Lewis County Jail Inmate Bail & Bonds

A judge does. Deputies and jail officers collect money, yet none of them can pick an amount. When your relative first appears, the court must issue a securing order (CPL 510.10). Think of it as the judge's ruling on freedom: walk out free, walk out with rules, pay bail, or stay put.

That first hearing is called arraignment. Statewide, the courts say the wait from arrest is usually close to 24 hours. Here, a town justice, or the Lyons Falls village justice, usually takes that first look. Felonies that a grand jury indicts later climb to County Court, 7660 North State Street, Lowville, NY 13367, 315-570-2435.

Plenty of arrests here end without any cell at all. For nearly every charge milder than a class D felony, the officer must issue an appearance ticket rather than book the person (CPL 150.20). Your relative goes home and appears on the date written on that slip.

New York hands judges four tools. In everyday words:

• Recognizance. Your relative signs and walks out. No cash, no extra rules.
• Non-monetary conditions. Freedom tied to rules, like check-ins, staying in the state or keeping away from a named person. Nobody may bill your relative for these (CPL 500.10).
• Bail. Money or a bond that is lost after a skipped date.
• Remand. Jail with no bail offered, possible only on some felonies.

Most misdemeanor and nonviolent felony cases must end in one of the first two (CPL 510.10(3), 530.20). The law spells out a list of "qualifying offenses" where bail or remand may be used. Violent felonies, charges tied to a death, many household violence charges, jumping bail and new felonies by someone on probation all appear on it (CPL 510.10(4)).

Electronic monitoring is treated as a condition, used only if softer rules won't do. A judge can order it for 60 days, then renew it (CPL 510.40).

There is no price chart. Each judge weighs the charge, any record, past no-shows and what your relative can afford without undue hardship (CPL 510.10(1)). Two people on matching charges can walk away with far different figures.

Any bail ruling must offer three or more payment forms. Among them, the judge has to include an unsecured or a partially secured bond (CPL 520.10).

• Unsecured bond: nothing paid today. The signer simply agrees to owe the full sum if court gets skipped.
• Partially secured bond: a partial deposit, capped at 10% of the full bail (CPL 500.10(18)). So $5,000 bail means $500 down, or less.
• Cash bail: every dollar, handed over.

Money bail has grown uncommon. Look at the 2024 state numbers for town and village benches upstate and on Long Island: 75% of defendants left on recognizance. Five percent went home with conditions. Judges set money bail for 13% and held 7% without it. For the true figure in your case, ask the jail at 315-376-3511 to read the order to you.

Bail is accepted around the clock, seven days a week, but only by someone standing at 5252 Outer Stowe Street, Lowville, NY 13367. Work through it in this order:

1. Phone 315-376-3511 before driving over. Spell out your relative's full name and give a birth date.
2. Ask what the bail is, which forms the judge listed, and if any second hold sits on file.
3. Bring the payment. Cash and money orders work, and so does a certified bank check made payable to "Lewis County Sheriff's Office." Cards run through GovPay.
4. Complete and sign the bail paperwork. State law makes the payer sign a form (CPL 520.15).
5. Tuck the receipt away. A refund later depends on it.

Once proof of payment reaches staff, your relative must be freed at once (CPL 520.15).

New York lets cash bail be left with the sheriff holding someone, the court that set the amount, or the county treasurer (CPL 520.15). Here, the jail is the only spot open at every hour.

• County Treasurer: 7660 North State Street, Lowville, NY 13367, 315-376-5325. Phone ahead and ask whether bail can be left there.
• The court that set it: an indicted felony sits with County Court, 315-570-2435. A town court case sits with that town's justice. You'll find each town number in the courthouse list on this page.

Town court hours vary from place to place, so a call saves a wasted drive. Ask the clerk what forms of payment it takes and whether it tells the jail once money is in.

The Sheriff's Office names four accepted ways to post:

• cash
• money order
• certified bank check payable to the Lewis County Sheriff's Office
• credit or debit card, handled by the county's card service, GovPay, 888-604-7888

Two are refused outright: personal checks and remote bail. Somebody has to show up in person. For a card, phone GovPay first to hear its fee and how it works. Next, check with the jail at 315-376-3511 that cards are going through that day. Cash must never go in the mail.

According to the jail, family, friends or a lawyer may contact a bail bondsman. To write bail anywhere in the state, a bondsman must be licensed by DFS, New York's financial regulator. Check that license on the DFS licensed bail agent search before signing anything.

