St. Lawrence County Correctional Facility Inmate Bail & Bonds

Release is a judge's call, made at the arraignment. That is the opening hearing in front of a judge. The state's CourtHelp site says that hearing usually comes about 24 hours after an arrest. In this county, local judges handle it: a town justice, or for arrests in the city, Ogdensburg City Court, 330 Ford Street, Ogdensburg, NY 13669, 315-393-3941.

Lots of people skip the cell completely. Unless the charge is a class A, B, C or D felony, officers generally must write an appearance ticket, a slip naming a court date, rather than haul the person to jail (CPL 150.20). Exceptions let police hold someone, for instance with an outstanding warrant, a charge between family members, or a case that may call for an order of protection.

A felony that gets indicted moves up to County Court, where its judge may revisit release. Reach that court at 48 Court Street, Canton, NY 13617, 315-379-2219.

Courts label this ruling a securing order (CPL 500.10). Expect one of these:

• ROR, short for released on recognizance. Their written word to come back is all it takes. No payment, no rules.
• Released with non-monetary conditions. Home again, under rules like reporting in, a curfew or a stay-away order. The person can't be charged a cent for supervision.
• Bail. Someone must put up cash or a bond first. Judges may choose this only for listed serious charges.
• Remand. The person waits behind bars for the whole case, and bail is off the table. Only certain felonies allow it (CPL 510.10(4)).

Electronic monitoring, like an ankle bracelet, counts as a condition. It needs a hearing first, runs for up to 60 days, and only a fresh ruling can extend it (CPL 510.40(4)). The judge has to state the reasons for any choice, either aloud or on paper (CPL 510.10(1)).

No chart fixes the dollar figure. Judges set each amount one case at a time and must ask if paying it would cause undue hardship for this person (CPL 510.10(1)). The charge decides whether bail is even on the table:

• Most misdemeanors: release is mandatory, so bail isn't an option (CPL 530.20(1)(a)).
• Most nonviolent felonies: also mandatory release, either ROR or with conditions.
• Qualifying offenses: bail becomes allowed. The list covers violent felonies, witness tampering and crimes that caused a death (CPL 510.10(4)).
• More qualifying offenses: violating a protection order for a relative, and a felony charged while on probation.
• Class A felonies, or a record with two prior felonies: town and city judges lack power to release. A superior court judge rules instead (CPL 530.20(2)).
• Token bail: a defendant may request a nominal amount, and the judge must agree when the request is voluntary (CPL 510.10(5)).

Statewide numbers from 2024 give a feel for it. Beyond New York City, three in four people facing a town or village justice were released (75%) on ROR. Conditions went to 5%, bail to 13% and remand to 7%. City courts beyond the five boroughs: 57% ROR, 16% conditions, 20% bail, 7% remand. For your person's figure, ring the jail at 315-379-2367.

The lobby takes bail 24 hours a day, all seven days. Go in this order:

1. Call 315-379-2367 ahead. Note the amount, which court, and every form of bail on the court order.
2. Pack a photo ID. No one posts bail without it.
3. Head to 17 Commerce Lane, Canton, NY 13617. Use the intercom beside the main entrance to announce yourself.
4. Past the first doors, turn right into room LO102, the Bail/Property Drop.
5. Push the wall intercom so the Intake Officer comes.
6. Pay in cash, run a card, or turn in the bondsman's papers. Then sign the forms.
7. Be patient. Staff say posting can take a while.

For a card at the window, the cardholder has to be there with ID. Staff give out a fact sheet, and the cardholder dials the card bail service from a phone in LO102. Once the card clears, the service reads out a six-digit reference number for the Intake Officer. A bond posted through an agent is arranged with the court, and the jail frees the person on a Court Ordered Release.

Under state law, cash bail may be handed to the county treasurer, the court that issued the order, or the sheriff who holds the person (CPL 520.15). Proof of deposit means the person goes free at once. Only the jail lobby stays open overnight and on weekends.

Planning to pay at a courthouse instead? Phone the clerk first and ask if bail is taken there, what forms of payment work and the window hours:

• County Court (felonies), 48 Court Street, Canton, NY 13617, 315-379-2219
• Ogdensburg City Court, 330 Ford Street, Ogdensburg, NY 13669, 315-393-3941, hours 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
• Town courts: every one has its own clerk, and our court page gives each address and number.

Someone still sitting at a village or city police station may not have reached the jail yet. The Sheriff's Office at 315-379-2222 can say where the money should go.

Three things work in LO102: cash, a credit card and a bail bond. Checks and money orders are refused. Have photo ID ready either way.

