1. Pull up the official inmate lookup in any web browser.
2. Fill in the last and first names, spelled just as their driver's license shows them.
3. Check the custody status and the facility listed.
4. Jot down any ID or booking number shown. Staff can find a file faster with it.
5. Call the Records office at 610-782-3263 to confirm the details or ask about a recent move.

The same statewide search, PA SAVIN on VINELink, also covers state prisons and people on state parole. It is free and needs no account to search.

An empty screen almost never means something went wrong. Common causes:

• Still being processed. Booking, fingerprints and the video hearing with a district judge can take hours.
• Already home. The district judge could have let them leave after signing a promise to return, or someone paid.
• Moved. They may be at the Community Corrections Center, another county's jail, a state prison, or with federal agents or ICE.
• Under 18. Minors go to youth detention instead.
• Spelling. Retry with a second last name, a birth surname or a nickname dropped.

Call the general line, 610-782-3270, and ask for Records. Records staff know if someone came through booking, left, or went to another agency.

Two sites make up the county's corrections system, and the Department of Corrections answers questions at 610-782-3846.

• Lehigh County Jail, 38 North Fourth Street, Allentown, PA 18102, 610-782-3270. A high-rise opened in 1992 with officers posted inside the housing units. It is maximum security and holds people awaiting trial and people serving county sentences, with room for 1,352.
• Community Corrections Center, 1600 Riverside Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18016, control booth 610-778-5328, sergeant's desk 610-778-5334. It has 400 beds for sentenced residents in a pre-release program. They may leave for jobs, community service and treatment.

An arrest near the county line can end up at a neighboring jail:

• Northampton County Jail, 666 Walnut Street, Easton, PA 18042
• Berks County Jail System, 1287 County Welfare Road, Leesport, PA 19533, 610-208-4800
• Bucks County Correctional Facility, 1730 South Easton Road, Doylestown, PA 18901, 215-345-3700
• Montgomery County Correctional Facility, 60 Eagleville Road, Eagleville, PA 19403, 610-635-7100
• Carbon County Correctional Facility, 331 Broad Street, Nesquehoning, PA 18240
• Schuylkill County Prison, 230 Sanderson Street, Pottsville, PA 17901

Phone numbers for the Northampton, Carbon and Schuylkill jails are on their linked pages.

Don't count on finding one. Each Pennsylvania county makes its own call on releasing these pictures, shaped by recent court decisions in the state. News outlets may request one from the jail at 610-782-3270 or from the arresting officers' department.

The lookup itself is meant for finding where someone is held, not for pictures. Its results give custody details, so plan on words rather than a picture.

Yes. PA SAVIN, a free state program, sends notices once you register on VINELink, in the VINELink app, or by calling 866-972-7284 (TTY 866-847-1298). Live help is there day and night.

• Pick a voice call, a text, an email or an app notice.
• Alerts cover release, transfer and escape from a county jail, a state prison or state parole.
• They won't learn that you signed up.

Registration is not automatic, so add each person you want to follow.

Pennsylvania's constitution lets almost any accused person seek release on bail (Pa. Const. art. I, § 14). A magisterial district judge decides the terms, often over video, typically within six hours or so of the arrest. Plenty of people leave without paying. Others stay until money is posted.

• During business days, pay at the Clerk of Judicial Records, Room 122, 455 W. Hamilton Street, Allentown, PA 18101, 610-782-3077, by cash or credit card.
• After 5:00 p.m., on weekends and on holidays, pay at the jail by appointment only. Call 610-782-3664 and bring exact cash plus a $25 fee per bond.
• The courts' PA ePay Bail site takes cards online for this county, with a 2.75% fee.

Our bail guide walks through bondsmen, 10% bail, property bonds and refunds.

A printed criminal complaint is handed over at the preliminary arraignment. Relatives can read every count on the free UJS Portal case search by picking the county, typing the name and opening the docket sheet. Each charge shows its law section and grade, such as F2 for a second-degree felony or M1 for a first-degree misdemeanor.

Counts may be added or dropped. Once a case is held for court, prosecutors file a formal charging paper called the information. That office is in Room 307 of the courthouse, 455 W. Hamilton St., Allentown, PA 18101, 610-782-3100.

