Union County Jail

Any phone or laptop will do for this:

1. Open the Union County Inmate Search.
2. Put in the surname. Too many hits? Tack on a given name.
3. Zero hits? Test a middle name, a nickname or another way of spelling it.
4. Once you see the record, jot down every detail on screen, like a booking number or a charge.
5. Call 662-534-1943 to learn the bond and any release plans, since a website can leave those out.

Find out from the jail how recent the list is. The building runs around the clock, so a call at midnight is fine.

Blank results are common during the first day. Consider these explanations:

• Booking has not wrapped up. Fingerprints, a health screen and forms eat up hours.
• A city police station holds them. A short stay at the station can come before the drive over.
• They may be out. Bond or a judge's order can free a person within hours.
• Another county made the arrest. Then the person sits in that county's lockup.
• Letters got swapped. Check the name against a citation, a court notice or a license.

Ring 662-534-1943 and spell out the full name. Should the answer be no, request the name of the agency that picked them up. Then check with the Circuit Clerk at 662-534-1910 for any court file.

Begin with the Union County Jail, 300 Carter Avenue, New Albany, MS 38652, 662-534-1943. That site is the main lockup.

Inquire whether the Sheriff also places inmates in an annex, a work center or a regional correctional facility. Mississippi counties sometimes shift people when beds fill up. A staff member can name the exact building.

When an officer in a neighboring county did the arrest, call that county's jail instead. Every Mississippi county is on our statewide jail directory. Federal or state holds can also move someone out. Read the federal and prison entries lower on this page.

Open any record in the Union County Inmate Search and see for yourself whether a mugshot is attached. A photo may or may not show.

Mississippi's Public Records Act opens an officer's incident report to the public. Whoever was arrested and charged is named in it (Mississippi Code section 25-61-12(2)). Agencies may charge for paper copies. A report is one thing and a booking photo is another. Family members and reporters may request a picture from the agency that made the arrest. When deputies made the arrest, the Sheriff's Office takes calls at 662-534-1943.

• To get a photo ICE holds, file a records request using ICE's FOIA page.
• Mostly, pictures that federal agencies take at booking stay private. The U.S. Marshals Service can be the lone source, for example during a hunt for a fugitive.

Mississippi runs a notice program called VINE, and the Department of Corrections handles it as SAVIN. To use it:

• Register or search on VINELink, or phone 888-967-7284 at any hour. Spanish and English are both offered.
• Notices by phone, text or email can follow a county or state offender's transfer, release, escape or return.
• Your sign-up keeps working if the inmate is later sent on to a state prison.

The state does not say which jails take part, so treat VINE as a backup. Check the Union County Inmate Search every so often, and keep the jail's line, 662-534-1943, handy.

Any held person has to meet a judge inside 48 hours of arrest. Arrests out in the county normally go to Justice Court, while arrests within a city limit go to the city's own Municipal Court. There the judge names the accusation, tells of the right to a lawyer and decides how the person may leave. Should the clock run out with no judge, someone eligible for bail is freed on a bond for the smallest scheduled sum.

The first option a Mississippi judge weighs is release on a written pledge or an appearance bond. Extra rules, like a curfew or a ban on contact, are possible, and a money bond may be required if flight or danger is a worry. Posting a bond usually happens in one of three ways:

• Cash deposit: ten percent of the bond, or $250 when that is larger, handed to the clerk. Anyone with a bond forfeited in the past, or with certain old convictions, is shut out.
• Property: an oath-backed form that lists Mississippi land or buildings.
• Bail agent: a bondsman licensed through the Mississippi Insurance Department. Expect ten percent of the bail with a $100 floor, plus $50 for paperwork. None of it returns.

After a domestic violence arrest, nobody sets bail until a judge meets the person, after which the judge might add as much as a further day of holding. Ask the jail at 662-534-1943 which bond figure was chosen and how payment works. Our bail page digs deeper, and the Mississippi bail laws page lists the statewide rules.

First, phone the jail at 662-534-1943. Whoever answers can read from the booking entry after you give the booking officer the full name and birthday.

Official papers sit with the court that took the case. Grand jurors review a felony, and Circuit Court takes over after that. The Circuit Clerk is in the Courthouse, 114 E. Bankhead Street, New Albany, MS 38652, 662-534-1910. For lower-level charges, put the same question to that office about which Justice Court or city court has it.

Part of the state's court system shares records through Mississippi Electronic Courts. Details are on the MEC information page. The police incident report is another route, because it spells out what the person is accused of.

A lawyer is first discussed when the judge opens the first hearing. A person short on money may request a court-named lawyer, and the court rules on that by the end of the first appearance. Say so out loud at that hearing.

After the choice is made, the Circuit Clerk at 662-534-1910 may be able to tell you the lawyer's name. Hiring your own attorney is possible as well. Check with the jail on how lawyer visits are set up.

Leave the story of what happened for the lawyer. Phone lines at a jail are often taped.

The jail makes the rules on days, hours and clothing, so verify them in advance. Dial 662-534-1943 with these questions:

• Which days and hours suit the housing area this person is in?
• How many guests fit in a visit, and what is the youngest allowed age?
• Which picture ID will staff accept?
• Do visitors sit in the same room, use video or both?
• Which items have to stay in your car?

Our visiting guide adds broad tips. Jails can scrap a visit on short notice, so ring again the morning of your trip.

