The statewide lookup works from a phone or computer. Here is the routine, step by step:

1. Head to the official inmate lookup.
2. Type just the surname and the given name. Extra boxes can hide a match if one letter is off.
3. Pick the result whose age and location fit. A status of "in custody" plus a county jail name tells you where they are.
4. Copy down any ID number it shows. Jail staff work faster from a number than from a name.
5. Still unsure? Ring the jail on 814-765-7891 and get the booking number too.

Processing a new arrest eats up a few hours, so try again later in the day if the search comes back empty.

A blank result rarely means the worst. Some likely explanations:

• Intake still underway. The record appears only after fingerprints, a booking photo and paperwork are done.
• Released already. A district judge may have set bail that someone paid, or freed the person on a signed promise to return.
• Sent somewhere else. Picked up close to a border? Then a neighbor's jail, a federal hold or state custody is possible.
• Spelling. Names get typed wrong. Search again with a nickname, the maiden name or a middle name in place of the first.
• Under 18. A minor is sent to youth detention, outside this search.

Next, search the UJS Portal case search by name to see if charges were filed. Or call the jail directly at 814-765-7891.

Only one adult jail operates here, on Twenty First Street. Its visiting memo lists housing areas named A, D, E, F, G, I and J Units, plus the E MPR and West MPR. Women live in their own unit. Ask the jail what each area is used for, since that is set by staff.

When an arrest happens close to the edge of the county, check these neighboring jails as well:

• Elk County Prison, 225 Center Street, Ridgway, PA 15853, 814-776-5342
• Centre County Correctional Facility, 700 Rishel Hill Road, Bellefonte, PA 16823, 814-355-6794
• Blair County Prison, 419 Market Square Alley, Hollidaysburg, PA 16648, 814-693-3155
• Indiana County Jail, 665 Hood School Road, Indiana, PA 15701, 724-471-7500

For other bordering counties, such as Jefferson, Cambria or Clinton, ask the home jail at 814-765-7891 whether a transfer took place.

The lookup lists custody status, not booking photos. Pennsylvania counties differ on releasing mugshots, and the answer also turns on recent court decisions under the Right-to-Know Law. Journalists after a booking photo may ask the jail at 814-765-7891, or the arresting police department.

• ICE booking photos? Ask for them using the ICE records request page.
• Washington keeps federal booking pictures out of public hands. Marshals sometimes break that rule to help find a fugitive.

Pennsylvania's free alert system is PA SAVIN, run by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. Besides alerts, it shows custody status, naming the county jail, state prison or parole office in charge.

• Search and sign up on VINELink, or phone 866-972-7284 at any hour. The TTY line is 866-847-1298.
• Alerts come by phone, by text or by email, whichever you select. Registration is never automatic, so set it up for each person.
• Crime victims have a legal right to hear about a release (18 P.S. § 11.101 and following). The DA's victim office can add you to its list.

Alerts can trail a real release by a little while. For a same-day answer, call the jail at 814-765-7891.

A magisterial district judge sees the person soon after booking. This first step is the preliminary arraignment, and it is often done by video (Pa.R.Crim.P. 540). The judge sets bail there. Under the state constitution, almost everyone has a right to bail (Pa. Const. art. I, § 14).

• The judge can allow release on a promise, add conditions, set unsecured bail or ask for money.
• Money bail is posted with the district court that set it or, later, with the Clerk of Courts.
• A detainer from parole, probation, another county or immigration can keep someone inside after the bail is paid.

Ask the jail at 814-765-7891 what bail was set. Paying it, using a bondsman and getting money back are all explained on our bail page.

Charges show on the docket sheet once police file a criminal complaint. Search by name on the UJS Portal case search. Each sheet lists the statute, the grade of the offense, bail and upcoming dates.

• Grades come from 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 1101 to 1105. As an example, an M1, the top misdemeanor grade, carries as much as five years.
• The District Attorney decides what charges go forward. The office is in the Courthouse Annex, 230 East Market Street, Suite 210, Clearfield, PA 16830, at 814-765-2641, extension 5017.

