Two tiers of state court split local criminal work, while a federal court stands apart:

• Magisterial district courts. These small offices try summary offenses. Those are the lowest grade, such as a traffic ticket or a disorderly conduct citation. Bigger cases open in these offices too: the first appearance, the bail decision and the preliminary hearing all happen here.
• Court of Common Pleas, 12th Judicial District. This court covers this county alone. Felony and misdemeanor files arrive here once the preliminary hearing ends with the charges held over. It also hears summary appeals, where a person found guilty of a ticket gets a brand-new trial.
• Federal court. Crimes under U.S. law go to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania instead.

So a felony and a misdemeanor start in the same small courtroom. Only the case's later life, from formal arraignment to sentencing, happens downtown at Common Pleas.

Most of the action happens in two buildings, one downtown and one in Swatara Township:

• County courthouse, 101 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101, 717-780-6630. Open Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Common Pleas judges hear trials, pleas and sentencings here. Jury trials run one week each month, with no jury week in July.
• Clerk of Courts, same building, 2nd floor, Room 202, 717-780-6530. It keeps the criminal files, takes bail from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on workdays and offers two public computers for case lookups. Bring questions in person.
• Court Administrator, same building, 3rd floor, 717-780-6624. This office schedules the courts.
• Judicial Center, 451 Mall Road, Harrisburg, PA 17111. It houses Central Booking and Night Court (Magisterial District Court 12-0-00), 717-547-4010, plus a full courtroom with video links.
• Central Court (Magisterial District Court 12-0-01), 501 Mall Road, Harrisburg, PA 17111, 717-780-6824, at the prison address.

Formal arraignment takes place at the courthouse. If the person is still locked up, it can be held at the prison instead.

Each neighborhood office is a Magisterial District Court, known by its number. The county lists these 14:

Harrisburg-area offices

• Court 12-1-01, 2125 Paxton Church Road, Harrisburg, PA 17110, 717-545-4143
• Court 12-1-02, 2967 A N 7th Street, Harrisburg, PA 17110, 717-238-3388
• Court 12-1-04, 1520 Walnut Street, Harrisburg, PA 17103, 717-233-1220
• Court 12-1-05, 538 South 29th Street, Harrisburg, PA 17104, 717-231-3500
• Court 12-1-06, 5925 Locust Lane, Harrisburg, PA 17109, 717-671-8640
• Court 12-2-01, 1201 South 28th Street, Harrisburg, PA 17111, 717-558-1160. Its caseload was shifted to other offices for the time being.
• Court 12-2-02, 102 Agnes Street, Harrisburg, PA 17104, 717-939-6996
• Court 12-2-04, 1805 North Cameron Street, Harrisburg, PA 17103, 717-233-3599
• Court 12-2-05, 1300 Rolleston Street, Harrisburg, PA 17104, 717-234-0949
• Court 12-3-03, 5925 Stevenson Avenue, Suite B, Harrisburg, PA 17112, 717-545-0261
• Court 12-3-05, 8010 Bretz Drive, Harrisburg, PA 17112, 717-671-8720

Offices outside the Harrisburg mail area

• Court 12-2-03, 50 Canal Street, Royalton, PA 17057, 717-944-4463
• Court 12-3-01, 185 Manors Road, Suite 1, Elizabethville, PA 17023, 717-362-3396
• Court 12-3-04, 576 East Main Street, Hummelstown, PA 17036, 717-583-1912

Boundary changes have been proposed for offices 12-2-01, 12-2-02 and 12-2-03. The docket sheet names the office handling a case. To match a borough or township to its office, phone the Court Administrator at 717-780-6624.

The arresting officer drives the person to one of three linked county sites:

• Central Booking, Judicial Center, 451 Mall Road, Harrisburg, PA 17111, 717-547-4040. Staff from the prison run it 24/7. Every department in the county uses it for fingerprints and intake.
• The county prison, 501 Mall Road, Harrisburg, PA 17111, 717-780-6800. People who stay in custody are housed here, both men and women, whether awaiting trial or serving a county sentence.
• Work Release Center, 919 Gibson Blvd, Steelton, PA 17113, a community corrections center run by the Court of Common Pleas. Eligible inmates live there on work release, with men and women in separate units. Women's unit 717-780-7001; men's unit 717-780-7002.

