Washington County Jail Inmate Bail & Bonds

In this county, bail comes from a judge at the District Court. The Judicial Center at 420 S. Johnstone Ave., Bartlesville, OK 74003, has four judges: two Special Judges, an Associate District Judge and a District Judge.

The Court Clerk's office says bonds can be posted with the clerk during the day and at the jail after hours. So a bond amount is often in place soon after booking, well before the first court date. A few charges must wait for a judge:

• A second or later DUI. Starting November 1, 2025, officers can't let the person go on a repeat DUI. Bail must come from a judge or magistrate, who writes down the reasons (HB 1222).
• Charges that may be held with no bail. These include violent crimes and some drug and repeat felony cases (Okla. Const. art. II § 8).

Victims may speak up whenever release is being decided (Okla. Const. art. II § 34). To learn when the person goes before a judge, call the Court Clerk at 918-337-2870.

A judge here can choose from several kinds of release, and sets the amount too:

• Own recognizance. Nothing is paid. The signature itself is the promise to return, and state law has its own rules for these bonds (22 O.S. § 1108.1).
• Cash bond. The whole amount is paid to an official who may accept bail, and the person walks out (59 O.S. § 1323). A relative or friend can be the one who pays.
• Surety bond. A licensed bondsman's company backs the full amount, and you cover the bondsman's charge (59 O.S. § 1303).
• Property bond. Real estate backs the bond. Filing fees fall on whoever files it (59 O.S. § 1331).
• Release with conditions. A judge can add terms, like no contact with a certain person. An ankle monitor is one option the Pretrial Release Act names (22 O.S. § 1105.2).

Oklahoma law also allows local pretrial release programs, each with basic entry rules (22 O.S. § 1105.3). Ask the Court Clerk at 918-337-2870 whether the person can be screened for one.

Each state-charge bond is chosen by a judge, so call the jail at 918-332-4011 for the real figure. Staff can read out the bond on each charge in the booking.

City charges work another way. Bartlesville Municipal Court keeps a bond and fine schedule with set totals. A few samples from it:

• Public drunkenness: $175.00
• Speeding: $165.00
• Driving while under the influence: $575.00
• Driving on a suspended license: $575.00
• Shoplifting (petty larceny): $575.00

Felony bonds tend to run far higher, and some serious charges get no bond until a judge rules. A second DUI always goes to a judge first (HB 1222). On weekdays the Court Clerk at 918-337-2870 can also give a District Court amount.

Once the clerk's office closes, the county says bonds can be posted at the Correctional Facility, 611 SW Adams Blvd., Bartlesville, OK 74003. Plan the trip this way:

1. Phone the jail at 918-332-4011 before you leave home.
2. Read off the name exactly as it shows on their ID, along with their birth date, and request the full bond with fees.
3. Ask whether anyone else, like a city court, another county or probation, has a hold.
4. Ask which payments are taken after dark and the payee for a check.
5. Have a driver's license or state ID card in hand, with the bond in the right amount, and save the receipt slip.

Paying does not open the door at once. Staff still have forms to finish and property to return. A bondsman, if you hire one, fills out and files the bond forms.

On weekdays, District Court bonds go to the Court Clerk, at the Judicial Center, 420 S. Johnstone Ave., Bartlesville, OK 74003, 918-337-2870. Bonds are posted there from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The clerk stops taking any filings or payments at 4:45 p.m.

• Bring the case number if charges have been filed. The clerk needs it on the bond.
• A bond that is filled out wrong, or lacks a proper notary stamp, will be turned away.
• Bondsmen must take care of their own forms.

Tickets and charges under city law belong to Bartlesville Municipal Court, which meets at City Hall, 401 S. Johnstone Ave., Bartlesville, OK 74003, 918-338-4225. Its clerk works 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Friday. Fines can go through the city's court payment portal, which adds a fee. For an active city warrant, call that clerk to learn how to clear it.

For a Dewey city charge, call the Dewey court clerk at 918-534-2223.

Payment rules can change, so ask before you go. Call the Court Clerk at 918-337-2870 in the daytime, or the jail at 918-332-4011 at night, with these questions:

1. Will cash work, and do I need exact change?
2. Will a cashier's check or money order do? Get the exact payee name.
3. Can you swipe a card, and for what added charge?

Some tips that always help:

• Never mail cash to the jail or the court.
• Get a receipt for every dollar. With a bondsman, the fee must be written on the bond, and the receipt must have its own number (59 O.S. § 1316).
• The city's online portal is for Bartlesville fines and tickets, not for bail on county charges.

