A quick search usually goes like this:

1. Open the Inmate Lookup on a phone or computer.
2. Enter the name the way the tool asks for it. With a common name, add more letters to narrow the list.
3. No luck? Try a hyphenated name, a nickname or the name used on a license.
4. Once you spot the right person, copy the booking number. You will need it for letters and deposits, and staff work faster with it.
5. Phone the jail to confirm charges, bail or a release date.

When you call 973-274-7500, give the legal name and birth date.

A blank result does not always mean the person is free. Here is what may be going on:

• Still with the arresting police. Paperwork at a town station can take hours before the ride to Doremus Avenue. In Newark, that wait happens at the police Municipal Processing Unit, 480 Clinton Avenue, Newark, NJ 07108, 973-733-6000, a lockup with room for 82 men and women.
• Sent home on a summons. Statewide, more than half of people charged walk out with a court date and are not held.
• Freed after the first hearing. Most warrant cases get a release ruling inside two days.
• Kept somewhere else. That could mean another county, the U.S. Marshals or ICE.
• A minor. People under 18 are taken to youth detention.
• Entered differently. A typo or a second surname can hide a record.

The police department that made the arrest knows where the person went, and every department's phone is at the bottom of this page. The jail's release line is 973-274-7826.

This county holds its own adults, so begin with the Doremus Avenue lookup. When another agency is involved, or the arrest happened just over the line, try these too:

• Hudson County Correctional Center, 35 Hackensack Ave, Kearny, NJ 07032, 201-395-5600. It and the Bergen jail take Passaic County's adults.
• Bergen County Jail, 160 South River Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601, 201-336-3500.
• Morris County Correctional Facility, 43 John Street, Morristown, NJ 07960, 973-631-5174.
• Union County's Elizabeth site, used to book and briefly hold people before the transfer here. Union's information line is 877-424-1234.
• ICE's Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility, 625 Evans Street, Elizabeth, NJ 07201, 908-282-5700.

Teens are covered further down, in the answer on youth detention.

To ask what the Inmate Lookup displays for one person, phone the jail at 973-274-7500. As for public records requests, the state's records law counts booking photos among criminal investigation files. In a 2013 ruling, the state's Government Records Council backed a city that turned down a request for them (Melton v. City of Camden).

• News outlets can direct requests to the county Department of Corrections on that same line.
• For a photo ICE took, file through ICE's online records request portal.
• Federal booking photos stay private, apart from the odd one the U.S. Marshals Service puts out while searching for a fugitive.

It can. VINE is a no-cost statewide tool showing whether a person is in custody and where, covering New Jersey's county jails, state prisons and other lockups. Anyone may search it or sign up.

• Use VINELink online or in its phone app.
• Phone 877-846-3465 (1-877-VINE-4-NJ) day or night. TTY users can dial 866-847-1298.
• Calls, texts, app pushes and emails are separate sign-ups, so register each one you want.
• For people in state prison, notices also go out for parole actions and trips to court.

Alerts are not instant. If minutes matter, ring the jail's release line, 973-274-7826.

Usually within a day or two. Since January 1, 2017, New Jersey's Criminal Justice Reform has replaced cash bail in most cases. Pretrial Services prepares a Public Safety Assessment, and a judge has 48 hours from booking to rule on release. The large majority leave on a signed pledge or under monitoring. To keep someone locked up until trial, the prosecutor must win a detention hearing.

• If a judge does set money bail, the jail accepts it on Doremus Avenue between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., five days a week.
• Be wary of anyone asking for money for an ankle monitor. The county says scammers have demanded $2,000 or more, and families never pay for monitors.

Our bail page walks through release options, how to pay and what holds can get in the way.

Start by asking the jail at 973-274-7500. The person is also handed a copy of the complaint. It names each charge along with its statute, for example N.J.S.A. 2C:20-3 for theft.

New Jersey calls its serious crimes indictable and grades them from fourth degree up to first degree, which is roughly what a felony is elsewhere. Lesser charges are disorderly persons offenses, close to misdemeanors. The Prosecutor's Office handles indictable cases from 50 West Market Street, Newark, NJ 07102, 973-621-4700.

• Search Superior Court files on Promis/Gavel public access.
• For a town court charge, phone that court.

Expect possible changes. Prosecutors review each new case and can drop a charge, reduce it or hand it down to a town court.

