Work down this list until you get an answer:

1. Go to the Sheriff's inmate lookup. Put in the last name. Narrow a long result list with a first name.
2. If no match comes up, try a shorter spelling, a maiden name or a middle name.
3. Next, search VINELink for New York. VINE tracks custody in county jails and state prisons. You can also call it at 888-846-3469, in English or Spanish.
4. Still nothing? Phone Booking/Intake at 315-786-2688 and give the date of birth.
5. Once you find them, write down their Inmate ID Number. Mail, deposits and phone accounts all use it.

A missing name rarely means the person vanished. Common reasons:

• Booking isn't finished. Prints, photos and forms all take time once the person reaches Waterman Drive.
• Never jailed. Many people get a desk appearance ticket and go home from the police station.
• Out already. Release at arraignment or a paid bail can clear a name fast.
• Held on Fort Drum. Soldiers picked up on post may be at the Military Police station first.
• In another system. Federal, immigration and state prison custody each have their own search, covered below.
• Under 18. Minors are sent to a juvenile center rather than Waterman Drive.
• A spelling problem. Hyphens, nicknames and typos throw searches off.

Call Booking/Intake at 315-786-2688. For police reports, the Sheriff's Records unit is at 315-786-2701, and city police records are at 315-786-2637.

Waterman Drive is the only jail the county operates, and it holds the county's own prisoners. Still, someone picked up close to a border, or sought on an outside warrant, might be in one of these:

• St. Lawrence County Correctional Facility, 17 Commerce Lane, Canton, NY 13617, 315-379-2367
• Lewis County Jail, 5252 Outer Stowe Street, Lowville, NY 13367, 315-376-3511
• Oswego County Correctional Facility, 39 Churchill Road, Oswego, NY 13126, 315-349-3300

On Fort Drum, the Army runs its own Military Police station, Building 10715, Mount Belvedere Boulevard, Fort Drum, NY 13602. Its desk is staffed around the clock at 315-772-7770.

Families usually can't. New York's open records law treats booking photos as private. Police may release one only when it serves a specific law enforcement purpose, such as finding a suspect (Public Officers Law § 89(2)(b)(viii)).

The lookup and VINE are tools for custody status. If you have a real need for a photo, ask the Sheriff's Records unit at 315-786-2701. Reporters make their requests to the Sheriff's Office too.

For other agencies:

• ICE photos can be requested through ICE's records request page under federal records law.
• Federal booking photos are kept from the public, though the Marshals can share a fugitive's picture to aid a manhunt.

VINE is a free state service. It does more than help victims. Anyone can use it to check whether a person is still held in a county jail or state prison, and where.

To get alerts, register on VINELink or by phone at 888-846-3469. You pick a 4-digit PIN. VINE then calls, texts or emails when the person is released, moved, escapes or dies. You can also sign up for court event notices. The system keeps calling until you enter your PIN, or for 48 hours. The person in jail is not told you signed up.

Alerts can lag a little behind real events. If timing matters, call the jail as well.

Under New York's bail law, which took effect January 1, 2020, release is the rule for the large majority of misdemeanor and nonviolent felony arrests. Usually that's on their own promise to return, sometimes with conditions.

Money bail is reserved for "qualifying offenses" listed in CPL 510.10(4), among them violent felonies and some domestic charges. When they do, they must allow at least three ways to pay, including a partly secured or unsecured bond (CPL 520.10).

Bail can be posted at the jail lobby day or night. Cash is taken at the window 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. After hours, use the lobby phone to reach dispatch. Postal money orders are accepted, but personal checks are not. A card payment can be made through the Sheriff's online payment service. Full steps are on our bail page.

Charges show up on the court papers, so the court is the best source:

1. Call Booking/Intake at 315-786-2688 to learn which court has the case.
2. Call that court's clerk. City arrests go to Watertown City Court at 315-570-2720. Indicted felonies are in County Court at 315-570-2950.
3. Ask the defense lawyer, who gets the paperwork at arraignment.

The first charges are not final. Prosecutors sometimes reduce a felony to a misdemeanor, and grand juries sometimes vote different counts. A misdemeanor carries up to 364 days in jail. A felony can mean state prison.

Victims and witnesses can reach the District Attorney's Office at 315-785-3053.

Counsel is provided at arraignment. For those without money for a private attorney, the Public Defender steps in, at 175 Arsenal Street, 4th Floor, Watertown, NY 13601, 315-785-3152, open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays.

A judge looks over a short financial application from the defendant. New York's guidelines presume that anyone in jail qualifies. A spouse's income doesn't count against them.

Family members can call the office to pass along helpful facts, like a job or a safe address. The lawyer can use those to argue for release. Phone calls from the jail to a lawyer are not recorded.

The jail offers in-person contact visits. People just admitted, and anyone who lost contact privileges, get non-contact visits instead. Each person inside gets two one-hour visits a week, and a cap of two guests per visit.