Next comes the preliminary arraignment, often by video from the Judicial Center courtroom. A state victim guide puts it within about six hours of arrest. There the district judge reads out the charges, gives the person the complaint on paper, explains their right to counsel and decides bail. Under Pa.R.Crim.P. 540, the judge also schedules the preliminary hearing: within 14 days for someone still locked up and within 21 days for someone out on bail. Night Court runs these hearings from 5:00 p.m. on weeknights and nonstop from Friday evening until midnight Sunday.

Misdemeanor and felony cases share their opening steps. The district judge holds a preliminary hearing, and if the case is held for court, it moves to Common Pleas for a plea or trial. Penalties top out by grade (18 Pa.C.S. §§ 1101, 1104):

• M1: up to 5 years and a $10,000 fine
• M2: up to 2 years and $5,000
• M3: up to 1 year and $2,500

A first-offense, general-impairment DUI counts as a misdemeanor, and the grade climbs with alcohol level, a refusal to be tested and earlier offenses (75 Pa.C.S. § 3803). Lawmakers changed parts of that law in 2025 and 2026, so ask the lawyer how it applies.

Many first-time defendants are steered to Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, or ARD (Pa.R.Crim.P. 310 and following). It is common for a first DUI. The District Attorney chooses who gets the offer and a judge must approve it. The person completes supervision, classes, fees and often community service. When the program is done, the charge is thrown out and may be wiped from the record by expungement. Ask about this county's ARD rules at the District Attorney's Office, 101 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101, 717-780-6767.

Lesser summary offenses, punishable by up to 90 days and $300, are tried by the district judge alone.

1. Preliminary arraignment. Bail is set and a hearing date is given.
2. Preliminary hearing. Back before the district judge, the Commonwealth needs only a prima facie case. That is a low bar: enough evidence that a crime probably occurred and that the accused is the probable culprit. Short of that, the judge throws the charges out. A defendant may give up this hearing and go straight to Common Pleas.
3. The information. Prosecutors file this formal charging paper, which may add or drop counts.
4. Formal arraignment. Roughly a month or two later, the defendant gets the information. They answer guilty or not guilty.
5. Pretrial conference. Lawyers for both sides often settle on a plea bargain here.
6. Trial. A unanimous panel of 12 jurors, or one judge if the defense prefers, decides the verdict. To convict, prosecutors must remove any reasonable doubt.
7. Sentencing. County probation staff prepare a pre-sentence report, which the judge reads alongside Pennsylvania's sentencing guidelines.

Maximum terms by grade (18 Pa.C.S. §§ 1101, 1103): F1, 20 years and $25,000; F2, 10 years and $25,000; F3, 7 years and $15,000. A guilty verdict can be appealed, first to the Superior Court and later to the state's highest court.

Serious violent cases follow the same steps, but several rules tighten:

• Bail. A judge may refuse bail if the top sentence is death or life, or if no conditions would keep others safe. Commonwealth v. Talley (2021) puts the burden on the DA to show that with evidence.
• Murder penalties. 18 Pa.C.S. § 1102 sets them: death or life for a first-degree conviction, life for second degree, and up to 40 years for third degree.
• Teens. Murder charges, and some armed violent charges, against anyone 15 to 17 are filed in adult court.
• Victim voice. In injury cases, victims have a say on release terms, any negotiated plea and the punishment under Section 201 of the Crime Victims Act.
• Protection orders. A victim with a protection order can get word right away when the accused is freed on bail.

Families should keep away from the alleged victim and pass along no messages. Any contact could violate release conditions and bring fresh charges.

The District Attorney's Office brings state criminal cases in this county. It works from the courthouse, 101 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101, 717-780-6767.

Free defense is handled by the Public Defender's Office in the county Administration Building, 2 South 2nd Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101, 717-780-6370. Under the Public Defender Act (16 P.S. § 9960.1 and following), an applicant signs a sworn statement about income, and the county sets its own money limits. The office covers preliminary hearings, trials, probation matters and juvenile cases.

Reach out to the defenders the same day as the arrest. The county tells clients to make that first contact themselves and to report any change of phone, address or custody status. Inside the prison, Attorney Day sessions connect people with defenders.

For a federal charge, the Federal Public Defender's Harrisburg office is at 100 Chestnut Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101 (third floor), 717-782-2237.

The state's UJS Web Portal is free and needs no account. Use it like this:

1. Open the UJS case search.
2. Choose the participant name option, enter the person's surname and given name, and set the county field.
3. Or switch to a docket number search if you have the number.
4. Click into the docket. You will find each count, the bail amount, scheduled events and the room number.

Filings from the last day or so may lag behind. Juvenile, sealed and expunged cases are left off. The portal also leaves out where someone is housed, so check the Inmate Look Up for that.