At the first appearance, a judge may appoint the Office of the Public Defender. The person completes a financial form known as the 5A, and the court rules on whether they qualify.

• The adult trial office is at 31 Clinton Street, Newark, NJ 07101, 973-648-6200.
• The state explains the process on its public defender application page.
• On a town court charge where jail is possible, the town's municipal public defender can be appointed, sometimes for a fee of up to $200.
• Families can hire a private lawyer whenever they like. Lawyers schedule meetings through the jail's attorney visit page.

Remind your loved one that details of the case belong in talks with the lawyer, not on jail phone lines.

Window visits follow the housing building. Each visit day has a late morning session from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and an afternoon one from 2:30 to 5:00 p.m.

• Wednesday and Saturday: Buildings 2 and 5.
• Thursday and Sunday: Buildings 3 and 4.
• Friday: the infirmary.

Spots are few and go to whoever arrives first, and latecomers can be sent away. Grown-ups must show government photo ID listing where they live now. A passport is accepted only alongside a current utility, cable or phone bill with the address. Bring a birth certificate for each child every single time. A child brought by someone other than a parent or legal guardian also needs a notarized letter from that parent or guardian.

All visitors, kids too, pass through a metal detector with no exceptions, and staff may follow up with a wand or pat search. A medical card is needed for prosthetics or other medical devices. Leave at home: hats other than religious coverings, hoodies, jackets, ripped jeans, see-through fabric, bodysuits and tops that bare the shoulders, chest, back or midriff. Skirts and shorts must hit the knee. Visits are sometimes canceled by notice, so check the jail's site or phone 973-274-7500 first. Union County runs shuttle buses for its families. Our visiting guide has more pointers.

Account money pays for commissary. The jail offers three ways to send it:

• Kiosk in the Visitors' Lobby at 354 Doremus Avenue, Newark, NJ 07105, weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Cash, debit and credit cards work. Personal checks don't.
• By mail to the jail at that address. A postal money order, a bank money order, a cashier's check or a certified check is fine. Put the person's name and booking or jail ID number on it. Traveler's Express and store money orders are sent back.
• Online through the Send Money link on the jail's Inmate Info page. The deposit company sets its own fees.

Deposits are not bail. Our money guide covers deposit methods, and the commissary guide covers what the money buys.

Your loved one can phone out. The jail has warned that its calls may display as 862-294-0030, a number some carriers label as spam. Keep it unblocked if you are expecting a call.

To learn rates, how to open a calling account and whether tablets or messages exist, ring the jail at 973-274-7500, and ask whether calls are recorded. Our jail phone guide and inmate email page describe how these services tend to run.

Starting December 1, 2025, personal mail is no longer delivered to the jail. It goes to a scanning center out of state. Write the address exactly this way:

Inmate Name – Booking Number
Essex County DOC – 2200
PO Box 96777, Las Vegas, NV 89193

Each letter is opened and scanned in color, and the jail prints that copy for the person. The paper original is kept for a short time and then shredded. Don't mail anything you want returned.

• Accepted: letters, drawings, greeting cards and postcards no bigger than 5 x 7 inches, and loose newsletters.
• Photos: up to ten prints, 4 x 6 inches, per envelope. Polaroids and prints from photo companies are turned away.
• Size: envelopes up to 4 x 9½ inches and paper up to 8½ x 11 inches, with your return address.
• Rejected: glitter, stickers, glue and staples. Also clippings, blank paper or stamps, and padded or priority envelopes.
• Also rejected: official papers, colored or faint ink, cash and gift cards.
• Legal mail skips the scanner. Lawyers and courts sign up free on the mail vendor's privileged-mail portal, print a barcode label and mail to the person's name and booking number at 354 Doremus Avenue, Newark, NJ 07105. Legal mail sent to the Las Vegas box comes back.
• Books, magazines and newspapers must be soft-cover, ship directly from a publisher or a known bookstore, and go to Doremus Avenue.

Our mail guide has general tips.

Clothing, phones and other items taken at booking are stored by the jail. Phone the release line at 973-274-7826 to learn when items can be collected at 354 Doremus Avenue, Newark, NJ 07105. Ask, too, whether you need the person's signed OK to collect items for them. Carry photo ID that shows your current address.

On that call, also ask how a leftover account balance is refunded once the person is out.

