6442. Read our local bail page, or the Michigan bail laws guide for the whole state.

Ask the jail at 906-875-0651 first. After a case is filed, look the person up on MiCOURT Case Search. Not every court may be covered there, so when you see no case, phone the District Court Clerk at 906-875-0619.

The Prosecuting Attorney decides which charges to file. That office is at 2 S. Sixth Street, Suite 1, Crystal Falls, MI 49920, 906-875-6628, and keeps weekday hours of 8:00 a.m. to noon and 12:30 to 4:00 p.m.

At the first hearing, the court must ask the person about counsel. When they cannot afford one, the court decides whether to appoint a lawyer, and the person may be asked about their money. Having the means to post bond does not block free counsel.

Dial the court offices at 906-875-3121 and ask which office supplies appointed lawyers here and who has been assigned. The state's Indigent Defense Commission in Lansing, 517-657-3066, can also steer you.

Hiring a private attorney is always possible, and the earlier the better.

We could not confirm days, hours, video options or dress rules. Hold off on driving to Crystal Falls until you hear them from staff. Call 906-875-0651 with these questions:

• Does the person get visitors, and who counts?
• Which days and times are open? Do you need an appointment?
• Which kind of ID is required?
• What may you bring inside, and what must stay in the car?
• Can you visit by video instead?

Our visiting guide shows common jail rules. Lawyers often follow a different process, so they should call before they come.

An account covers snacks, hygiene items and sometimes calls. Phone 906-875-0651 with the full name and ask which methods work, what the caps are and whether a fee applies. Save every receipt.

Our money guide explains deposits. For purchases, see the commissary guide. Never send cash by post, and ignore any caller who asks you to wire money.

Phone rules differ from jail to jail, so ask at 906-875-0651 how the person reaches you, how to open a calling account, what a call costs and whether texts or video are available. Ask whether calls are recorded. Plan on yes, and keep case details for your lawyer, not the phone.

See the jail phone guide for call systems and the email and text guide for messages.

Phone 906-875-0651 before you post anything. Learn how to write the address, and whether an inmate number must be on the envelope. Ask which items are allowed, such as cards, photos or books. The jail's street address is 2 South Sixth Street, Suite 18, Crystal Falls, MI 49920, yet the exact format should come from staff.

Write on plain paper, sign your letter and add your return address outside. Cash must never go inside. Our jail mail guide has the common rules.

Whatever the person carried in stays at the jail until they leave. To bring clothes or take items home, phone 906-875-0651 first. Ask if a signed release is required from the person, when the desk opens and which ID you must show. Visit 2 South Sixth Street, Suite 18, Crystal Falls, MI 49920 only after staff agree.

When a friend will collect the items, ask whether that friend needs written permission.

Tell jail staff by phone at 906-875-0651 without delay. Share each medicine's name and dose, the doctor's name and any health condition. Have staff alert the nurse or medical staff. Urge the person to put a care request in writing inside the jail as well, so a record exists.

In a life-threatening moment, dial 911. For a mental health crisis, say that word to the call taker. A lawyer can also bring the problem to the court.

Serving warrants falls to the Iron County Sheriff's Office. Call 906-875-0650 and ask whether a warrant is on record for that person. You can also try MiCOURT Case Search, or ask the District Court Clerk in Suite 5 at 906-875-0619 to check the court's records. If a warrant exists, get legal advice before anything else. After that, ask the court that issued the warrant how to turn in. District Court is at 2 S. Sixth Street, Crystal Falls, MI 49920, 906-875-0659.

The jail can often give the date, and so can the courts. All three offices share the courthouse at 2 S. Sixth Street, Crystal Falls, MI 49920:

• District Court, 906-875-0659, for misdemeanors, arraignments, bond and the early steps in a felony. Hours run Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Central time.
• District Court Clerk, Suite 5, 906-875-0619
• County Clerk, Suite 9, 906-875-3221, where Circuit Court felony cases land after the preliminary examination

Felonies take two early steps: a probable cause conference, then a preliminary exam. The first falls 7 to 14 days after the arraignment, and the second about a week after that. Our court guide walks through every stage.

Federal court for this county is the Marquette courthouse, in the Western District of Michigan's northern division, at the federal building, 202 W Washington St, Marquette, MI 49855, 906-226-2021.

1. At the detention hearing, the federal judge chooses between jail and release until trial (18 U.S.C. 3142).
2. The U.S. Marshals Service controls where a federal prisoner waits for trial. Its office for this district is at 110 Michigan Street NW, Suite 744, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, 616-456-2438.
3. A federal public defender serves the area from 925 W Washington St, Suite 104, Marquette, MI 49855, 906-226-3050.
4. Once the person is in a federal prison, the BOP inmate locator shows where.

The usual sequence looks like this:

1. ICE begins by sending the jail a detainer. This is Form I-247A, a request for a short extra hold.
2. Under 8 CFR 287.7(d), the jail may hold the person for up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released.
3. ICE agents then collect the person and may transfer them to an ICE site.
4. Try the ICE Online Detainee Locator. Give the locator a full name and the person's birth country. It also takes an A-number, which appears on immigration papers.
5. If the locator shows nothing, call the Detroit Field Office of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations at 985 Michigan Avenue, Suite 207, Detroit, MI 48226, 313-771-6601. Its area covers Michigan and Ohio.

An immigration attorney can explain the options.

Someone given a state prison term goes first to an intake center, where staff screen and sort new arrivals. Men go through intake at Jackson, at a unit named the Reception and Guidance Center. Women go through intake in Ypsilanti. Deputies drive them there. Men spend 30 to 45 days in intake, roughly a month to six weeks. In that time the person cannot have visits, but you can still send letters and add money.

• Look up the person by name or number in the Department of Corrections offender tracking system.
• Browse the state prisons page on our site for visit and mail rules.
• For parole or probation questions, the state's local office is in the courthouse, Suite 24, 2 S. Sixth Street, Crystal Falls, MI 49920, 906-875-4011.

Since 2021, Michigan has treated a 17-year-old as a juvenile, so anyone under 18 gets the youth process. Youth are held apart from adults. Their cases start in the Circuit Court's Family Division. Certain very serious charges against ages 14 to 17 open in Circuit Court from the start. On a felony, a family court judge may waive jurisdiction in a felony case so that a teen who is 14 or older is tried as an adult (MCL 712A.4).

We could not confirm which youth detention center the county uses. Contact Juvenile Probation, Suite 22, 2 S. Sixth Street, Crystal Falls, MI 49920, 906-875-0626, or the Juvenile Register, 906-875-0621, so you can find out where the youth is and when the court will meet again.

Several agencies work in and around the county. These publish contact details:

• Iron County Sheriff's Office, 2 South Sixth Street, Suite 18, Crystal Falls, MI 49920, 906-875-0650. Ask here if you cannot tell which agency made the arrest, including one in Alpha, Gaastra or a township.
• Crystal Falls Police Department, 401 Superior Ave, Crystal Falls, MI 49920, 906-875-3012
• Iron River Police Department, City Hall, 801 W. Adams Street, Iron River, MI 49935, 906-265-4321, front desk open weekdays 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Caspian Police Department, city of Caspian, MI, 906-265-3223
• Michigan State Police Iron Mountain Post, 1916 N. Stephenson Ave., Iron Mountain, MI 49801, 906-774-2122
• County Central Dispatch, courthouse, Suite 2, 2 S. Sixth Street, Crystal Falls, MI 49920, 906-875-4425

In an emergency, dial 911.