Think of the lookup as a yes-or-no custody check. Use it like this:

1. Load the inmate lookup.
2. Fill in both names with the spelling on the person's ID card.
3. Choose the entry that matches, and note its custody status.
4. Copy down any number on the record. Booking numbers come up in the jail's visit rules, and staff find people faster with one.
5. Confirm by phone at 724-545-9222. Jail administration works weekdays, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Nothing found? Run through this checklist:

• Paperwork in progress. Intake paperwork must be finished before the record exists.
• Already released. Perhaps a district judge released them on recognizance, or somebody paid their bail.
• Transported. Deputies drive prisoners to court, to other counties and to state prison. The Sheriff's Office can say where, at 724-548-3265.
• Typed differently. Retry using a middle name, a previous surname or a shortened first name.
• Under 18. Teens are held at a juvenile facility, never at this jail.

For a definite answer, ring the jail at 724-545-9222.

One building houses every adult the county books, 171 Staley's Court Road, Kittanning, PA 16201, 724-545-9222. Several units sit inside that one building. New commitments are generally kept in a Classification Unit for 72 hours. Sentenced inmates on work release sleep in a Work Release Housing unit. A special housing unit, or SHU, keeps some people separate. The old stone jail from the 1870s next to the courthouse holds county records and computer offices today.

Neighboring counties run their own jails, and a stop over the line or an outside warrant may land someone there:

• Allegheny County Jail, 950 Second Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, 412-350-2000
• Butler County Prison, 202 S Washington Street, Butler, PA 16001, 724-284-5256
• Clarion County Corrections, 309 Amsler Avenue, Shippenville, PA 16254, 814-226-9615
• Indiana County Jail, 665 Hood School Road, Indiana, PA 15701, 724-471-7500
• Jefferson County Jail, 578 Service Center Road, Brookville, PA 15825, 814-849-1933
• Westmoreland County Prison, 3000 South Grande Boulevard, Greensburg, PA 15601, 724-830-6000

The lookup reports custody, not pictures. Pennsylvania counties differ on whether they hand out booking photos, and recent state court decisions affect the answer, so a photo can't be promised. A news outlet or member of the public may ask the jail at 724-545-9222, or ask whichever department arrested the person.

• Immigration booking photos: ask ICE through its FOIA records portal.
• Federal agencies generally hold their arrest photos back. A Marshals wanted poster is the usual exception.

Yes, at no cost. Pennsylvania's notice system, PA SAVIN, runs on VINELink, and the county's victim notification page sends people there too.

• Sign up on VINELink for Pennsylvania or call 866-972-7284. TTY users can dial 866-847-1298.
• Pick how notices arrive: voice call, text message or email. Releases, transfers and escapes each trigger a notice, and a VINELink app is available.
• Coverage includes everyone in a state prison, a county jail or on state parole, and its search shows custody status.
• Registration stays confidential from the inmate.

Victims of a crime can also ask for help from the county's victim service advocate at 724-548-3486.

Bail gets decided fast, at a preliminary arraignment held over video with a magisterial district judge, usually hours after booking (Pa.R.Crim.P. 540). Under the state constitution almost everyone can get bail. Options run from ROR, alone or with conditions, to unsecured, nominal or money bail (Pa.R.Crim.P. 524).

• The Clerk of Courts processes money bail at 500 E. Market Street, Suite 103, Kittanning, PA 16201, 724-548-3252.
• Leave personal checks at home, since the jail won't take them.
• Surety bonds come from bondsmen on the county's registered list.

Each release type, how to pay and how refunds work are on our bail and bond page.

Each defendant gets the criminal complaint, a paper naming every charge, at the first hearing. Family members can pull up that list on the public docket in the UJS case search, searching by name with Armstrong picked as the county.

Look for the grade next to each charge. Felonies are graded F1 (up to 20 years), F2 (up to 10) and F3 (up to 7). Misdemeanors are M1 (up to 5 years), M2 (up to 2) and M3 (up to 1). A summary offense can bring 90 days at most (18 Pa.C.S. §§ 1103-1105).

Charging decisions belong to the District Attorney, 500 E. Market Street, Suite 323, Kittanning, PA 16201, 724-548-3240.

Low-income defendants can apply to the county Public Defender. The application should go in right away, no later than four business days before a hearing. Each case needs its own application.