Can't pay for a private attorney? Ask the county Public Defender, which screens each applicant against income rules before taking a criminal case. Its office sits in the Courthouse Annex, 230 East Market Street, Suite 222, Clearfield, PA 16830. Call 814-765-2641, extension 5007, weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

• Fill out the adult application and sign the sworn statement about income.
• Apply early, ideally before the preliminary hearing.
• Families who would rather hire someone can use the Clerk's private attorney list.

The right to a free lawyer comes from the Public Defender Act (16 P.S. § 9960.1). Since Act 34 of 2023, state money now flows to county defense offices too.

Each housing area has its own visiting day, under a jail memo dated August 28, 2025:

• Monday: no visits
• Tuesday: all women, plus A Unit
• Wednesday: D, E and G Units
• Thursday: E MPR and F Unit
• Friday: no visits
• Saturday: West MPR, I Unit and J Unit
• Sunday: by appointment only

Every visitor completes the visitor form. For start times, visit length, ID and dress rules, call 814-765-7891 a day ahead. Many jails now add video visits, and our visiting guide shares tips for a first trip.

The jail splits deposits into two kinds of accounts:

• Commissary and phone money goes in online through the phone company's website, which the county links on its jail page.
• Tablet money goes through the tablet company's website, also linked there.

Have the full legal name and booking number ready. Before you send anything, ask staff at 814-765-7891 about fees and limits. Keep paper money out of every envelope. For deposit steps, read our money guide; for what the account buys, see the commissary guide.

Calls flow one way: the person inside dials out to numbers set up on a prepaid account. The county posts an inmate telephone notice from 2023. Phone 814-765-7891 to learn the current rates and how to open an account.

• Expect calls and messages to be recorded and read.
• Save case talk for the defense lawyer. Anything said on a jail line can reach the prosecutor.
• Tablets are in use here, so ask whether messages or photos can be sent through them.

How these systems usually run is explained in our jail phone guide and on our inmate email and messaging page.

Personal mail goes to an outside processing center, never to Twenty First Street. Address it exactly like this, or it comes back:

Top line: Clearfield County Prison
Second line: Inmate Name, Inmate Booking Number
Third line: P.O. Box 247
Last line: Phoenix, MD 21131

• Use the full legal name and the booking number. Get the number from the jail at 814-765-7891.
• Mark the sender's name and address clearly on the outside.
• Legal mail from a lawyer may follow a separate path, so the lawyer should ask the jail first.

Our mail guide lists the items most jails refuse.

Clothes, keys, a wallet and a phone get bagged and logged at intake. The jail keeps them until release, and most often they leave with the person.

If you need to pick something up sooner, call 814-765-7891 on a weekday. Ask two things: does the person need to sign a property release, and what photo ID should you carry? Then come to the jail at 115 Twenty First Street, Clearfield, PA 16830.

The jail is responsible for the health of everyone it holds. Call 814-765-7891 right away and ask for medical. Give each drug's name and dosage, plus the prescriber's name and number.

• A pharmacy printout or doctor's letter helps staff confirm a prescription.
• If self-harm is a risk, tell staff at once, since that makes the call urgent.
• For a life-threatening emergency, dial 911.

Department of Corrections inspectors check this jail, as they do all county lockups, at intervals of 12 to 24 months (37 Pa. Code Chapter 95).

Sheriff's deputies hunt down people named in Common Pleas bench warrants. Most other warrants are served by borough or township officers and by constables. Call 814-765-2641 and ask the operator for the Sheriff's Office, or dial extension 5013 for the Clerk of Courts. The courthouse is at 1 North Second Street, Clearfield, PA 16830. Online, scan the fugitive pages too: U.S. Marshals 15 Most Wanted, wanted fugitives at the FBI and the PSP Ten Most Wanted. A warrant will not fade away. Call the public defender or a private lawyer, then plan a surrender with the issuing court, or ask the judge there for a fresh date.

Each docket sheet on the UJS Portal case search shows the next date, the time and the courtroom. Early hearings happen at one of four district courts:

• 46-3-01, 309 Maple Avenue, DuBois, PA 15801, 814-371-5321
• 46-3-02, the county seat's district court, 814-765-5335
• 46-3-03, 131 Rolling Stone Road, Kylertown, PA 16847, 814-345-6789
• 46-3-04, 251 Spring Street, Suite 3, Houtzdale, PA 16651, 814-378-7160

Later dates are set by the Court of Common Pleas, through the Clerk of Courts at 814-765-2641, extension 5013. Our court page spells out each step.

