The lookup is free and takes about a minute:

1. Open the jail's public search form.
2. Type the surname and given name. No match? Try other spellings, a nickname or a maiden name.
3. Pick the right person by age or middle name, then open the record.
4. Note the JID, the jail's own ID number. Staff ask for it when you call, post bail or schedule a visit.

The record gives bail status and amount, which agency made the arrest, and how to visit. Right after an arrest, or if an entry looks out of date, confirm it with the main desk at 914-231-1000. The Department of Correction's own site, in English and Spanish, links to the same form.

Several ordinary things keep a name off the results:

• Still at the police station. City, town and village police book and hold people until arraignment. The person reaches Valhalla only if the judge orders bail or a remand.
• Already free. Most people go home from arraignment or get a desk appearance ticket, which means they never come to the jail.
• Held back on purpose. The Department of Correction says some people are left out for security reasons or because of the kind of case.
• Moved on. Someone may have gone to state prison, to federal custody or to an immigration hold.
• A typo. Try fewer letters or the other name order.

Next, phone the police department that made the arrest. If you still have nothing, the Jail Supervisor at 914-231-1068 handles questions the main lines can't.

Almost everyone held on a county case is at one campus. Other places to check:

• Grasslands campus, Valhalla. The Jail Division holds men waiting for trial or sentencing and women in any stage of a local case. The Penitentiary Division holds men serving a year or less, and the Women's Unit is there too. All share 10 Woods Road, Valhalla, NY 10595, 914-231-1000.
• Yonkers. Our site also has a Yonkers City Jail page for the police Central Booking site where Yonkers arrests are photographed, fingerprinted and held until the next court day. Anyone the judge keeps after that is moved to Valhalla. Call police headquarters, 104 South Broadway, Yonkers, NY 10701, 914-377-7900.
• Youth. Anyone under 18 goes to secure youth detention run by The Children's Village, 914-231-1103.
• Putnam County, to the north. An arrest on a Putnam charge leads to the Putnam County Correctional Facility, 3 County Center, Carmel, NY 10512, 845-225-4300.
• Rockland County, across the Hudson. Rockland cases go to the Rockland County Sheriff's Office Correctional Facility, 55 New Hempstead Road, New City, NY 10956, 845-638-5600.

The jail lists three things its lookup gives: bail status and amount, the arresting agency, and visit details. Under New York law, police and jails usually keep arrest photos private. They may release one when it helps a specific police goal (Public Officers Law § 89(2)(b)(viii)).

• Reporters can direct a records request to the Department of Correction's Community Relations office at 914-231-1370.
• Photos taken by immigration officers are sought through a FOIA request to ICE.
• Federal agencies hold back their booking photos as a rule. A Marshals Service photo can come out when deputies are searching for a fugitive.

Sign up with VINE, the free statewide victim notification service. It also tells anyone the person's custody status and where they are held.

• Search the person on VINELink for New York and register for a text, email or call when they leave or change facilities.
• No internet? Call 888-846-3469 (888-VINE-4NY) any hour.
• After a state prison term, DOCCS searches need the DIN, the NYSID, or a name with the date of birth.

Crime victims can also lean on the District Attorney's Victims' Justice Center at 914-995-3300, weekdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Staff there explain court dates, attend hearings with you and help with compensation claims.

Since January 1, 2020, New York judges have had to send nearly everyone facing a misdemeanor or nonviolent felony home, trusting them to come back, sometimes with rules attached. Only charges named as "qualifying offenses" allow bail or remand (CPL 510.10(4)). If bail is chosen, CPL 520.10 makes the judge offer three or more forms. A partially secured or unsecured bond has to be among them.

At the jail, one adult with photo ID can post cash or card bail any hour at the entrance gate, Post 1. Phone payments go through GovPayEXP at 877-392-2455, up to $2,500. The jail does not accept bail bonds, which are posted at the court handling the case. Our full bail guide covers amounts, refunds and the forms.

Central Booking reads out the charges, the court and the docket number at 914-231-1020. Other ways to learn more:

• Arraignment, normally the day after the arrest or sooner, is when the judge reads the charges out. Family may watch.
• Felony cases in County Court appear on WebCrims, the state's pending case search, while a future court date is set.
• The defense lawyer gets the police papers and, later, the evidence.

Quick guide to the words: a felony is a grave offense, the kind that can mean years upstate in a state prison. A misdemeanor is lighter; 364 days in a county jail is its ceiling. Violations, such as some traffic matters, are not crimes at all.

No money for a lawyer? The court provides one at no charge from arraignment on (Executive Law § 832(4)). Sitting in jail counts in favor of qualifying.

• The county's independent Office of Assigned Counsel supplies most of these lawyers through a panel of more than 250 private attorneys. It also sets up phone access so clients in the jail can reach them.
• The Legal Aid Society of Westchester County keeps a satellite office in the jail's education center.
• To learn who was assigned, call the clerk of the court with the case, or ask Central Booking at 914-231-1020 which court that is.

