Dauphin County Prison

That call belongs to a magisterial district judge, the neighborhood-level judge in Pennsylvania who hears small cases and opens the big ones. The decision comes at a brief first hearing, the preliminary arraignment, held at the Judicial Center, 451 Mall Road, Harrisburg, PA 17111. That building has a full courtroom and video links, so the judge can see the person on a screen without driving over. During the hearing the arrested person receives the written complaint, hears the bail and leaves with a preliminary hearing date on the calendar (Pa.R.Crim.P. 540).

Evenings and weekends belong to Night Court, Magisterial District Court 12-0-00, in that same building, 717-547-4010. County Local Rule 117 sets its hours:

• Monday through Thursday, 5:00 p.m. to midnight
• From 5:00 p.m. Friday all the way to midnight Sunday
• Special hours on holidays

A duty judge is on hand from 9:00 p.m., in person or by video. That judge arraigns everyone whose papers reach Night Court by midnight. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights the judge keeps going until the last case is done. Pennsylvania's guide for crime victims puts the typical wait for this hearing at roughly six hours after the arrest.

Pa.R.Crim.P. 524 lists five kinds of release. Four of them cost nothing at the Clerk's window; only the fifth needs money down.

• Release on recognizance (ROR). The person signs, swears to return for each court date and walks out.
• ROR plus conditions. That same promise, with strings attached. Pretrial Services reporting and a ban on calling the alleged victim are common examples.
• Unsecured bail. A dollar figure goes on the bond, yet no one pays it unless a hearing is skipped.
• Nominal bail. A tiny deposit, like $1, backed by a person or agency that serves as surety, meaning they stake their word on the person's return.
• Monetary bail. Cash or property must be posted first.

Rule 523 names the factors. Among them are the charge, any record, work, family roots in the Harrisburg area and the person's history of showing up for court. Someone released with rules may be told to report to Pretrial Services, 100 Chestnut Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101, 717-780-6440. That county office runs check-ins, drug tests and curfew monitoring while charges are open.

The judge picks a figure for each case. Under Rule 528 the dollar figure has to be reasonable and fit what the person can actually pay. How serious the charge is matters a lot. Pennsylvania sorts crimes into grades, each with a top penalty (18 Pa.C.S. §§ 1101, 1103-1105):

• F1, the top felony grade: prison as long as 20 years, fine as high as $25,000
• F2: 10 years, $25,000
• F3: 7 years, $15,000
• M1, the top misdemeanor grade: 5 years, $10,000
• M2: 2 years, $5,000
• M3: 1 year, $2,500
• Summary offense, the lowest level, such as a disorderly conduct citation: up to 90 days and $300

Murder in the first degree can bring a death sentence or life behind bars, and murder in the second degree brings life (18 Pa.C.S. § 1102). For the exact bail in your case, open the free UJS case search and pull up the docket sheet by name and county. Prison staff at 717-780-6800 can also tell you the figure.

Three county sites may be part of the stay after an arrest. Each one has its own job:

• Central Booking, inside the Judicial Center, 451 Mall Road, Harrisburg, PA 17111, 717-547-4040. Prison staff run this desk 24 hours a day, weekends and holidays included. Officers from across the county bring new arrests here for fingerprints and intake.
• The county prison, 501 Mall Road, Harrisburg, PA 17111, 717-780-6800. This is the main jail. It holds both men and women who are waiting for court, plus people serving county sentences.
• Work Release Center, 919 Gibson Blvd, Steelton, PA 17113. A Court of Common Pleas department runs this 24-hour community corrections center for eligible inmates. The women's unit answers at 717-780-7001 and the men's unit at 717-780-7002.

The county's bail instructions send payments to the Clerk of Courts or to the district court that set bail. Take these steps in order:

1. Phone the prison and give the name on the person's ID plus their birthday.
2. Jot down the docket number, the dollar amount and any detainers staff read off.
3. Ask which office has the file today, the district court or the Clerk.
4. Bring cash or a certified check, and carry a photo ID to be safe.
5. Hold on to your receipt listing each charge. Rule 535 requires whoever accepts the money to give you one.

The right window changes as the case moves up. There are two places:

• The district court that set bail. Early on, the file sits with the magisterial district court, and the county says bail may be posted at that office. If Night Court set the bail, reach it at the Judicial Center, 451 Mall Road, Harrisburg, PA 17111, 717-547-4010. For a daytime case, the docket sheet names the office.
• Clerk of Courts, county courthouse, 2nd floor, Room 202, 101 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101, 717-780-6530. Its window takes bail from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on workdays, except holidays. That starts only after the district court sends the file up and the Clerk receives it.

For case details, plan to visit the Clerk's office in person. It has two public computers for looking up cases. Call first to make sure the file has arrived before you drive downtown.

The Clerk of Courts takes only cash or a certified check for bail. Your bank or credit union can issue a certified check. Bring the exact amount, and never put cash in the mail.

Money is one way to post, but the county takes three others too:

• A bail bondsman. A licensed bondsman signs for the full bail and charges a fee for doing it.
• A surety company. An insurance company that writes bail bonds can stand behind the bail.
• Real estate. A house or piece of land can back the bail when its value, minus any mortgage, is at least as big as the full amount (Pa.R.Crim.P. 528).