The jail's own bail page sends card payers to GovPayNet, a private processor that serves as the merchant of record. Paying from home goes like this:

1. Phone the jail at 315-379-2367 for the fact sheet. It carries the PLC (Pay Location Code), the bail figure and the court's name.
2. Call GovPayNet at 877-392-2455 (1-877-EZBAIL5), or pay on its website, GovPayNow.com.
3. Before you confirm, ask the company about its charges.

One catch with cards: every form is in the defendant's name, the defendant being the one charged. Whoever owns the card surrenders all rights to that money. Should a judge order it returned, the defendant gets the check and the cardholder gets nothing.

A bondsman guarantees the whole bail to the court and bills you a premium, a fee for taking that risk. Each agent needs a DFS license; DFS stands for the Department of Financial Services. Check a license on the DFS bail agent search ahead of signing any contract.

• Premium cap (Insurance Law § 6804): 10% on the first $3,000, 8% on the slice from $3,000 to $10,000 and 6% on whatever tops $10,000. A $5,000 bond can cost no more than $460.
• Getting the premium back: normally it's kept. In two cases you get every cent of it back within 14 days: the person stays jailed, or goes home without money bail.
• Add-on charges are barred, except a short list of costs like catching someone who skipped court.
• Collateral, anything pledged as security, ought to be modest, around 10% of the bond. The agent must return it within 45 days once exoneration papers arrive from the court.
• Paper trail: insist on a signed receipt for each premium and each piece of collateral.

Non-profit charitable bail groups can pay cash bail too. Five regional bond agencies appear on the jail's bail page, and staff can share them by phone. To report an agent, use the DFS complaint form.

Paid bail frees someone from one case and nothing else. Ask about each of these:

• Warrants elsewhere. Another county or court may have its own claim.
• More than one case. A town court charge and a County Court felony each need a separate release.
• Probation. A fresh felony during probation or post-release supervision sits on the qualifying list, so bail or even remand becomes possible (CPL 510.10(4)).
• State parole. Find out if a parole officer lodged a hold.
• Federal or ICE detainers. Separate rules govern them.
• A sentence already running. Jail time owed on an old case must be finished.

Ring 315-379-2367 and ask staff to name every hold on file. Do this before paying.

Remand means jail with no bail at all. Judges may use it only for qualifying felonies (CPL 510.10(4)). Town and city judges also can't free two groups: people accused of a class A felony, and people with two felony convictions already. A superior court must rule on those (CPL 530.20(2)).

On felony charges, the District Attorney has a right to speak first, and a local judge must review a criminal record report before freeing anyone. The factors include prior flight, the record, family and money, weapons and any broken protection orders (CPL 510.10(1)).

Prosecutors seeking bail or remand work out of the District Attorney's Office, 48 Court Street, Canton, NY 13617, 315-379-2225.

1. Your first call is the defense lawyer, since the lawyer files the request.
2. Collect proof of local roots, such as pay stubs, a lease, school records or a treatment intake.
3. Write down what the family could honestly pay, since judges must weigh undue hardship (CPL 510.10(1)).
4. For a case in town or city court, the lawyer may ask a superior court judge, usually in County Court, for one bail review. A second try isn't allowed (CPL 530.30).

Deadlines matter as well. Someone jailed on a felony complaint wins release after 120 hours if nothing has happened on the complaint, meaning no preliminary hearing under way and no indictment vote. Count 144 hours instead if a Saturday, Sunday or holiday falls inside that window (CPL 180.80). If the prosecution isn't trial-ready, a jailed defendant must go free after 90 days on a felony, 30 on most misdemeanors and 15 on minor ones (CPL 30.30(2)). County Court answers at 315-379-2219.

Defendants who can't pay for counsel get it at no charge, and a lawyer should be there at arraignment (Executive Law § 832(4)). Income below 250% of federal poverty guidelines, or simply being jailed, creates a presumption of eligibility. The judge has the last word.

• Office of Indigent Defense (applications): 48 Court Street, Canton, NY 13617, in the Public Safety Building, 315-379-2401. Weekdays 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., first floor, within Probation. Carry court papers plus proof of income or public assistance.
• Public Defender: 48 Court Street, Canton, NY 13617, in the Corner Building, 315-379-2115. Alternative number: 315-379-2393.
• Assigned Counsel Program (private lawyers for cases the defender can't handle): 2 Judson Street, Canton, NY 13617, 315-386-8544.

Nobody pays for this unless a judge later orders repayment.

This is Fourth Judicial District territory. The higher courts share one address:

• County Court and Supreme Court, 48 Court Street, Canton, NY 13617, 315-379-2219
• Family Court (youth and family matters), same building, 315-379-2410
• Ogdensburg City Court, 330 Ford Street, Ogdensburg, NY 13669, 315-393-3941

Town courts hear misdemeanors and early felony steps for their own towns. There are 32 towns in the county, and each runs a justice court with its own clerk. Our court page lists every town court with its address and phone. The Unified Court System's town and village court finder also shows addresses and hours.