• Office: 500 E. Market Street, Suite 105, Kittanning, PA 16201, 724-548-3259
• Hours: weekdays 8:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 to 4:30 p.m., with applications accepted until 3:30 p.m.
• Bring or send: income and benefit records, child support orders, the criminal complaint and the court notice

Part of the form is a sworn money statement, judged against the county's own income limit (16 P.S. § 9960.1 and following). No word after three days? Call the office back. Hiring a private attorney is always allowed too.

Registration with the jail's video visit provider comes first. It is free and mandatory, and you can do it on any device or at a lobby terminal. Visits take place at the jail or online. Posted hours:

• Sunday and Saturday: 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. and 6:00 to 8:30 p.m.
• Monday and Friday: 6:00 to 8:30 p.m.
• Wednesday: 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. (lock-up visits only) and 6:00 to 8:30 p.m.
• Tuesday and Thursday: no visiting

Start times close at 2:45 p.m. for afternoon blocks and 7:45 p.m. for evening ones. Inmates get one visit per day, at least 20 minutes long. Adults 18 and up only, and children may not come onto jail property. Bring current photo ID. Your name must be on the approved visitor list, which is updated monthly. Co-defendants are turned away. More tips are in our jail visitation guide.

Deposits reach an inmate's account in three ways, each with a fee shown up front:

• The lobby kiosk, any hour. Feed it $5 to $100 bills or use a Visa or MasterCard.
• The web, using the deposit company linked from the county jail page.
• A phone agent at 866-345-1884.

Accounts can't be funded with cash at a window, money orders or personal checks. Relatives may also buy food, hygiene and clothing packages through the approved package service, 800-546-6283, up to $80 each quarter. See our inmate deposit guide and our commissary page.

One free commitment call comes with booking. Then most new arrivals spend roughly 72 hours in classification before getting phone access. Housing unit phones work every day from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

• Collect calling is restricted, so open a prepaid account with the jail's phone company. It also runs the video visits, and the county jail page links to it.
• Third-party calls are not allowed, and officers do not relay messages.
• For a true family emergency, ask for the Counselor or Shift Supervisor at 724-545-9222.
• Calls may be recorded (18 Pa.C.S. § 5704(14)). Case details are best discussed only with defense counsel.

Whether tablets or electronic messages are available is a question for the jail. For how most jails set these up, read the phone guide plus the email and texting guide.

Instead of an inmate number, this jail wants the housing unit and cell on every envelope. Write it like this:

Inmate's full name
Housing unit and cell number
171 Staley's Courts Road
Kittanning, PA 16201

• Print your own full name and return address. Leaving either off can get the letter handled as contraband.
• Leave out stickers and glitter, and send no drawings in crayon, paint or marker.
• Third-party mail is barred. Staff log every item and may read personal mail.
• Attorneys use the same address, and legal mail is opened with the inmate watching.

Get the housing unit and cell from the jail before mailing. Cash never belongs in a letter. Our guide to jail mail adds more.

Rarely. Release of an inmate's things to family starts with a written request slip from the inmate to the warden. Other rules:

• Pickup hours: Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with photo ID.
• Before a transfer to state prison, family with photo ID may be allowed to take property.
• A benefit card goes back only to its named holder.
• A released person has 48 hours to claim undelivered commissary.
• Property abandoned for 30 days is discarded.
• Money still on the account is loaded onto a debit card when the person leaves.

Phone 724-545-9222 before the drive to Staley's Court Road.

Jail staff answer to a warden, who reports to the county Prison Board under 61 Pa.C.S. Chapter 17. If they are sick, hurt or going without medication, phone 724-545-9222 right away. Keep the medicine's name, its dosage and the doctor who prescribed it close at hand.

Inspectors from the state Department of Corrections visit each county jail every one to two years (37 Pa. Code Chapter 95). Dial 911 for a life-or-death emergency. Mention any sign of a psychiatric emergency when you call.

Deputies serve bench warrants from the Common Pleas judges, and police or constables carry the rest. The Sheriff's Office checks for open warrants at 724-548-3265. Official wanted lists: PSP Ten Most Wanted, state parole absconders, Marshals 15 Most Wanted, FBI wanted. Pending cases appear in the UJS case search. Anyone with a warrant should arrange a surrender at the court that issued it, with counsel or the Public Defender alongside. Common Pleas matters go to the Clerk of Courts, 500 E. Market Street, Suite 103, Kittanning, PA 16201, 724-548-3252.