• Price limits. The premium can't exceed 10% of the first $3,000, plus 8% of the slice up to $10,000, plus 6% beyond that (Insurance Law § 6804). A $5,000 bond costs $460 at most.
• Getting it back. Usually the premium stays with the agent. Still, DFS gives agents 14 days to hand back every penny of the premium if the jail never releases your relative. The same applies if a judge frees them on recognizance or without any money bail.
• Extra charges. Agents can't tack on fees, apart from a few out-of-pocket costs the rules list.
• Collateral. DFS treats roughly 10% of the bond as a fair pledge. Once the agent receives exoneration papers, the clock to return pledged items is 45 days.
• Paperwork. Insist on a signed receipt every time cash or property changes hands.

Complaints go to the state through the DFS complaint page. Some families also turn to a charitable bail fund, a nonprofit with state approval to post cash bail.

Each receipt covers a single case. Before paying, ask the jail at 315-376-3511 to check each item below:

• Another court's warrant. Some other town, county or state may be waiting.
• Two open cases. Every case carries its own order and its own bail.
• Probation or parole trouble. An alleged violation may bring its own hold. The county Probation Department sits at 7660 North State Street, Lowville, NY 13367, 315-376-5358.
• A Family Court order. The jail also keeps people Family Court commits on civil matters.
• Federal or ICE paperwork. Both are covered lower on this page.

Remand keeps a person inside with no bail figure at all. It is reserved for qualifying felonies (CPL 510.10(4)). On anything else, the judge must let your relative go, with rules or without.

Town and village courts face one more limit. They can't free someone or name bail on a class A felony, or when the accused has two prior felony convictions (CPL 530.20(2)). A County Court judge decides those. A local court must also let the prosecutor weigh in before freeing anyone on a felony.

Clocks run for people kept inside. On a felony complaint, your relative must be let out if no preliminary hearing begins and no grand jury votes within 120 hours. With a weekend or holiday in the stretch, it is 144 (CPL 180.80).

The prosecutor is the District Attorney's Office, County Courthouse, 7660 North State Street, Lowville, NY 13367, 315-376-5390.

Yes, once. When a town or village court set the terms, a County Court judge can review them (CPL 530.30). That judge may cut the amount, soften the rules or free your relative. The law permits a single application, so prepare it with care.

1. Ask the defense lawyer to file for review.
2. Collect proof of a stable address, work, family nearby and what you can honestly pay.
3. Propose terms that answer the court's worries, such as reporting in each week.
4. If the charge is a felony, expect the DA to be heard first.

The County Court clerk at 315-570-2435 can say how reviews get on the calendar.

Anyone facing a charge has a right to counsel whenever bail is decided (CPL 510.10(2)). The state requires a lawyer at arraignment, assigned at once even if the money review is unfinished (Executive Law § 832(4)).

State standards presume someone qualifies if household income falls under 250% of federal poverty guidelines. Sitting in jail also points toward qualifying. The judge has the last word.

• Public Defender's Office: 7659 North State Street, Lowville, NY 13367, 315-874-4201, right beside the courthouse.
• Hiring privately: the state bar's Lawyer Referral Service, 800-342-3661.

County Court, Supreme Court, Family Court and Surrogate's Court share the County Courthouse, 7660 North State Street, Lowville, NY 13367. It is open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Family Court keeps its own line, 315-570-2440, while County and Supreme Court share 315-570-2435.

Town courts, alphabetical:

• Croghan: 9882 State Route 126, Suite B, Castorland, NY 13620, 315-346-1272
• Denmark: 3707 Roberts Road, Carthage, NY 13619, 315-493-1302
• Diana: 5959 Old State Extension Road, Harrisville, NY 13648, 315-543-2312
• Greig: 5186 Greig Road, Greig, NY 13345, 315-634-5709, ext. 5
• Harrisburg: 3157 Roberts Road, Carthage, NY 13619, and Montague: P.O. Box 208, Lowville, NY 13367, sharing 315-688-4303
• Lewis: 1039 State Route 26, West Leyden, NY 13489, and Osceola: 1711 Florence Road, Camden, NY 13316, sharing 315-897-7819
• Leyden: P.O. Box 116, Port Leyden, NY 13433, 315-348-8181
• Lowville: 5533 Bostwick Street, Lowville, NY 13367, 315-376-8070
• Lyonsdale: 3364 Pearl Street, Port Leyden, NY 13433, 315-348-6157
• Martinsburg: P.O. Box 16, Martinsburg, NY 13404, 315-376-2299
• New Bremen: 8420 State Route 812, Lowville, NY 13367, 315-246-1590
• Pinckney: its justice seat sat empty in 2026, so ask the town office, 587 County Route 194, Copenhagen, NY 13626, 315-408-5032
• Turin: 6312 East Main Street, Turin, NY 13473, 315-348-6073
• Watson: Town Barn, 6971 Number Four Road, Lowville, NY 13367, 315-376-3866
• West Turin, which shares space with the Lyons Falls Village Court: 6805 McAlpine Street, Lyons Falls, NY 13368, 315-348-5553

CPL 520.15 treats posted cash as the depositor's money all along. Only a forfeiture order changes that. After the final hearing, if no date was missed, the judge orders it repaid.