Yes, for those short on money. The request form sits on the county's Public Defender page in English and Spanish, and it wants a copy of the police complaint attached. Expect an answer in roughly a week of workdays.

Family can help by finding the complaint on the docket and gathering pay stubs. For questions, call the courthouse at 610-782-3000 and ask for the Public Defender's Office.

Lawyers may visit the jail at any reasonable time, though weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. work best. They bring a photo ID and a bar card.

You sit on one side of a glass panel and talk over a handset. Contact is not allowed, and staff may listen to and record every word.

• General population: one visit every three days, rotating by housing unit, on a yearly calendar the county posts.
• Administrative segregation: one 30-minute visit a week.
• Disciplinary segregation: one 30-minute visit about every 30 days.

The hours the jail lists are Monday to Friday, 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. and 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. On weekends and holidays they are 8:00 to 10:00 a.m., 12:00 to 4:30 p.m. and 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. Call 610-782-3270 to learn your person's unit day and whether video visits are offered. For dress and conduct basics, read our visitation page.

Funds on their books cover food extras, soap and phone time. Deposit options and limits change, so ask the jail at 610-782-3270 which methods work today. Have the full legal name ready, plus any number from the inmate lookup.

Our deposit guide explains the usual ways to send money, and our commissary guide shows what it buys. Never put cash in the mail.

Ask the jail. Staff at 610-782-3270 can explain how outgoing calls work, account setup, per-minute prices, and any messaging or tablet service. Since visits are recorded, assume calls are as well.

Keep the case itself out of these chats; save it for the defense attorney. For the basics of each service, open our phone calls page or our electronic messages page.

The jail has its own mail line, 610-782-3216. Before sending anything, call it and ask:

1. the exact address for personal mail, and the one for legal mail
2. whether to add an ID number next to the name
3. whether pictures, greeting cards or paperbacks are allowed

Print the legal name clearly and put a return address in the corner. Packaging and content tips are on our inmate mail page.

Anything taken during intake goes into storage at the jail. Records, 610-782-3263, will explain when items are handed out, whether the owner has to sign paperwork beforehand and which ID to carry. Pickups are at the jail, 38 North Fourth Street, Allentown, PA 18102.

For someone at the Community Corrections Center, 1600 Riverside Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18016, call the control booth at 610-778-5328.

The jail's Medical Information line is 610-782-3134. Give the name and birth date, any medicines with the doses, and the doctor's name and number.

For a fear of self-harm, dial the main line, 610-782-3270, and press 6 to flag a suicide risk. That option exists for exactly this. Outside the jail, a medical emergency still means 911.

The Sheriff's Office, Room 253, 455 West Hamilton Street, Allentown, PA 18101, 610-782-3175, handles bench warrants from Common Pleas; town police and constables carry others. Allentown's Warrant Unit answers at 610-437-7664. Look through the State Police most wanted list, the U.S. Marshals fugitive list, the FBI's wanted page, Allentown police wanted persons and Bethlehem police tips and wanted. Open cases also appear on the UJS Portal, and the Sheriff can answer by phone. The safest fix is a planned surrender, set up by a defense lawyer, at the court that signed it. The criminal clerk is Room 122 there, 610-782-3077.

Every scheduled hearing, with its time and courtroom, appears on the docket sheet from the UJS Portal. Cases with the district judge show there too.

• Common Pleas: the criminal records clerk in Room 122, 455 W. Hamilton Street, Allentown, PA 18101, 610-782-3077.
• District courts: the court number and phone are on the person's papers. The court's Find My MDJ tool matches a town to its court.

Each stage, from first hearing to sentence, appears on our criminal court page.

1. Lehigh belongs to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, whose federal judges hear local matters in Reading, Allentown or Easton. The courthouse in this county is the Edward N. Cahn U.S. Courthouse, 504 W. Hamilton Street, Allentown, PA 18101. The clerk's office line is 215-597-7704.
2. At a detention hearing near the start, the judge rules on release pending trial (18 U.S.C. 3142).
3. Anyone kept locked up goes to the U.S. Marshals, often housed at FDC Philadelphia, 700 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106, 215-521-4000. The Marshals' district office is at 601 Market Street, Room 2110, Philadelphia, PA 19106, 215-597-7272.
4. After sentencing, search the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator by name or register number.