Visit slots run Monday through Friday:

• An early slot at 7:15 a.m., every weekday
• 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. and 9:45 to 10:45 a.m., every weekday except Tuesday
• 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. and 1:15 to 2:15 p.m., every weekday

A visitation officer sets each person's times, and the person inside passes them on to visitors. Before you go:

1. Arrive 20 minutes early and check in at the lobby window with your name, address and the inmate's name.
2. Bring a photo ID showing your date of birth. Visitors under 18 also need an original or certified birth certificate, and arrive with a parent or legal guardian, or carry a notarized permission form.
3. Dress plainly. Short skirts and shorts, tank or see-through tops, torn clothes and hoodies are turned away.
4. Put phones, keys, wallets, jewelry other than wedding rings, and food in a visitor locker.

Visitors may be searched, and passing contraband is a crime. More is on our visitation page.

Money goes into a commissary account, which pays for snacks, hygiene items and clothing. People inside order from kiosks in their housing units.

• By card, any hour: use the deposit service the Sheriff's jail page names, online or at 866-394-0490. Funds usually post within an hour.
• By mail: send a U.S. Postal Service money order only. Cash and personal checks are refused.
• At visits: money hasn't been accepted at visits since June 15, 2013.

Have the full name and Inmate ID Number ready. Our money page and commissary page have more detail.

Phones in the housing units only dial out. They are collect calls, and all are recorded except privileged calls with lawyers. Under state rules, everyone may make calls when they are first admitted.

• Prepaid account: set one up by calling 800-483-8314. A $25 or $50 account can also be set up during a blocked call. Each number gets one free call before an account is needed.
• Billing questions: 877-650-4249.
• Unused accounts: can be closed within 90 days of last use for $5; after 90 days of no use they are dissolved.
• Calls coming in: only from lawyers, or for a family emergency like a death or serious injury, through the jail's Classification Office.

Never dial *72 and a number that someone in jail asks for. That forwards your phone. Dial *73 to undo it. Ask Booking about any newer messaging options. See our phone page and email page.

Personal letters don't go to Waterman Drive. The Sheriff's corrections page sends them to a digital mail center, where they are scanned:

Securus Digital Mail
Jefferson County Sheriff's Office
(Name) - (Inmate ID Number)
PO Box 155, Clifton Park, NY 12065

Leave envelopes plain, with no stickers, drawings or marks. Mail is opened and checked for contraband.

Privileged legal mail from lawyers and courts is handled apart from this. State rules say it is opened only in the person's presence (9 NYCRR 7004.4). Lawyers should call Booking/Intake at 315-786-2688 to confirm the address for legal mail. Our mail page has more.

Items a person has at arrest are logged at booking and stored. Ask Booking/Intake at 315-786-2688 how to pick up property or have it released to family. Ask too what happens to money left in the account at release. Pickups are at the Metro-Jefferson Public Safety Building, 753 Waterman Drive, Watertown, NY 13601. Bring photo ID.

If the case is federal or the person moved to a state prison, property may follow them or stay behind. Ask before the transfer, if you can.

Civil Rights Law § 28 says police and jail staff must care for the health needs of anyone in their custody, mental health included. Tell Booking/Intake at 315-786-2688 about medicines, allergies, pregnancy or a mental health condition right away.

The jail offers programs in chemical dependency, literacy and self-help. People with opioid use disorder can ask staff about treatment.

The HALT Act caps how long anyone may be kept in a cell more than 17 hours a day. It is generally off limits for anyone pregnant or disabled, anyone age 55 or over, and anyone 21 or under.

If you think care is being denied, contact the state Commission of Correction, 80 South Swan Street, Albany, NY 12210, 518-485-2346. It oversees county jails.

Warrants in the towns and villages are served by the Sheriff's Office, whose patrol line is 315-788-1441. Inside the city, officers from the police department at 315-782-2233 handle them. Statewide, the New York State Police keep a Wanted and Missing list online. For local warrants, phone the court that would have issued one or ask the Sheriff's Office. To clear a warrant, the person should talk with a lawyer, then turn themselves in with that lawyer at the court that signed it. Sometimes a phone call to that court gets a new date instead. County Court is at 163 Arsenal Street, Watertown, NY 13601, 315-570-2950.

Dates come from the court clerk. For city arrests, that's Watertown City Court, 245 Washington Street, Watertown, NY 13601, 315-570-2720, open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. For felonies after indictment, call County Court at 315-570-2950. Town cases go to the town justice; all their numbers are in our court guide.

The statewide WebCrims search lists only pending cases with a future date, and only in certain courts, mostly downstate. So for most cases here, phone the clerk.

VINE can send court event notices too, if you register. Lawyers are told every adjourned date, so ask the defense attorney too.

Federal charges from this area are heard in Syracuse at the U.S. District Court, James Hanley Federal Building, 100 South Clinton Street, Syracuse, NY 13261, 315-234-8500.

