A single list covers both adult buildings the Sheriff's Office runs. Five steps get you there:

1. Pull up the in-custody list on any phone, tablet or laptop.
2. Copy the security code from the screen into the box. That check keeps robots out.
3. Scroll the names in order. Ctrl+F on a laptop finds a surname fast, and phone browsers tuck a similar search into their menu.
4. No luck? Search again under a former last name, or under only half of a hyphenated surname.
5. Write the details on paper, so they are ready for your first phone call.

Since the page reloads every half hour, someone brought in minutes ago can be missing at first. Downtown jail control will look up a name for you at 937-440-3971.

• Still in booking. Searches and forms come first, and the list catches up only twice each hour.
• Already free. Officers sometimes write a ticket or a summons and skip the jail. Others post bail, or sign a promise to show up for court (a recognizance bond).
• Waiting at a station. A city department may hold someone briefly in its own holding room before the ride to Troy.
• Held next door. If the arrest happened just past the line, the neighboring county books the person into its own jail.
• Held by the state or by federal agents. A parole hold, a prison sentence or a federal case can send the person somewhere else.
• Younger than 18. Minors are held at a juvenile center, so this adult list leaves them off.

To learn whether the person was ever brought in, phone the Inmate Info line at 937-440-3961.

The Sheriff's Office operates a pair of adult jails, both in Troy. Each has its own role:

• The downtown jail, Safety Building, 201 W. Main Street, Troy, OH 45373, jail control 937-440-3971. This full-service jail takes every new booking and is certified for 48 people. During booking, staff rate each person's risk, a step known as classification, and choose where they will sleep.
• The Incarceration Facility (MCIF), 2042 N CR 25A, Troy, OH 45373, control room 937-440-3490. North of the city, this minimum-security building houses lower-classified inmates. Current funding gives it beds for 120 men and 60 women.

The county holds its own people instead of sharing a regional jail. Arrests in Champaign, Madison or Union County go to the Tri-County Regional Jail, 4099 State Route 559, Mechanicsburg, OH 43044, 937-834-5000. For a different nearby county, ring that county's Sheriff's Office.

Photos on the custody list can come and go, so ask the Sheriff's Records office, 201 W. Main Street, Troy, OH 45373, 937-440-6085, whether a particular booking photo can be released. Many sheriffs around Ohio put mugshots next to each name, and R.C. 149.43 lets the public request records from county offices.

• Sites that charge to delete: under R.C. 2927.22, nobody who publishes mugshots or arrest details in Ohio may ask for or accept payment to take them down. It is a misdemeanor of the first degree to do so, and a person wronged this way can also sue for $10,000 or more.
• ICE photos: file through the agency's online records request page.
• Federal photos: kept private as a rule. The one opening is the U.S. Marshals Service, which may share a photo, such as for a fugitive on the run.

Ohio VINE, a free Ohio Attorney General program, shows custody status and location. Sign up, and it will tell you when the person leaves, changes facilities, escapes or dies. It reaches the county jails, the state prisons and Ohio's youth facilities.

1. Go to VINELink and type the name, or call 800-770-0192, which is staffed day and night.
2. Choose the right match from the results.
3. Give a phone number or an email address, so VINE knows where to reach you.

Notices are sometimes slow. Before you drive to Troy for a pickup, confirm with the Inmate Info line at 937-440-3961.

Ohio's release law, R.C. 2937.011, took effect June 30, 2023. It asks judges to lean toward the least restrictive terms. Even so, the terms must keep the community safe, keep the case on track and still get the person back to the courtroom.

• Misdemeanor cases: each court has a bail schedule, which is a set amount for every misdemeanor, so release is possible ahead of the first hearing. Any judge, magistrate or clerk may use it (R.C. 2937.23).
• Felony cases: the price list stays out of it. Dollar amounts here belong to a judge or magistrate alone. A jailed person's bail hearing can wait no more than two court days after the arrest.
• The 10 percent option: you hand over a tenth of the bail. If the person keeps every rule, 90 percent of that deposit is refunded when the case closes.
• Bail bond agents: Ohio lets only agents licensed by its Department of Insurance write surety bonds, and the premium they charge has to be the rate the state signed off on. They cannot pitch you on jail or courthouse grounds, and they cannot require a deed or car title. Consumer help: 800-686-1526.
• Held with no bail: a small group of very serious charges may leave a person held with no bail. To get that result under R.C. 2937.222, prosecutors must win a hearing and meet a high bar of proof called clear and convincing evidence.