Bail money posted in cash remains the payer's property unless forfeited (CPL 520.15). Every dollar returns after a dismissal or an acquittal. Any other result costs a 3% county fee (General Municipal Law § 99-m). Card bail is different: the jail says refunds go to the defendant, not whoever owned the card.

• A skipped court date without a valid reason gives the judge grounds to forfeit the bail (CPL 540.10).
• Showing up later, before the case's last adjournment, with a solid reason can wipe out the forfeit.
• Notice: the county treasurer writes to the person who posted cash. The county may spend it 45 days after that letter or after the final adjournment, whichever is later.
• Remission: a request to return some or all of it must reach a superior court within one year (CPL 540.30).

Refund questions go to the court that ran the case, for example Ogdensburg City Court at 315-393-3941 or County Court at 315-379-2219. Hold on to the receipt.

Booking opens a commissary account, and the clothes and items the person arrived with are stored. Room LO102 in the lobby is also where property is dropped off. Call 315-379-2367 to learn how unspent account money is paid out and when belongings can be claimed.

• Show a photo ID at 17 Commerce Lane, Canton, NY 13617.
• If the items are for someone else, ask whether a signed note from that person is required.
• Lobby lockers take a quarter if you need a spot for your own bag.

Deposits are explained step by step in our inmate money guide. The commissary rundown lists what an account can buy.

Charges brought by federal prosecutors in this county land in the Malone/Plattsburgh Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York. Court is held at the Gateway Building, 14 Durkee Street, Suite 360, Plattsburgh, NY 12901, 518-247-4501, where hours vary.

• A federal judge decides release at a detention hearing, held right at the first appearance. Postponing it takes a motion, and the limit is five days on a defense motion and three on a government motion (18 U.S.C. 3142(f)).
• Choices run from a simple promise or unsecured bond, through release with conditions, all the way to detention (18 U.S.C. 3142(a)).
• Federal pretrial officers in Plattsburgh write reports for the judge: 518-247-4510.
• A federal defendant who is not released goes to the U.S. Marshals Service. Its Northern District headquarters, 100 South Clinton Street, 10th Floor, Syracuse, NY 13261, 315-473-7601, can tell you which jail is housing the person.
• Once a prison term begins, use the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

Posting state bail does not, on its own, wipe out an immigration detainer. The federal side runs like this:

1. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) starts by lodging a detainer, Form I-247A, with jail staff.
2. In it, ICE asks for a hold of up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. ICE officers then come to pick the person up.
4. In New York, many ICE detainees get moved west to Batavia, to the Buffalo (Batavia) Service Processing Center, 4250 Federal Drive, Batavia, NY 14020, 585-344-6500, or to the Clinton County Jail, 25 McCarthy Drive, Plattsburgh, NY 12901, 518-565-4343.
5. Search the ICE Online Detainee Locator to learn where they went.

State rules shape what the jail in Canton may do. In People ex rel. Wells v DeMarco (2018), the Appellate Division, Second Department, decided that New York law leaves civil immigration enforcement out of the powers given to police and deputies. The Attorney General's guidance recommends honoring detainers only with a judicial warrant. Executive Law § 170-k ended local 287(g) partnerships with ICE, effective August 25, 2026. And Civil Rights Law § 28 bans civil arrests on the way to, at, or home from court, absent a judicial warrant or court order.

Jail terms of a year or less are done locally in Canton. Felony terms past one year go to the state prison system, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS). Once the county calls a person state ready, DOCCS must accept the transfer inside ten business days. Intake and classification come first, and then a transfer to a prison matched to the person.

• Use the DOCCS Incarcerated Lookup with a name or a DIN, the state's ID number for each prison term.
• Phone DOCCS on weekdays at 518-457-5000 if searching online is hard.
• For visits and mail at a given prison, open our New York state prisons guide.

Raise the Age, a state law, routes a 16- or 17-year-old's felony first to the Youth Part, a branch of County Court. Many such cases later shift to Family Court. Children under 16, and teens with misdemeanors, are handled by Family Court or probation intake.

• A 16- or 17-year-old charged as an adolescent offender can't be held in a jail that serves adults. Specialized secure juvenile detention is used instead.
• Police must call a parent at once after picking up a child (Family Court Act § 305.2).
• A child kept in custody must appear in Family Court fast: inside 72 hours, or sooner if court meets the next day (Family Court Act § 307.3).

The Probation Department, 315-379-2230, can tell parents which detention center has the youth. Family Court sits at 48 Court Street, Canton, NY 13617, 315-379-2410.