After a federal arrest, the person sees a judge, who decides at a detention hearing whether they stay locked up until trial. While the case goes on, the U.S. Marshals Service keeps custody. The Marshals may house federal prisoners in county jails that have agreements with them. To learn where someone is, call the Marshals' Syracuse office, 100 South Clinton Street, 10th Floor, Syracuse, NY 13261, 315-473-7601.

After sentencing, the Federal Bureau of Prisons takes over. Search its inmate locator by name or register number. Case records are on PACER.

Here is how an immigration detainer usually works:

1. Immigration officers deliver Form I-247A. That paper requests custody of the person up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
2. Agents come to take the person into ICE custody.
3. Two places ICE keeps detainees in New York are the Buffalo (Batavia) Service Processing Center, 4250 Federal Drive, Batavia, NY 14020, 585-344-6500, and the Clinton County Jail, 25 McCarthy Drive, Plattsburgh, NY 12901, 518-565-4343.
4. Search the ICE Online Detainee Locator; an A-number gives the best results.

State law restrains local cooperation. People ex rel. Wells v DeMarco, a 2018 Appellate Division case, held that keeping someone jailed on a civil immigration detainer is not something New York law lets local officers do. Since August 25, 2026, Executive Law § 170-k has voided all local 287(g) agreements. Civil Rights Law § 28 bars civil immigration arrests near courthouses without a judge's warrant. An immigration lawyer can help the family plan next steps.

A prison sentence means a wait on Waterman Drive until the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) collects the person. DOCCS screens new arrivals at a reception center and then assigns a permanent prison.

• Search the DOCCS Incarcerated Lookup using the DIN, or the surname with the year of birth. It goes offline nightly around 11:45 p.m.
• No internet? Call DOCCS at 518-457-5000 during business hours.
• Someone released to parole shows up in the Parolee Lookup.

Each prison has its own entry on our New York state prisons page.

The adult jail does not take anyone younger than 18. Since Raise the Age, felony cases against teens of 16 or 17 begin in the Youth Part of County Court, while misdemeanors are sent to Probation intake. If detention is needed, the teen goes to a secure youth facility. The state's Office of Children and Family Services keeps a list of youth detention centers.

Police must notify a parent right away. Questioning must happen at a place the courts approve, and it is video recorded (Family Court Act § 305.2). Before any questions, the child hears the right to silence and to a free attorney.

To find a detained teen, call Probation's juvenile intake, 175 Arsenal Street, 6th Floor, Watertown, NY 13601, 315-785-3065, or Family Court, 163 Arsenal Street, Watertown, NY 13601, 315-570-2970.

Every agency below books adults into the same jail. If you don't know which one made the arrest, ask Booking/Intake.

County and city

• Sheriff's Office (road patrol for all 22 towns): Metro-Jefferson Public Safety Building, 753 Waterman Drive, Watertown, NY 13601. Patrol line 315-788-1441, county dispatch 315-786-2601.
• Watertown Police Department: 751 Waterman Drive, Watertown, NY 13601, 315-782-2233
• County Park Police: call the Sheriff's patrol line above.

Village police

• Alexandria Bay: village office, 110 Walton Street, Alexandria Bay, NY 13607, 315-482-2506
• Black River (part-time): 107 Jefferson Place, Black River, NY 13612, 315-773-5721
• Brownville: non-emergency calls go through county dispatch, listed above.
• Cape Vincent (part-time): 177 North James Street, Cape Vincent, NY 13618, 315-654-3400
• Carthage: 120 South Mechanic Street, Carthage, NY 13619, 315-493-1141
• Clayton: village office, 425 Mary Street, Clayton, NY 13624, 315-686-5552
• Dexter: village office, 509 Liberty Street, Dexter, NY 13634, police 315-639-6261
• Sackets Harbor: 315-646-2023
• Adams, Glen Park and West Carthage: call the Sheriff's patrol line.

Villages with no department of their own, such as Chaumont, Deferiet, Ellisburg, Evans Mills, Mannsville, Philadelphia and Theresa, are covered by deputies and troopers. So are the towns: Adams, Alexandria, Antwerp, Brownville, Cape Vincent, Champion, Clayton, Ellisburg, Henderson, Hounsfield, LeRay, Lorraine, Lyme, Orleans, Pamelia, Philadelphia, Rodman, Rutland, Theresa, Watertown, Wilna and Worth.

State, campus and military

• New York State Police, Troop D, Zone 3, all at 315-366-6000: stations at 25873 State Route 37, Watertown, NY 13601; 2 North Main Street, Adams, NY 13605; 43341 NYS Route 12, Alexandria Bay, NY 13607; 1 Park Drive, Carthage, NY 13619; 64 Main Street, Philadelphia, NY 13673; and the Interstate 81 rest area station at 39764 I-81, Alexandria Bay, NY 13607.
• Fort Drum Military Police: Building 10715, Mount Belvedere Boulevard, Fort Drum, NY 13602, 315-772-7770
• SUNY Jefferson Campus Safety: 1220 Coffeen Street, Watertown, NY 13601, 315-786-2222