With a bondsman, your money buys a guarantee. The bondsman tells the court it will be paid in full if the person skips, and you pay for taking that risk. That charge is called the premium. Before you sign, know the state limits on bondsmen:

• The Oklahoma Insurance Department licenses each one (59 O.S. § 1303). Look up any name on the state's bondsman license search.
• Before writing a bond here, a bondsman signs up with the Court Clerk (59 O.S. § 1320). The clerk here is at 918-337-2870.
• No jailer or police officer may write bonds (59 O.S. § 1315).
• Drumming up business inside a jail or courthouse is grounds for discipline against a bondsman's license (59 O.S. § 1310).
• Once the person is out of custody on every count, the fee belongs to the bondsman. If the deal falls through before then, the bondsman must hand back the fee and any collateral promptly (59 O.S. § 1327).

State law names no fixed rate, so ask for the price on paper. Complaints go to the department's bail bond division, 400 NE 50th Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73105, 405-521-6610, or its online complaint form.

Every case carries its own bond, and other agencies can file their own holds. The usual ones:

• Another county or town in Oklahoma has a hold. Under HB 1991 (2025), that other bond can be posted with the place that issued it, and the hold here is then released.
• A second local case. A city charge from Bartlesville needs a bond apart from the county charge.
• A repeat DUI. Jail staff can't take bond until a judge has fixed the amount (HB 1222).
• Probation or parole. A probation officer can ask the jail to hold them. The Department of Corrections main line is 405-425-2500, at 4345 N. Lincoln Blvd, Oklahoma City, OK 73105.
• A federal or ICE hold. Neither one goes away when the county bond is paid.

Ask the jail at 918-332-4011 to list all holds before you pay a cent.

Under the state constitution, nearly everyone charged in Oklahoma can be bailed (Okla. Const. art. II § 8). Section 9 of the same article forbids excessive bail. A judge may refuse bail only for these groups of charges:

• Capital cases where guilt is evident
• Crimes the law counts as violent
• Offenses where life in prison is possible
• A felony, if the accused already carries two felony convictions arising from unrelated events
• Drug offenses punishable by ten or more years

Except in capital cases, the judge must first be convinced the evidence is solid and that release, under any terms, would put the community or a person at risk. A 2025 law, SB 981, put third-and-later felony DUI on that list. Someone accused of a violent crime while on bond for an earlier violent crime starts out presumed to stay locked up (HB 3782).

When the state wants no bail or high bail, the request comes from the District 11 District Attorney's office, 420 S. Johnstone, Room 222, Bartlesville, OK 74003, 918-337-2860.

Only a judge can cut a bond, so the request goes to the court with the case. Families can help like this:

1. Have the lawyer put a bond-reduction motion in front of the judge.
2. Gather proof of local ties: work schedules, a rental agreement, school records for kids, and what the family can really pay.
3. Offer conditions in place of a big number, for example weekly reporting or an ankle monitor.
4. Sit in the courtroom on hearing day. Relatives in the seats are a sign of support the judge can see.

Bail must not be excessive (Okla. Const. art. II § 9). A victim may also speak at that hearing (Okla. Const. art. II § 34). The clerk at 918-337-2870 can give the hearing time.

The right to counsel covers felonies and any misdemeanor that might bring jail (Spybuck v. State, 2025). If money is the problem, the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System (OIDS) takes the case. Here, OIDS works through a contract law office, P.O. Box 2566, Bartlesville, OK 74005, 918-336-2310.

• The application is filed with the Court Clerk. Someone already in the Adams Blvd. jail can request the paperwork from staff.
• The judge weighs a sworn list of income, debts and belongings. Having bail money is one factor, never the whole answer.
• A $40 fee is due to the Court Fund, and OIDS gets none of it. Payment can wait until the case is over.
• OIDS itself only takes the cases a judge sends it.

Questions about the program go to the OIDS main office, 111 N. Peters Ave, Suite 500, Norman, OK 73069, 405-801-2601.

Most criminal cases stay in Bartlesville. Each court below hears a different kind of case:

• District Court, for every state misdemeanor and felony, Judicial Center, 420 S. Johnstone Ave., Bartlesville, OK 74003, Court Clerk 918-337-2870. It forms Judicial District 11 together with Nowata County.
• Bartlesville Municipal Court, for city charges, City Hall, 401 S. Johnstone Ave., Bartlesville, OK 74003, 918-338-4225. Court meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m.
• Dewey city court, for Dewey charges: call its clerk at 918-534-2223 for the place and time.
• Cherokee Nation District Court, for some cases with tribal citizens, 17675 S. Muskogee Ave., 2nd Floor, Tahlequah, OK 74464, 918-207-3900.
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, for federal charges, 333 W. 4th Street, Room 411, Tulsa, OK 74103, 918-699-4700.

Every acre of the county is inside the Cherokee Nation Reservation. After McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020), a crime by a tribal citizen here usually goes to tribal or federal court. The 2022 Castro-Huerta ruling lets state prosecutors charge a non-Indian accused of harming an Indian there, too.