Funds in an inmate account cover canteen snacks, soap and shampoo, and often calls. Phone 662-534-1943 to learn which payment options are open this week, what fees apply and how large a deposit may be. Keep the full name and booking number within reach.

Stick to methods that the jail itself describes. Never slip cash into an envelope. If a stranger phones and wants gift cards, hang up. Our deposit guide and commissary guide give more background.

The jail chooses the vendor and the setup. Most inmates can dial out but cannot take incoming calls. Contact 662-534-1943 to hear how to start a calling account, what a minute costs, and if text or video is on offer.

Expect that staff can listen to or record each call. Save talk about the case for counsel. Our jail phone guide and inmate messaging explainer outline the typical options.

On the envelope, print the inmate's full legal name above this line: Union County Jail, 300 Carter Avenue, New Albany, MS 38652. Add your own return address.

Prior to sending, call 662-534-1943. Learn whether an inmate number should appear on the label and which items clear inspection, for example photos or books. Cash must stay out of the mail. Our mail guide shows what most lockups allow.

Items the person carried in sit in storage until release. To pick up items or bring clothes for court, call 662-534-1943. Learn who qualifies to collect, what ID is needed and whether the inmate signs first.

Also request the lobby hours at 300 Carter Avenue, New Albany, MS 38652. A released inmate receives their stored things as they leave.

Reach the jail at 662-534-1943 and ask for the medical unit or whoever is in charge on shift. State the inmate's name, the problem, every drug with its strength, and your doctor's name and phone number.

Urge the inmate to submit a written sick call request or flag down an officer. Anything life-threatening is a 911 matter. Bring up any worry about the person's mental state at the start of the call.

Sheriff's deputies carry out county warrants. Phone 662-534-1943 and ask. Each office checks its own warrants. For wanted fugitives statewide, the state runs Mississippi's Most Wanted. To check through a court, tell the Circuit Clerk for felonies, or to a Justice Court clerk for lesser charges. Before clearing a warrant, see a lawyer. Then call the court that signed the order to arrange a surrender. For felonies, go through the Circuit Clerk at the Courthouse, 114 E. Bankhead Street, New Albany, MS 38652, 662-534-1910.

Ask whichever court owns the case:

• Justice Court hears misdemeanors outside city limits and handles first steps in felonies, bond hearings among them.
• Circuit Court handles felony trials once a grand jury indicts. Find the Circuit Clerk at 114 E. Bankhead Street, New Albany, MS 38652, 662-534-1910.
• Municipal Court rules on city ordinance tickets and city misdemeanors.
• County Court exists only in some counties, so ask the clerk if one applies.

Record each date, show up early and carry an ID. For the full journey of a case, see our court guide.

The county falls under the Oxford Division of the federal Northern District. Filings and hearings take place at the Federal Building, 911 Jackson Avenue East, Oxford, MS 38655, 662-234-1971.

1. Early in a federal case, a detention hearing lets a judge order the person held or freed pending trial (18 U.S.C. 3142).
2. The U.S. Marshals Service may keep the person until trial. The Oxford office of the Marshals works out of the United States Courthouse, 911 Jackson Avenue, Suite 234, Oxford, MS 38655, 662-513-2300. Ask where the person sleeps.
3. After sentencing, enter a name or register number at the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

Immigration holds usually unfold in this order:

1. ICE can mail the jail a detainer. The paper is called Form I-247A.
2. Under 8 CFR 287.7(d), the jail may keep the person up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released.
3. ICE can then take custody. For Mississippi, the New Orleans Field Office is in charge.
4. To find a detainee, the ICE Online Detainee Locator accepts a name with a birth country, or else the A-number.

A lawyer versed in immigration law can lay out the choices.

When the sentence is prison, intake and classification by the Department of Corrections happen at a site picked by home county: Parchman in the north, Pearl in the middle, Leakesville in the south. Sorting runs from fourteen days up to forty-five. Visits pause meanwhile, and phone access is thin. County deputies do the driving.

• The MDOC inmate search accepts a surname or an ID number. Only state inmates appear, never people held by a county.
• Visit our Mississippi state prisons page for facility details.

The state's parole board makes the call on parole.

A minor generally lands in Youth Court, not the adult system. Day one is the limit for holding a child unless a judge says otherwise; a hearing about keeping the child locked up comes by the end of day two. Children are normally kept away from adult jails, so skip the adult lookup.

A few cases leave Youth Court. Teens at least 13 who are charged with offenses punishable by life or death, or with a deadly weapon, are tried as adults. Judges there can also hand off a case.

To find out which Youth Court has your child and which building houses them, call the Circuit Clerk at 662-534-1910. The state youth defense line rings at 601-576-4206. A youth who is committed may end up at the Oakley Youth Development Center, 2375 Oakley Road, Raymond, MS 39154.

Who made the arrest? The inmate or the jail can tell you. Here is who works the area:

• Sheriff's Office: serves rural roads and land beyond the towns, 300 Carter Avenue, New Albany, MS 38652, 662-534-1943.
• Town and city police: New Albany, Myrtle, Blue Springs and Ingomar sit inside the county. Phone the Sheriff's line and request the number for the police department in the town where it happened.
• Mississippi Highway Patrol, Troop F: 1103 Bratton Road, New Albany, MS 38652, 662-486-1995. This troop covers the county.

Get the arresting officer's name and the report number for later calls.