For Municipal Court cases, pay at the Traffic/Criminal Division, 215 W. Main Street, Third Floor, Troy, OH 45373, 937-440-3910, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. Credit cards work for bail too, since Ohio requires municipal courts to take them. At night or on a weekend, jail control at 937-440-3971 can say how to post. Our bail page has the local steps. Statewide rules sit on our Ohio bail laws page.

The Inmate Info line, 937-440-3961, is the quickest way to hear the booking charge. After charges are filed, each court holds its own records:

• Misdemeanors, traffic tickets and a felony's early hearings: Municipal Court, Traffic/Criminal Division, 215 W. Main Street, Third Floor, Troy, OH 45373, 937-440-3910. This one court serves every city, village and township here.
• Felonies once a grand jury indicts: the Clerk of Courts for Common Pleas, 201 W. Main Street, Third Floor, Troy, OH 45373, 937-440-6010, inside the Safety Building.
• The office that files felonies: Prosecuting Attorney, Safety Building, 201 West Main Street, Second Floor, Troy, OH 45373, 937-440-5960. For most misdemeanors from city police, the city's law director does the prosecuting.

Keep the legal name, birth date and case number close by before you dial.

Speaking up early matters. At the very first hearing, the person needs to say out loud that they want a lawyer and have no money to hire one. The court hands over a financial form about income and bills, then rules on whether they qualify. People who qualify here usually get the county Public Defender or a private attorney picked by the court.

• Public Defender: 201 W. Main Street, 2nd Floor, Troy, OH 45373, 937-440-3950
• Ohio Public Defender (statewide office): 250 East Broad Street, Suite 1400, Columbus, OH 43215, 614-466-5394

R.C. 2937.011 adds a backup step for anyone still jailed who had no lawyer the first time: a fresh bail hearing two court days on, with free counsel appointed if needed. Families are free to hire their own defense attorney at any stage.

All visits happen over video, so there is no in-person contact. ICSolutions runs them, through icsolutions.com or the ICS Mobile app.

• Open an ICSolutions account and wait for approval. Bring a government-issued ID.
• Book a slot ahead. Visits run seven days a week, 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
• On-site video visits cost nothing at the Incarceration Facility, 2042 N CR 25A, Troy, OH 45373, office 937-440-6095. That on-site visit lasts 30 minutes, comes once per week, and allows four visitors at most.
• Visits from home carry a fee.

Before your first screen visit, skim our visiting guide.

Account money buys snacks, soap and other store items. Choose one of these three routes:

• The commissary kiosk in the jail lobby.
• The Access Corrections website, accesscorrections.com, or the Access Corrections app.
• The pay-by-phone line, 866-345-1884, which never closes.

Mailed money and cash handed to staff get sent back. A deposit is for the store only and does nothing toward bail. Our money guide walks through deposit fees. Our commissary guide lists typical store items.

Calls, tablet time and voice messages are all paid through ICSolutions. On its jail page, the Sheriff's Office sends families to a Phone & Tablet Funding link to open an account and load funds.

Assume a third person could hear any call. Keep the arrest itself out of these calls, and talk it over only with the defense lawyer. If your number is blocked or a call never comes, the Inmate Info line at 937-440-3961 can help. Tips on costs and setup are in our jail phone guide, and texts are covered in our messaging guide.

Personal letters skip the jail and go to the ICSolutions Digital Mail Center. Each page is scanned, then read on a tablet or kiosk inside. Call 937-440-3961 for the current center address, and ask which ID number belongs on the envelope.

• Write your complete return address on the outside.
• Skip packages, certified mail, checks, money orders, books and magazines.
• Letters from a lawyer are legal mail, which goes directly to the facility.

For more on writing to someone inside, open our mail guide.

Personal items taken at booking sit in jail storage, waiting for the person's release. Before the drive, call the Inmate Info line at 937-440-3961 with a short list:

• Must the person sign a form before you take the items?
• Which of the two buildings has the items, and when can you come?
• What photo ID should you carry?

During that call, also ask whether you may bring clothes for court or for the day they get out.

Speak up fast. Downtown, call jail control at 937-440-3971. At MCIF, call the control room at 937-440-3490. Ask that the medical staff be told about your worry.

• Name each pill or medicine, the amount, and the doctor who prescribed it, plus that office's number.
• Have your loved one file a medical request form on their side too.
• Mention any mental health crisis in clear words.

For any emergency that threatens a life, use 911.