Rule 528 also lets the judge allow a deposit of up to 10 percent of the bail instead of the whole sum. Ask the district court or the Clerk whether the bail order in your case allows that. Read the form before you sign it: a depositor who signs as surety owes the full bail amount when the defendant skips court.

Paid bail bonds are legal here. The rules come from 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 5741-5750:

• Bondsmen are licensed through the Pennsylvania Insurance Department (§ 5742).
• Each bondsman must also file papers with a county before writing bonds there (§ 5743.1).
• Since 2015, when the old cap was repealed, state law sets no top limit on the fee. Ask for a written quote, then compare.
• The fee is the bondsman's pay, so it stays with them even when the case ends well.
• Taking money only for pointing a family to a bondsman is a crime (§ 5749).
• Under § 5750, a bondsman has one day to tell police about certain violations, such as reaching out to someone a no-contact order shields.

The Clerk of Courts keeps an Approved Bail Bondsmen List. You can open it from the Clerk of Courts FAQ page.

Posting bail on one docket clears that docket alone. Watch for these other holds:

• Another open case. A separate docket carries a separate bail.
• A bench warrant from another court. A judge somewhere else may want the person for a missed date.
• A probation or parole detainer. County adult probation works from 917 Gibson Blvd, Steelton, PA 17113, 717-780-6900.
• A state parole hold. These come from the state, not the county.
• A federal or ICE hold. Neither one lifts when state bail is posted.

Before any money changes hands, call the prison at 717-780-6800. Have the staff list each hold the person has right now.

Pa. Const. art. I, § 14 and 42 Pa.C.S. § 5701 promise bail to nearly every accused person. Bail may be withheld altogether in two narrow cases:

• The top sentence for the crime is death or life imprisonment.
• The judge finds that no release terms at all would protect the public.

Even then, the burden sits with the prosecutor. In Commonwealth v. Talley (2021), the state Supreme Court said that side must offer solid proof at a hearing and persuade the judge. Simply making the claim falls short.

Requests for very high bail, or for none at all, come from the District Attorney, 101 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101, 717-780-6767.

To cut bail, defense counsel files a motion under Pa.R.Crim.P. 529. Until the preliminary hearing is over, the magisterial district judge may rule on it. Once that hearing ends, a Common Pleas judge at the courthouse hears the request. Here is how a family can help:

1. Tell the lawyer right away that bail is too high to pay.
2. Pull together pay stubs, a signed rental agreement, any deed, class schedules and names of relatives in the area.
3. Put on paper the real amount your household could raise. Rule 528 says money bail must fit the person's means.
4. Offer rules that answer the judge's concerns, like check-ins with Pretrial Services.

Time in jail counts too. Rule 600 adds a clock. After 180 days behind bars with no trial, minus any stretch the defense requested, counsel can file for nominal bail. To reach the Public Defender, call 717-780-6370.

Short on money for a lawyer? Apply for free counsel. The Public Defender's Office is at 2 South 2nd Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101, 717-780-6370. Applicants swear to a statement about their money and income, and the county uses its own income test (16 P.S. § 9960.1 and following).

Speed matters. The county asks the person or family to reach the office right after an arrest, since that is how it learns of a new case. Call again whenever an address, phone number or release status changes. The prison also holds Attorney Day events so people inside can meet with public defenders.

Act 34 of 2023 brought state money into county defender offices, a first for Pennsylvania. A committee inside the state crime commission now drafts standards for that work.

After the preliminary hearing, felonies and misdemeanors move to the county courthouse, 101 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101, 717-780-6630, open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Court of Common Pleas for the 12th Judicial District sits here, and so does the Clerk of Courts on the 2nd floor, 717-780-6530.

Two district courts deal with bail at night and at the prison:

• Night Court 12-0-00, Judicial Center, 451 Mall Road, Harrisburg, PA 17111, 717-547-4010
• Central Court 12-0-01, 501 Mall Road, Harrisburg, PA 17111, 717-780-6824

Fourteen neighborhood district courts hear first hearings and minor cases:

• 12-1-01: 2125 Paxton Church Road, Harrisburg, PA 17110, 717-545-4143
• 12-1-02: 2967 A N 7th Street, Harrisburg, PA 17110, 717-238-3388
• 12-1-04: 1520 Walnut Street, Harrisburg, PA 17103, 717-233-1220
• 12-1-05: 538 South 29th Street, Harrisburg, PA 17104, 717-231-3500
• 12-1-06: 5925 Locust Lane, Harrisburg, PA 17109, 717-671-8640
• 12-2-01: 1201 South 28th Street, Harrisburg, PA 17111, 717-558-1160 (its cases have been moved to other offices for now)
• 12-2-02: 102 Agnes Street, Harrisburg, PA 17104, 717-939-6996
• 12-2-03: 50 Canal Street, Royalton, PA 17057, 717-944-4463
• 12-2-04: 1805 North Cameron Street, Harrisburg, PA 17103, 717-233-3599
• 12-2-05: 1300 Rolleston Street, Harrisburg, PA 17104, 717-234-0949
• 12-3-01: 185 Manors Road, Suite 1, Elizabethville, PA 17023, 717-362-3396
• 12-3-03: 5925 Stevenson Avenue, Suite B, Harrisburg, PA 17112, 717-545-0261
• 12-3-04: 576 East Main Street, Hummelstown, PA 17036, 717-583-1912
• 12-3-05: 8010 Bretz Drive, Harrisburg, PA 17112, 717-671-8720

Federal charges go to the Sylvia H. Rambo United States Courthouse, 1501 North 6th Street, Suite 101, Harrisburg, PA 17102, 717-221-3920. To learn which district court covers a certain town, call the Court Administrator at 717-780-6624.