1. ICE may send the jail a detainer, Form I-247A.
2. On that form, ICE seeks custody up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Officers of the Philadelphia Field Office, 114 N. 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, 215-656-7164, then take custody.
4. Search the ICE Online Detainee Locator with the alien number, or the full name plus birth country.

Pennsylvania's federal appeals court treats detainers as requests, not orders, after Galarza v. Szalczyk (3d Cir. 2014). That case was brought against this county, and it found a county can be held responsible for keeping someone on a detainer alone. Each jail now sets its own policy, so ask the jail at 610-782-3270.

When the top end of a term reaches 5 years, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections takes over, and terms topping out between 2 and 5 years usually go there too. Intake starts at a classification center, a stay of several weeks up to a few months.

• Search the DOC inmate locator.
• Call the DOC at 717-728-2573, 1920 Technology Parkway, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050. Only the relative listed as next of kin gets case details by phone.
• All state prison letters are routed through one Florida scanning center. Address them to the person's name and DOC number, then Smart Communications/PA DOC, the prison's name, PO Box 33028, St Petersburg, FL 33733.
• Addresses for every SCI are gathered in our listing of Pennsylvania state prisons.

Teens facing juvenile charges stay out of the Fourth Street jail. The county's own youth detention center closed in 2014, so held youths go to centers in other counties, such as the Bucks County Youth Center, 1750 Easton Rd., Doylestown, PA 18901, 215-340-8300, or the Chester County Youth Center, 505 South Wawaset Rd., West Chester, PA 19382, 610-344-6700. Juvenile cases are kept off the UJS Portal. Call Juvenile Probation, Room 710, 455 West Hamilton Street, Allentown, PA 18101, 610-782-3143, to learn where the teen is placed and when court meets.

Look at the complaint or the docket to learn which department filed the case. Its population stands near 384,383 (Census estimate, July 1, 2025), and the departments below patrol it:

Cities

• Allentown Police Department, non-emergency 610-437-7751
• Bethlehem Police Department, 10 East Church Street, Bethlehem, PA 18018, non-emergency 610-865-7187

Boroughs

• Alburtis Police, 260 Franklin Street, Alburtis, PA 18011, 610-966-4778
• Coplay Police, 98 S. Fourth St., Coplay, PA 18037, office 610-262-2288, weekdays 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
• Emmaus Police, 400 Jubilee Street, Emmaus, PA 18049, police clerk 610-965-0711
• Macungie Police, administration 610-966-2222
• Slatington Police, through county dispatch (number below)

Townships

• Salisbury Township Police, at the township offices, 2900 South Pike Avenue, Allentown, PA 18103, 610-797-4000
• South Whitehall Township Police, administration 610-398-0337
• Upper Macungie Township Police, 484-661-5911
• Upper Saucon Township Police, 5500 Camp Meeting Road, Center Valley, PA 18034, non-emergency 610-282-3064
• Whitehall Township Police, through county dispatch

County and state

• Sheriff's Office, Room 253, 455 West Hamilton Street, Allentown, PA 18101, 610-782-3175
• County Detectives, through the District Attorney, 610-782-3100
• State Police, Fogelsville station, 8320 Schantz Road, Breinigsville, PA 18031, 610-395-1438
• State Police, Bethlehem station (Troop M headquarters), 2930 Airport Road, Bethlehem, PA 18017, 610-861-2026

County 9-1-1 dispatch takes non-emergency calls for most of the county at 610-437-5252. In the city of Bethlehem, the line is 610-865-7171. State troopers patrol any municipality lacking a local department. Some arrests come from campus or airport police, such as at Lehigh Carbon Community College, Lehigh Career and Technical Institute or the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority. For Catasauqua, Coopersburg, Fountain Hill, Hanover Township or any town not shown, call dispatch or the Sheriff to learn which agency patrols there.