A federal charge from here lands in Johnstown, at the Western District's U.S. Courthouse, 208 Penn Traffic Building, 319 Washington Street, Johnstown, PA 15901, 814-533-4504.

1. A detention hearing follows within a few days. At it, the federal judge chooses between release and jail pending trial (18 U.S.C. 3142).
2. Anyone held before trial is in Marshals custody. Ask the Pittsburgh office, 700 Grant Street, Room 2360, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, at 412-644-3351, where the person is housed.
3. The Federal Public Defender takes clients who cannot pay: 412-644-6565.
4. After sentencing, try the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator, which takes a name or register number.

Most immigration holds follow four steps:

1. First, the jail receives an I-247A, the form ICE uses for a detainer.
2. The form seeks a hold of up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. If ICE comes, officers take the person to a facility of their choosing.
4. Track them on the ICE Online Detainee Locator. An A-number gives the surest match. If nobody has it, try the full name along with the country where they were born.

Pennsylvania families should know one federal appeals ruling, Galarza v. Szalczyk (3d Cir. 2014). That opinion lets jails turn a detainer down. They added that a county can be sued when the detainer was the lone basis for keeping someone. So the policy here is a local choice. Ask this jail at 814-765-7891. The ICE Philadelphia Field Office is at 114 North 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, 215-656-7164.

A maximum of five years or longer means state prison, not the county jail (42 Pa.C.S. § 9762). Shorter terms are often served locally.

• State inmates spend their first weeks or months at an intake center. Staff there rate security risk and needs, then assign a home prison.
• Use the DOC inmate locator; either a name or the DOC number works.
• The Department of Corrections answers questions at its main office, 1920 Technology Parkway, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050, 717-728-2573.
• Prison-by-prison visiting and mail rules are on our Pennsylvania state prisons page.

Youth under 18 are not held at the adult jail. Most cases stay in juvenile court (42 Pa.C.S. § 6301). A teen who must be locked up waits at the Central Counties Youth Center, 148 Paradise Road, Bellefonte, PA 16823, 814-355-0650. The county co-owns it with four other counties.

Juvenile Probation is in the Courthouse Annex, 230 East Market Street, Suite 234, Clearfield, PA 16830, 814-765-2641, extension 5018. Youth records are kept off the public portal. Exceptions exist. Murder charges against teens of 15 or more begin with the adult judges. A handful of armed violent felonies do the same.

The docket sheet names the arresting agency. The county had about 78,100 residents in mid-2025, says the Census estimate for July 1. Below, departments sit under the district court that takes their cases.

DuBois area (46-3-01)

• DuBois City Police, 16 West Scribner Avenue, DuBois, PA 15801, 814-375-2702
• Sandy Township Police, 1094 Chestnut Avenue Extension, DuBois, PA 15801, 814-371-4220
• Penn State DuBois campus police, College Place, DuBois, PA 15801, 814-375-4734

County seat area (46-3-02)

• Clearfield Borough Police, 14 South Front Street, Clearfield, PA 16830, 814-765-7819
• Curwensville Borough Police, 900 Susquehanna Avenue, Curwensville, PA 16833, 814-236-3858
• Lawrence Township Police, 1215 Hall Street, Hyde, PA 16843, 814-765-1648

Eastern townships (46-3-03)

• Decatur Township Police, 575 Fairview Road, Osceola Mills, PA 16666, 814-339-6775
• Morris-Cooper Regional Police, based in Allport, 814-342-5621. Call for the mailing address.

Southern towns (46-3-04) and places with no local force

• Pennsylvania State Police, Troop C, Clearfield station, 147 Doe Hill Road, Woodland, PA 16881, 814-857-3800
• Pennsylvania State Police, DuBois station, 230 Platt Road, DuBois, PA 15801, 814-371-4652

Countywide

• Sheriff's Office, 1 North Second Street, Clearfield, PA 16830, 814-765-2641 (ask the operator for the Sheriff)
• Clearfield County Constables, PO Box 124, Beccaria, PA 16616, 814-378-6019