In person, the Clerk of Courts has two public terminals on the 2nd floor of the courthouse, 101 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101. A public defender client can also ask that office for the next date at 717-780-6370.

Common Pleas bench warrants are served by the Sheriff's Office, Room 104, courthouse, 101 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101, 717-780-6590. Police and constables carry out other warrants. Online, see the Sheriff's CrimeWatch page, the county most wanted list and warrant postings, Harrisburg police, the Marshals Service top 15 fugitives, the State Police Ten Most Wanted. Phone the Sheriff or read the UJS docket too. Clearing a warrant begins when a defense lawyer reaches out to the issuing court. For a Common Pleas warrant, ask the Clerk of Courts on the courthouse's 2nd floor, 717-780-6530.

Federal prosecutors file these cases in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, which meets in Harrisburg's Sylvia H. Rambo United States Courthouse, 1501 North 6th Street, Suite 101, Harrisburg, PA 17102, 717-221-3920.

• Prosecution is the job of the U.S. Attorney's Office, whose Middle District branch sits at 1501 North 6th Street, Harrisburg, PA 17102 (mail to Box 202), 717-221-4482.
• A magistrate judge hears the release question under 18 U.S.C. 3142, usually at the very first court date.
• Federal deputy marshals drive each defendant from a cell to the courtroom and back. Its Middle District office is at 235 North Washington Avenue, Unit 215, Scranton, PA 18503, 570-346-7277.
• Probation and Pretrial Services for the district works at 1501 North 6th Street, Suite 100, Harrisburg, PA 17102, 717-901-2860.
• Once a federal sentence begins, use the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

Court dates, pleas and trial go ahead normally. A detainer mostly changes what happens on release day:

1. Federal immigration agents lodge Form I-247A at the Mall Road prison.
2. That form requests custody for up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. ICE officers then take custody. The Philadelphia Field Office handles Pennsylvania from 114 N. 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, 215-656-7164.
4. Track the person through the ICE Online Detainee Locator.

Federal appeals from Pennsylvania go to the Third Circuit, and in Galarza v. Szalczyk (2014) that court held that a detainer is a request a county may turn down, and that a jail acting on nothing but that paper owns the legal risk. Because of that ruling, Dauphin's prison writes its own detainer rules. Ask the prison about its rule at 717-780-6800.

The top number of the sentence decides the place (42 Pa.C.S. § 9762):

• Top number under 2 years: county prison on Mall Road. Some eligible people may serve part of that time at the Work Release Center in Steelton.
• Maximum reaching 5 years or longer: the DOC takes custody.
• Maximum between 2 years and just under 5: most people serve it in a state prison. A local stay needs approval from the jail, the prosecutor and the court.

Anyone headed to the state spends weeks or months being assessed at an intake center before a permanent prison is chosen. Search for them with the DOC inmate locator. Headquarters for the Department of Corrections is at 1920 Technology Parkway, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050, 717-728-2573. Read about each facility on our Pennsylvania state prisons page.

Probation is a separate office from the jail. County adult probation sits at 917 Gibson Blvd, Steelton, PA 17113, 717-780-6900.

Pennsylvania's Juvenile Act (42 Pa.C.S. § 6301 and following) treats anyone under 18 as a child. Those cases go to juvenile court, which handles them as delinquency matters rather than crimes. The Juvenile Probation Office runs intake from 100 Chestnut Street, 2nd Floor, Harrisburg, PA 17101, 717-780-7100.

• The county's former juvenile detention center is closed. Juvenile probation decides where a held youth stays, so call that office first.
• Juvenile cases are hidden from the public UJS portal.
• Teens aged 15 to 17 facing a murder count, or certain armed felonies named in the Juvenile Act, start in adult court. Defense counsel may then request a transfer to juvenile court.
• The county public defender can represent a youth in juvenile court.

Under the Crime Victims Act (18 P.S. § 11.101 and following), victims hear about major court events, may offer views on bail and, in many cases, may speak before a plea deal or sentence. The District Attorney's Victim/Witness Assistance Program works from 101 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101, 717-787-7075.

• Custody alerts. PA SAVIN sends free calls, texts or emails when a person leaves a county jail or state prison. Sign up on VINELink or call 866-972-7284 (TTY 866-847-1298).
• Money help. The state Victims Compensation Assistance Program can cover costs like counseling, medical bills and lost pay. Call 800-233-2339.

Relatives of the accused should never call, text or visit the victim, even to apologize. That can count as breaking bail rules.