Cash posted as bail is refunded at the close of the case. A surrender to the jail also triggers a refund (59 O.S. § 1328). Hold on to the receipt. The clerk at 918-337-2870 can explain who gets the check and when.

Missing court starts a clock under 59 O.S. § 1332:

• The judge issues an arrest warrant no later than 10 days after declaring the forfeiture.
• The written forfeiture judgment follows within 15 days, and notice is mailed within 30 days of that filing.
• The bondsman gets 90 days from receiving the order. Bring the person back inside that time and the clerk's minutes erase the forfeiture and exonerate the bond.
• Should the person still be missing at day 90, the clerk collects the bond's face amount from the bondsman, in cash or securities.

In city court, a municipal judge declares the bond forfeited on the very day the person fails to show (11 O.S. § 27-118). A relative who signed a bondsman's papers may then be asked to cover the loss.

Money left in a commissary account goes only to the person, at release. Family members can't collect it for them. Read our guide to jail account money to learn how deposits work.

Belongings follow other rules. While in jail, the person may sign their property over to someone they choose. Staff keep one set of street clothes for the day they leave. Before release, staff confirm who the person is and walk through the property list with them. State jail rules require a signed receipt at that point (OAC 310:670-5-1).

• Call the jail at 918-332-4011 to set a time for a pickup.
• Carry ID in your own name, plus any signed note the person gave you.
• Ask about any medicines that came in at booking.

Federal charges skip the county judges. Cases from this area belong to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Bartlesville is one of five towns where federal law lets this court hold sessions. Tulsa's Page Belcher Federal Building houses the clerk, at 333 W. 4th Street, Room 411, Tulsa, OK 74103, 918-699-4700.

1. The court picks between release and detention at a hearing, usually held at the first appearance (18 U.S.C. 3142).
2. Pretrial Services checks work, home and record and reports to the judge, from 333 W. 4th Street, Room 3820, Tulsa, OK 74103, 918-699-4800.
3. A person ordered held stays with the U.S. Marshals Service, based at 333 West 4th Street, Suite 2050, Tulsa, OK 74103, 918-200-0600. People on the move may pass through the Federal Transfer Center, 7410 S. MacArthur Blvd, Oklahoma City, OK 73169.
4. The Federal Public Defender helps those who can't pay, at 1 West 3rd Street, Suite 1225, Tulsa, OK 74103, 918-581-7656.

Once a prison sentence starts, use the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

Yes. Paying the county bond does nothing to an ICE request. Here is how it plays out:

1. Form I-247A, the detainer, reaches the Adams Blvd. jail and asks staff to keep the person past release.
2. The jail may hold them up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. ICE officers collect the person. Their Dallas Field Office, which runs operations for Oklahoma, sits at 8101 N. Stemmons Frwy, Dallas, TX 75247, 972-367-2200. ICE also has an office at 1220 Sovereign Row, Oklahoma City, OK 73108, 405-219-3199.
4. Among other sites, ICE holds people at the Cimarron Correctional Facility, 3200 S. Kings Hwy., Cushing, OK 74023. Its family line is 918-225-3336.
5. Search the ICE Online Detainee Locator. Enter the A-number from any ICE paperwork. Without it, try the name together with the birth country.

Oklahoma passed its own immigration crime in HB 4156 (21 O.S. § 1795). For now a federal judge's order keeps that law on hold, and Oklahoma's appeal is still pending.

After the judge hands down a prison term, the move to state custody is slow. DOC's own estimate for that wait is six to nine months after sentencing, and someone with a very short term may jump ahead.

• DOC then runs an assessment and reception process to set the custody level.
• After that, the person is sent to a prison that matches the level.
• Time already logged in the Adams Blvd. jail almost always counts toward the term.

To track the person, open the DOC Offender Lookup and search by name. Every DOC site has a write-up on our Oklahoma prisons page. For questions, the DOC main line is 405-425-2500.

Teens under 18 are held in youth detention, kept away from the adult jail. If an adult jail does take a youth for booking, ID or a transfer, six hours is the limit. During that time no adult prisoner may share their space (OAC 310:670-5-5).

The Office of Juvenile Affairs (OJA) runs a district office on SE Washington Blvd. that handles local youth cases: 1368-A SE Washington Blvd., Bartlesville, OK 74006, 918-333-6262. Staff there know which center holds the youth and the court date.

• For older teens facing the most serious charges, Oklahoma's Youthful Offender Act offers a track that sits between juvenile and adult court.
• Through a step called certification, a judge can send a youth's case to adult court.
• OJA's main office is 2501 N. Lincoln Blvd, Suite 500, Oklahoma City, OK 73105, 405-530-2800.