Hold on to your receipt. Pa.R.Crim.P. 535 returns cash bail to whoever is listed as depositor once every part of the case is finished. The state rule sets 20 days for this. The Clerk of Courts tells family members who posted to expect a refund within 40 days of the final ruling or the prison report date. A fee for running the bail program may be kept, so ask the Clerk at 717-780-6530 what it will be.

Whose name is on the receipt matters. When the accused person put up the money personally, a judge can apply it to fines, costs and restitution.

Missing court can cost a lot:

• A judge may send out a bench warrant for an arrest and declare the whole bail forfeited, meaning lost.
• A relative who signed on as surety may be on the hook for all of it.
• New charges for failing to appear are possible.
• Picked up on a bench warrant? Pa.R.Crim.P. 150 calls for a hearing inside 72 hours, with the clock starting once the person is held in a jail of the county whose judge signed it.

Things the person had at booking stay at the prison, 501 Mall Road, Harrisburg, PA 17111. To have someone else pick them up, the person inside fills out a request slip. It lists each item plus the full name and address of the person collecting them. If the person has already been released, the prison asks for a notarized letter from them instead.

Pickups and drop-offs run Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Bring a photo ID. To learn what happens to money still sitting in their jail account, call 717-780-6800. Our inmate money page covers jail accounts more broadly.

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania takes federal cases that start here. Judges hear those cases in the Sylvia H. Rambo United States Courthouse, 1501 North 6th Street, Suite 101, Harrisburg, PA 17102, 717-221-3920.

• At the first federal court date, a magistrate judge holds a detention hearing under 18 U.S.C. 3142 and rules on jail or release.
• U.S. Pretrial Services checks work, home and record for the judge ahead of that hearing, from 1501 North 6th Street, Suite 100, Harrisburg, PA 17102, 717-901-2860.
• Custody before a federal trial falls to the U.S. Marshals, whose district office sits at 235 North Washington Avenue, Unit 215, Scranton, PA 18503, 570-346-7277. Its staff can say where a federal defendant is being kept.
• After a prison sentence, search the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

No. A state bail receipt and an ICE detainer are two unrelated pieces of paper. A detainer usually unfolds in this order:

1. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) files a request called Form I-247A, a detainer, with the prison.
2. On that form ICE wants the Mall Road staff to hold the person up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released, giving agents time to arrive (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. ICE's Philadelphia Field Office covers Pennsylvania. It is at 114 N. 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, 215-656-7164.
4. Once ICE has the person, look them up on the ICE Online Detainee Locator with a name and birth country.

A key ruling, Galarza v. Szalczyk (3d Cir. 2014), is binding here because the Third Circuit hears Pennsylvania's federal appeals. It treats an ICE detainer as a polite ask with no force of an order. A county keeping a person on nothing but that paper may be sued over its own choice. For that reason every county jail here sets its own rule on detainers. To ask about this prison's policy, call 717-780-6800.

Judges here hand down a range, for example 11.5 to 23 months, and its upper number settles where time is served (42 Pa.C.S. § 9762):

• Less than 2 years at the top end: the person stays in the county prison.
• A top number of five years or more: off to a state prison.
• A maximum in the 2-to-5-year band: these terms also usually go to the DOC. A local stay happens only when the warden, the prosecutor and the sentencing judge all sign off.

Newly sentenced state inmates start with weeks, sometimes months, of testing at a reception and classification center. Staff then choose a long-term prison based on security level and needs. Track a state prisoner on the DOC inmate locator. You can also phone the Department of Corrections at 1920 Technology Parkway, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050, 717-728-2573. For mail and visits at a particular state lockup, browse our Pennsylvania state prisons page.

Youths below 18 are usually handled in juvenile court, as the Juvenile Act directs (42 Pa.C.S. § 6301 and following). Intake for those cases belongs to the Juvenile Probation Office, 100 Chestnut Street, 2nd Floor, Harrisburg, PA 17101, 717-780-7100. A youth is not booked into the adult prison.

The county's own juvenile detention center has closed. If a youth must be held, juvenile probation decides where. Phone that office to find out where your child is staying and the date of the first hearing.

Some teens start in adult court. Murder charges begin there for anyone aged 15 through 17, and so do certain violent charges in which a deadly weapon was used. A defense lawyer may then ask a judge to shift it over to juvenile court. The UJS case search leaves out every juvenile file.

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.