Warrants are carried out by Sheriff's deputies all over the county, and by city officers inside their own towns. Ask Records at the Sheriff's Office, 937-440-6085, or call the city department involved, such as Troy police at 937-339-7525 or Piqua police at 937-778-2027. For the court file, misdemeanor cases sit with the Municipal Court's Traffic/Criminal Division, 937-440-3910, and felony cases with the Clerk of Courts, 937-440-6010. Getting a warrant cleared starts with a defense lawyer, who can contact that court and request new dates. Find the Municipal Court clerk at 215 W. Main Street, Third Floor, Troy, OH 45373, and the Common Pleas clerk at 201 W. Main Street, Third Floor, Troy, OH 45373.

Adult cases are heard in two courts that sit close together on West Main Street in Troy:

• Municipal Court, Traffic/Criminal Division, 215 W. Main Street, Third Floor, Troy, OH 45373, 937-440-3910. Alternative number: 937-440-3911. Misdemeanors, traffic tickets, first appearances and felony preliminary hearings for the whole county start here.
• Court of Common Pleas, 201 W. Main Street, Third Floor, Troy, OH 45373, 937-440-6010. It sits in the Safety Building, and felony trials move here once a grand jury indicts.

Crim.R. 5 sets a clock for the felony preliminary hearing: a 10-day limit for a jailed defendant and a 15-day limit for one who is out. An indictment that comes first replaces it. Our court guide follows a case from its first day to the end.

Federal cases from Troy, Piqua and the villages are handled in Dayton by the Southern District of Ohio. Its courthouse is the Walter H. Rice Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, 200 West Second Street, Dayton, OH 45402, clerk 937-512-1400.

1. Soon after arrest comes a detention hearing (18 U.S.C. 3142). There a magistrate judge picks one of two paths: supervised release, or custody until trial.
2. Before sentencing, custody belongs to the U.S. Marshals Service, which often uses county jail beds. The Marshals office can name the jail: 200 West Second Street, Suite 108, Dayton, OH 45402, 937-225-2917.
3. Defendants who cannot pay can get a lawyer from the Federal Public Defender's Dayton office: 1 South Main Street, Suite 490, Dayton, OH 45402, 937-225-7687.
4. After sentencing, try the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator. It takes a name or the register number the Bureau assigns.

The steps below are the usual path:

1. ICE lodges an immigration detainer, Form I-247A, with the jail staff.
2. Federal rule 8 CFR 287.7(d) lets the jail keep the person for up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released, so ICE can come for them.
3. ICE's Detroit Field Office oversees Ohio: 985 Michigan Avenue, Suite 207, Detroit, MI 48226, 313-771-6601. Closer to Troy, ICE has an office at 9875 Redhill Drive, Blue Ash, OH 45242, 513-246-1471.
4. Type the A-number into the ICE Online Detainee Locator. No A-number? Search by name plus birth country instead.

Questions about detainers at this jail, or about any ICE agreement the Sheriff's Office may have, go to 937-440-6085.

When the judge's sentence is prison, the person is handed to the state's prison agency, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Some remain in the county's own jail a while before the move. They begin at a state reception center. There, staff review each new prisoner and decide where they will serve the sentence.

• Look up a name on the ODRC offender search, which lists people held in Ohio prisons or supervised by the state.
• Prison visits and mail are covered in our Ohio state prisons guide.
• For the likely transfer date, ask the Inmate Info line at 937-440-3961.

Teens under 18 are never housed with the adults in Troy. Youth cases belong to the Juvenile Division of Common Pleas, 201 W. Main St., Troy, OH 45373, 937-440-5970.

• A detained teen may be placed at the West Central Juvenile Detention Center in Troy. The Juvenile Court can give you its address and visiting rules.
• R.C. 2151.314, along with Juv.R. 7, sets a 72-hour deadline for a detention hearing, and a shorter one if a court day comes first. A judge or magistrate then rules on keeping the youth in custody. Unless the court orders the youth held, a parent takes them home.
• A youth has a right to counsel, free of charge when the family's budget can't cover one.

The arresting department will know where the person was booked. Here are the non-emergency lines for each one:

• Sheriff's Office, 201 W. Main Street, Troy, OH 45373, 937-440-6085. Deputies patrol the townships, plus villages that rely on the Sheriff instead of a town police force. The Sheriff's Communications Center answers at 937-440-9911.
• Troy Police Department, 937-339-7525
• Piqua Police Department, 937-778-2027
• Tipp City Police Department, 937-667-3112
• West Milton Police Department, 937-698-2677
• Covington Police Department, 937-473-2102
• Ohio State Highway Patrol, Piqua Post, 937-773-1131

If the arrest was in Pleasant Hill, Bradford, Laura, Ludlow Falls, Fletcher, Casstown or a rural township, check with the Sheriff's Office about which department responded.