Phone the jail at 973-274-7500 without delay. Share the name and booking number, the medicine and its dose, and the doctor's name and number. Worried about a mental health emergency or self-harm? Say it in plain words.

• County rules on eyeglasses, contacts and special medical shoes are linked from the Inmate Info page.
• To raise a concern about treatment, use the jail's public complaint form.
• A civilian task force publishes reports on conditions at the jail, one of them about mental health care.

For an emergency, dial 911.

Deputies from the Sheriff's Office handle warrants throughout the county, while each town's police handle their own. Reach the Sheriff at 973-621-4111 or its Fugitive Squad at 973-621-4181. Check three public lists: the State Police NJSP Most Wanted, the county Prosecutor's Wanted list and the Sheriff's Most Wanted list. A town warrant can be checked by phoning that town's court, listed in our court guide. To resolve one, a lawyer should come first, since counsel can set a surrender at the jail, 354 Doremus Avenue, Newark, NJ 07105, or request a new court date. On Superior Court warrants, contact the Criminal Division, 50 West Market Street, Newark, NJ 07102, 973-776-9300, ext. 55932.

Which office to ask depends on the court:

• The first appearance: Central Judicial Processing, reached through the Superior Court's main line, 973-776-9300, ext. 56950.
• Later Superior Court dates: Criminal Case Management, Room 912, 50 West Market Street, Newark, NJ 07102, ext. 57113 on the same line.
• Town court dates: ask the court in the town that wrote the ticket or complaint. Newark's call center is 973-733-6520.
• Online: Promis/Gavel for Superior Court, and the Judiciary's municipal courts page for town cases and tickets.

Addresses and phones for every courthouse are in our court guide.

Federal arrests anywhere in the county are filed downtown at the U.S. District Court, 50 Walnut Street, Room 4015, Newark, NJ 07101, 973-645-3730.

1. A magistrate judge holds the first appearance, often on the arrest date or the day after. A detention hearing then decides home or custody until trial (18 U.S.C. 3142).
2. The U.S. Marshals Service controls where federal detainees stay, and it often rents county jail beds, Doremus Avenue included. Phone the Marshals at 973-645-2404 to ask where someone is.
3. Read court filings through PACER.
4. When the case ends in a prison term, track them on the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator by name or register number.

When immigration officers want a person in the jail, the steps usually run in this order:

1. The jail receives Form I-247A, ICE's detainer request.
2. Under federal rules, that form seeks a hold of up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Officers take the person. ICE's Newark Field Office runs New Jersey operations from 970 Broad St., Newark, NJ 07102 (11th floor), 973-776-3274.
4. ICE has a contract center in Union County, the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility, 625 Evans Street, Elizabeth, NJ 07201, 908-282-5700.
5. Look them up on the ICE Online Detainee Locator. An A-number works best. Otherwise use the name plus birth country.

In New Jersey, step 2 is cut back by the Immigrant Trust Directive. Extra time on a detainer alone is allowed in just three situations. One is a pending case or past record that includes a violent or serious offense. Another is any indictable conviction in the past five years. The last is a final removal order from a federal judge. Even that hold must end by 11:59 p.m. on the release day, and staff must give the person copies of the ICE paperwork. The county has not housed ICE detainees since 2021.

Terms of up to a year are served right here. Anything longer moves to the New Jersey Department of Corrections. Men are processed at CRAF, the state's reception center in Trenton. Women are processed at Edna Mahan in Clinton. In both places, staff test and classify each person before picking a prison.

• Search through the DOC's Offender Information page.
• Dial CRAF at 609-984-6000. Letters for its staff go to P.O. Box 7450, Trenton, NJ 08628.
• Read our New Jersey state prisons pages for visiting and mail at each prison.

Youths under 18 are brought to the Duryea Street youth center, 80 Duryea Street, Newark, NJ 07103. Its newer main number is 973-849-0942, and 973-849-0415 also reaches staff. Teens from Union and Passaic counties are held there as well.

Only people on the youth's approved list may visit, with photo ID that shows an address. Visitors are usually parents, grandparents or legal guardians, and no one under 14 is allowed in the visit room. Ask the center for current visit days. The case itself is heard by the Family Part, 212 Washington Street, Newark, NJ 07102.