Lawyers can register their phone numbers with the jail as private, so those calls aren't recorded.

Book first. Call 914-231-4116 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., up to one week ahead. For a Saturday, Sunday or Monday visit, call by 1 p.m. Friday.

• How often: two visits of one hour each week, and only one may fall on a weekend.
• Start times: 9:10 a.m., 10:20 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:15 p.m., 2:30 p.m. and 3:45 p.m., seven days.
• Arrival: check-in opens 30 minutes before your start time and shuts 30 minutes after it.
• Group size: three at most, two adults and one child. Minors come with a parent or legal guardian.
• ID: a current photo ID. Children may use a birth or baptismal certificate.
• Clothing: nothing orange. Skip hoodies, shorts, tank tops, leggings and hats.
• New arrivals: ask, and a first visit can happen within 24 hours of processing.

Video visits from home need a free account and a government ID showing your current address, with three viewers at most. Our visiting page explains setup. For visits to the Women's Unit with children, call the social worker's office at 914-231-1558.

Bring photo ID to leave money or property. Lobby kiosks take deposits Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Online card deposits work around the clock. Our deposit page lists each method and its steps. Snacks and supplies can be ordered as gifts on our commissary page.

The money pays for commissary items and phone time. Questions about a deposit go to the main desk at 914-231-1000.

Calls go out only. People held there can't take incoming calls or messages. In an emergency, such as a death in the family, ask for the shift supervisor at 914-231-1068.

• To get calls, set up a prepaid account at 800-483-8314.
• Billing or connection problems go to customer service at 877-650-4249.
• Calls from the jail are recorded, except registered lawyer lines.

Rates, blocking and messaging are on our jail phone page.

Address every envelope like this:

Person's full name
PO Box 10
Valhalla, NY 10595

Adding the JID helps, though the rules don't require it. The jail sets these limits:

• White paper only, written in blue or black ink.
• Twelve photos at most, and no Polaroid or Fuji prints.
• No crayon, marker, gel ink, lipstick, perfume, glitter, stickers, self-stick stamps, laminated items, musical cards or hard cardboard.

Ordinary letters may be searched for banned items. Envelopes from an attorney, a legal aid office or a judge's chambers get unsealed in the person's presence, never out of sight (9 NYCRR 7004.4). Our jail mail page has more.

The person decides who collects their things by filling out a "Turn Over To" form naming one adult. That person then comes with ID Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

• Only wallets, jewelry and electronic devices are released this way.
• Cash and the commissary balance stay on the account until the person is freed.
• Clothing and other items can be dropped off weekdays 9 to 10:45 a.m. or 1:30 to 4:30 p.m., following the jail's separate lists for men and women.

Questions go to the main desk at 914-231-1000.

Medical care at the jail holds accreditation from NCCHC, the national standards group for jail health care. Since 2022 it has offered medication for opioid use disorder: methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone. People in a mental health crisis can be moved to an Acute Mental Health Unit.

• If you fear for someone's health, tell the Jail Supervisor at 914-231-1068.
• Use of force or sexual abuse goes to Special Investigations at 914-231-1128, or to County Police at 914-864-7850.
• The state's Commission of Correction oversees all county jails: 80 South Swan Street, Albany, NY 12210, 518-485-2346.

Officers holding someone under arrest must look after their medical and mental health needs (Civil Rights Law § 28).

Wanted lists to check: the county's Warrant Watch and State Police wanted persons. The County Police Warrant-Fugitive Unit serves county court and Family Court warrants from 1 Saw Mill River Parkway, Hawthorne, NY 10532, 914-864-7700. Local police serve warrants from their own city, town or village court. The court that issued the warrant can confirm it by phone. To clear it, the person returns to that court, best with a lawyer who has arranged the surrender ahead of time. The clerk there can also set a fresh date. For a felony warrant, reach the County Court criminal clerk at the courthouse, 111 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., White Plains, NY 10601, 914-824-5400.

Felony and some city court cases with a date ahead show up on WebCrims. Ask Central Booking which court has the case at 914-231-1020, then call that court.

• County Court felonies: 111 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., White Plains, NY 10601, 914-824-5400.
• Saturday, Sunday and holiday arraignments for city arrests happen at the same courthouse; call 914-824-5032.
• Town and village cases: call the justice court in the place of arrest.

Our criminal court page lists each city, town and village court with its address and phone.

Federal arrests from Westchester usually go before a magistrate judge at the federal courthouse, 300 Quarropas Street, White Plains, NY 10601, clerk 914-390-4100.

• Detention hearing: at the first appearance, the judge decides release or detention. A few days' postponement is allowed if a lawyer or the prosecutor asks, with the person held in the meantime (18 U.S.C. 3142(f)).
• Before a verdict: housing is picked by the U.S. Marshals Service. Ask its office at 500 Pearl Street, Suite 400, New York, NY 10007, 646-563-9800.
• Once sentenced: custody shifts to the Bureau of Prisons. Search its federal inmate locator by name or register number.