Once filed, a case's next date and courtroom appear in the UJS case search. Early hearings happen at whichever district court covers the place of arrest:

• Magisterial District Court 33-3-01, 206 Fifth Avenue, Suite A, Ford City, PA 16226, 724-763-7866
• Magisterial District Court 33-3-02, 128 South Grant Avenue, Kittanning, PA 16201, 724-543-2313
• Magisterial District Court 33-3-03, 241 Market Street, Leechburg, PA 15656, 724-842-3571
• Magisterial District Court 33-3-04, 720 Main Street, Rural Valley, PA 16249, 724-783-6886

After a case is held for court, Common Pleas sets the dates. Its Clerk of Courts sits at 500 E. Market Street, Suite 103, Kittanning, PA 16201, 724-548-3252. Each stage is described on our criminal court page.

Federal arrests from this county are handled in Pittsburgh by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, 700 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, 412-208-7500.

1. Within days comes a detention hearing, where a magistrate judge weighs flight risk and danger (18 U.S.C. 3142).
2. Federal defendants awaiting trial stay under U.S. Marshals custody. For a housing location, call their Pittsburgh office at 412-644-3351.
3. Too broke to hire counsel? Ask for the Federal Public Defender, 1001 Liberty Avenue, Suite 1500, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, 412-644-6565.
4. After sentencing, search the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

Immigration custody usually begins with paperwork sent to the jail:

1. Step one is a detainer: immigration agents deliver Form I-247A to the jail.
2. The detainer requests a hold for up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Federal appeals judges in the Third Circuit called a detainer a request, not an order, and said a county holding someone on it alone may be liable (Galarza v. Szalczyk, 3d Cir. 2014). Detainer policy is set jail by jail. Ask this one at 724-545-9222.
4. ICE's Philadelphia Field Office covers this state: 114 N. 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, 215-656-7164.
5. Track a detained person with the ICE Online Detainee Locator.

Five years or more as the maximum means state prison, and most maximums of 2 to 5 years do too (42 Pa.C.S. § 9762). Anything shorter is served locally.

• Classification at a reception center comes first and can run for weeks or months. A permanent prison assignment follows.
• Use the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections inmate locator to find them.
• Letters to any state prison are scanned in Florida. Write: Smart Communications/PA DOC, followed by the full name, the DOC number, the SCI name, PO Box 33028, St Petersburg, FL 33733.
• Department headquarters: 1920 Technology Parkway, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050, 717-728-2573.

Profiles of each SCI fill our Pennsylvania state prisons guide.

The adult jail on Staley's Court Road does not hold minors. They go to juvenile detention, their cases stay in juvenile court, and the public UJS docket search leaves them out. Some teens skip juvenile court. Murder is filed directly in adult court, and so are some violent felonies by youths 15 or older who used a deadly weapon (42 Pa.C.S. § 6302).

For the youth's location and next hearing, parents can phone Juvenile Probation at 724-548-3491 or stop by 500 East Market Street, Suite 303, Kittanning, PA 16201.

Jail staff can name the arresting agency. A Census estimate for July 1, 2025 puts the population near 63,698. Agencies on record include:

• Sheriff's Office, 500 E. Market Street, Suite 106, Kittanning, PA 16201, 724-548-3265. Serves warrants and transports prisoners.
• Pennsylvania State Police, Troop D, Kittanning station, 130 Parkview Drive Extension, Kittanning, PA 16201, 724-543-2011. Troopers cover communities that lack a department of their own.
• Troop D headquarters, 200 Barracks Road, Butler, PA 16001, 724-284-8100
• Kiskiminetas Township Police Department, 1222B Old State Road, Apollo, PA 15613, 724-478-3357
• East Franklin Township Police Department, 106 Cherry Orchard Avenue, Kittanning, PA 16201. Non-emergency calls go through the county 911 center, 724-548-5105.

Some boroughs and townships keep their own officers. If your town isn't listed, the jail at 724-545-9222 can name the arresting department and how to reach it.