Union County's own pages say its adults have lived at this jail since June 30, 2021. Union police book people in Elizabeth and then bring them here. Their cases stay in Union's courts.

• Use the same Inmate Lookup to find them.
• Union's information line is 877-424-1234. Union also runs shuttle buses for families.
• Gloucester County names Doremus Avenue too, for some men it sends out.

Each of the 22 towns has a police department. The county had about 896,000 residents in 2025, per the Census Bureau. Phones below are main lines from the state's police directory. If one no longer works, the Sheriff's Office can point you to the right number.

Newark

• Newark Police Division, Department of Public Safety, 480 Clinton Avenue, Newark, NJ 07108, non-emergency 973-733-6000
• Precincts: 2nd, 1 Lincoln Ave, Newark, NJ 07102, 973-733-6080; 3rd, 649 Market St, Newark, NJ 07105, 973-733-6190; 4th, 247 16th Ave, Newark, NJ 07103, 973-733-6060; 5th, 480 Clinton Ave, Newark, NJ 07108, 973-733-6070; 6th, 491 Irvington Ave, Newark, NJ 07106, 973-923-1473; 7th, 159 N 10th St, Newark, NJ 07107, 973-645-1819; Metro, 22 Franklin Street, Newark, NJ 07102, 973-733-6129

The Oranges, Irvington and the south

• East Orange PD, 15 S. Munn Avenue, East Orange, NJ 07018, 973-266-5000
• Orange PD, 593 Lincoln Avenue, Orange, NJ 07050, 973-266-4111
• West Orange PD, 66 Main Street, West Orange, NJ 07052, 973-325-4000
• South Orange PD, 201 South Orange Avenue, South Orange, NJ 07079, 973-763-3000
• Maplewood PD, 1618 Springfield Avenue, Maplewood, NJ 07040, 973-762-3400
• Irvington PD, 1 Civic Square, Irvington, NJ 07111, 973-399-6600
• Millburn PD, 435 Essex Street, Millburn, NJ 07041, 973-564-7001
• Livingston PD, 333 S. Livingston Avenue, Livingston, NJ 07039, 973-992-3000

North of the city

• Belleville PD, 152 Washington Avenue, Belleville, NJ 07109, 973-450-3186
• Nutley PD, 228 Chestnut Street, Nutley, NJ 07110, 973-284-4940
• Bloomfield PD, Municipal Plaza, Bloomfield, NJ 07003, 973-680-4141
• Glen Ridge PD, 3 Herman Street, Glen Ridge, NJ 07028, 973-748-5400
• Montclair PD, Public Safety Building, 647 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair, NJ 07042, 973-509-4718
• Cedar Grove PD, 525 Pompton Avenue, Cedar Grove, NJ 07009, 973-239-4100
• Verona PD, 600 Bloomfield Avenue, Verona, NJ 07044, 973-239-5000

The Caldwells and the west

• Caldwell PD, 1 Provost Square, Caldwell, NJ 07006, 973-226-2600
• West Caldwell PD, 21 Clinton Road, West Caldwell, NJ 07006, 973-226-4114
• North Caldwell PD, 136 Gould Avenue, North Caldwell, NJ 07006, 973-226-0800
• Essex Fells PD, 255 Roseland Avenue, Essex Fells, NJ 07021, 973-226-3000
• Roseland PD, 15 Harrison Avenue, Roseland, NJ 07068, 973-226-8700
• Fairfield PD, 230 Fairfield Road, Fairfield, NJ 07004, 973-227-1400

County, campus, transit and state

• County Sheriff's Office, 50 West Market Street, Newark, NJ 07102, 973-621-4111; Patrol Division 973-268-4200
• Essex County College Police, 303 University Avenue, Newark, NJ 07102, 973-877-3312
• Montclair State University Police, 1 Normal Avenue, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043, 973-655-5122
• NJIT Public Safety, 154 Summit Street, Newark, NJ 07102, 973-642-4586
• Rutgers University Police, 200 University Avenue, Newark, NJ 07102, 973-353-5478; Health Sciences campus, 5 Bruce Street, Newark, NJ 07103, 973-972-4491
• NJ Transit Police, One Penn Plaza East, Newark, NJ 07105, 973-491-8555
• State troopers answer to State Police headquarters, West Trenton, NJ 08628 (P.O. Box 7068), 609-882-2000