For a free federal lawyer, contact Federal Defenders of New York, 81 Main Street, Suite 124, White Plains, NY 10601, 914-428-7124.

When immigration agents want someone held at the Valhalla jail, the usual order is:

1. Immigration officers (ICE) send a detainer to Valhalla on federal Form I-247A.
2. Its request: custody for up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Officers from ICE's New York City field office take the person: 26 Federal Plaza, Suite 9-110, New York, NY 10278 (9th floor), 212-436-9315.
4. They can be moved to a federal site in Genesee County, the Buffalo (Batavia) Service Processing Center, 4250 Federal Drive, Batavia, NY 14020, 585-344-6500, or to a site in another state.
5. Look them up on the ICE Online Detainee Locator. Searching by A-number is fastest. Or try the full name with the person's native country.

New York's rule: a 2018 appeals ruling, People ex rel. Wells v DeMarco, ruled (2d Dept) that New York law never authorized its police or jail staff to carry out civil immigration arrests. Holding a person on a detainer alone is voluntary, the Attorney General says, and is advised only when a judge signed a warrant. Executive Law § 170-k bars 287(g) deals with ICE, and every one ended August 25, 2026. Civil Rights Law § 28 adds courthouse protection: no civil arrest of a party, witness or their relatives traveling to, at or from a court case without a judge's warrant or order.

Anyone given 12 months or less stays at the Valhalla campus to serve it. A longer felony term is the job of the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS).

1. A reception center handles intake: health screening, a security rating and a DIN, the state's prison ID number.
2. That rating steers which prison comes next.
3. Search the DOCCS Incarcerated Lookup by name or DIN.

Visit and mail rules for every state facility are on our state prisons in New York page. DOCCS takes location questions on weekdays at 518-457-5000, The Harriman State Campus, Building 4, 1220 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12226.

A child or teen is never placed in the adult jail. Youth detention takes them instead, as the state's Raise the Age reforms require.

• Secure detention: The Children's Village runs it for the county, 914-231-1103. Call to find out where the youth is.
• Non-secure detention: the Family Court Assistance Program, 914-693-0600.
• Parents: Family Court Act § 305.2 requires the arresting officer to reach a parent or guardian without delay.
• Court: under Family Court Act § 307.3, a child held overnight must be in front of a Family Court judge by the next court day, and 72 hours is the outside limit.

Probation's Bureau of Juvenile Justice is at 26 Garden Street, New Rochelle, NY 10801 (4th floor), 914-813-5500.

The arresting agency appears in the lookup record. Use the non-emergency numbers below, and dial 911 for emergencies.

County and state agencies

• County Police (Department of Public Safety), 1 Saw Mill River Parkway, Hawthorne, NY 10532, 914-864-7700. It patrols Mount Kisco, the Town of Cortlandt, parkways, county parks and buildings, buses and the county airport. If a town number below has changed, County Police or the town hall can give the current one.
• State Police Troop K: stations in Hawthorne, Lewisboro, Mohegan Lake and Somers, 914-769-2600; Cortlandt station in Croton-on-Hudson, 914-737-7171.
• MTA Police, 914-271-1772; SUNY Purchase campus police, 914-251-6900.

Cities

• Mount Vernon 914-665-2500; New Rochelle 914-654-2300; Peekskill 914-737-8000
• Rye 914-967-1234; White Plains 914-422-6111
• Yonkers, 104 South Broadway, Yonkers, NY 10701, 914-377-7900

Greenburgh and its villages

• Greenburgh Town (unincorporated areas), 188 Tarrytown Road, White Plains, NY 10607, 914-989-1700
• Ardsley 914-693-1700; Dobbs Ferry 914-693-5500; Elmsford 914-592-8383
• Hastings-on-Hudson 914-478-2344; Irvington 914-591-8080; Tarrytown 914-631-5544

Southern towns and villages

• Eastchester Town 914-961-3464; Bronxville 914-337-0500; Tuckahoe 914-961-4800
• Pelham Village 914-738-2000; Pelham Manor 914-738-1000
• Mamaroneck Town 914-381-6100; Mamaroneck Village 914-777-1122; Larchmont 914-834-1000
• Harrison 914-967-5111; Scarsdale 914-722-1200
• Town of Rye area: Port Chester 914-939-1000; Rye Brook 914-937-1020

Central and northern towns and villages

• Mount Pleasant 914-769-1941; Pleasantville 914-769-1500; Briarcliff Manor 914-941-2130; Sleepy Hollow 914-631-0800
• Ossining (village police, whose sectors also cover the unincorporated town) 914-941-4099
• Croton-on-Hudson 914-271-5177; Buchanan 914-739-6776
• New Castle 914-238-4422; North Castle 914-273-9500; Bedford 914-241-3111
• Pound Ridge 914-764-4206; Lewisboro 914-763-8903; North Salem 914-669-5540
• Somers 914-232-9622; Yorktown 914-962-4141