• A 3% cut. A conviction means 3% is withheld. Charges thrown out, or a verdict of not guilty, means no fee at all (General Municipal Law § 99-m).
• A skipped date. The money can be forfeited (CPL 540.10). A judge may reverse that if your relative returns with a solid reason before the case closes.
• Remission. The window to ask for forfeited money back closes one year after the forfeiture (CPL 540.30).

Keep the original receipt and photo ID together. For timing, phone whichever court holds the case, for instance County Court at 315-570-2435.

Whatever balance remains on your relative's commissary account is paid out as a release check. Deposit it quickly: the jail voids release checks after 90 days and shifts the funds to its inmate profit account. While someone is still inside, the balance can't go to an outside person without the administrator's approval, except in the first week.

Clothes, wallets and other items from booking sit in storage until release day. To arrange a pickup of anything left behind, call 315-376-3511. For a broader look at deposits and balances, see our inmate money guide.

A federal case begun in this county is assigned to the Syracuse Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York. Court sits at the James M. Hanley Federal Building, 100 South Clinton Street, Syracuse, NY 13261, 315-234-8500.

• The federal magistrate rules on detention at the very first hearing (18 U.S.C. 3142). The defense can win up to five days' delay; the government, up to three.
• While a federal case is pending, the U.S. Marshals Service holds the defendant. Its staff work upstairs on the 10th Floor of the Hanley building, 315-473-7601.
• The Marshals have had a housing agreement with the county, so a federal detainee might stay in the local jail.
• Defendants who can't pay may get the Federal Public Defender, 4 Clinton Square, 3rd Floor, Syracuse, NY 13202, 315-701-0080.
• Once sentenced, look your relative up on the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

Bail money answers only to the state judge. The immigration side moves on its own track:

1. Federal immigration agents (ICE) may send the jail a detainer request. It comes on Form I-247A.
2. In it, ICE asks the jail to keep your relative up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Agents would then pick your relative up. ICE's Buffalo Field Office is at 130 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14202, 716-843-7600. Its main upstate lockup is the Buffalo (Batavia) Service Processing Center, 4250 Federal Drive, Batavia, NY 14020, 585-344-6500.
4. Look them up on the ICE Online Detainee Locator.

New York law limits step 2. In People ex rel. Wells v DeMarco (2018), a New York appeals court found no state-law authority for local officers to make civil immigration arrests. The Attorney General's guidance tells agencies to honor a detainer when it comes with a warrant a judge signed, and not otherwise. Executive Law § 170-k, passed in 2026, outlaws 287(g) pacts with ICE. Those still standing were voided as of August 25, 2026. Under Civil Rights Law § 28, no one coming to, attending or leaving court may face a civil arrest without a judicial warrant or order.

Sentences longer than one year belong to the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS). Until the county marks your relative "state ready," they stay put on Outer Stowe Street. Ten business days is the deadline for DOCCS to collect them after that.

State custody begins at a reception center. There, the person gets health exams and tests and a security level. After classification, the state assigns a prison.

• Use the DOCCS Incarcerated Lookup with a name or DIN (Department Identification Number).
• No internet? Call DOCCS weekdays at 518-457-5000.
• See each facility in our New York state prisons guide.

Raise the Age gives a special label to teens who are 16 or 17 and charged with a felony: adolescent offenders. Their cases start before a superior court judge sitting as the Youth Part. Nonviolent felony cases are usually sent over to Family Court. The DA may block that move, but only by motion inside a 30-day window after arraignment, backed by proof of extraordinary circumstances (CPL 722.23).

• Misdemeanor arrests of teens skip adult court and head to probation intake.
• Officers must tell a parent immediately (Family Court Act § 305.2).
• By law they can't be lodged with adults. A specialized youth detention center houses them.

To find out where the teen was taken and the hearing date, phone Family Court at 315-570-2440 or Probation at 315-376-5358.