The Detention Center has one search screen, already set to that jail. Steps:

1. Pull up the jail's Inmate Search on any phone or laptop.
2. Key in the surname. When dozens of rows appear, add the given name. Paperwork from the arrest may carry a booking or subject number, which goes straight to one record.
3. Switch the custody status to in custody for people held tonight, or leave it blank to include past bookings.
4. Narrow by booking date if you know roughly when police picked the person up.
5. Open the record and copy down its booking number, because letters, deposits and calling accounts use it.

Ring 803-283-2084 to double-check the screen before driving over or sending money.

When a search turns up nobody, one of these is usually why:

• Intake still running. Fingerprinting and paperwork take a while, so someone arrested within the hour can appear later.
• Spelling. Drop the given name, try a maiden name, or add or remove a hyphen.
• Released already. After bond is delivered, the jail must let the person walk out within four hours by state law (S.C. Code 22-5-510). Clear the custody filter so older bookings show.
• Another agency's custody. A neighboring jail, the Marshals, ICE or DJJ could be holding them. Later answers cover each.

Still stuck? Ring 803-283-2084. The Sheriff's contact list also gives two direct detention lines, 803-313-2224 and 803-313-2125.

Only one adult jail operates here. Its population is people awaiting trial, people serving under 90 days, and anyone given a Family Court sentence of any length. Sentenced men and women there gather roadside litter and sort recyclables.

• Lancaster County Detention Center, 1941 Pageland Highway, Lancaster, SC 29720, 803-283-2084. The Sheriff's headquarters is a separate building at 1520 Pageland Highway, Lancaster, SC 29720, so don't mix up the two numbers on the road.

Someone picked up just past a county border is booked where the arrest happened. Jails next door:

• York County Detention Center, 1675-3A York Highway, York, SC 29745, 803-628-3083.
• Chester County Detention Center, 2740 Dawson Drive, Chester, SC 29706, 803-581-2602.
• Fairfield County Detention Center, 10 Faith Lane, Winnsboro, SC 29180, 803-635-4841.
• Chesterfield County Detention Center, 319 Goodale Road, Chesterfield, SC 29709. Questions go to the Chesterfield Sheriff's Office, 843-623-2101.

An arrest over the North Carolina line means a North Carolina jail.

South Carolina treats jail rosters as public. Papers naming anyone confined during the prior three months are open records (S.C. Code 30-4-30(D)(3)), and agencies get ten working days to answer (S.C. Code 30-4-30(C)).

• Reporters and relatives seeking a booking photo may send the Sheriff's Office a public records request, 803-283-3388.
• Under a 2016 statute, S.C. Code 17-1-60, a website showing a booking photo has 30 days to take it down after a certified-mail request. The request needs proof the case was dropped, expunged or won at trial, and the site can't bill for removal.
• For pictures taken by immigration agents, file through ICE's FOIA request page.
• Booking photos from federal arrests mostly stay private, though the Marshals sometimes share a picture of a wanted fugitive.

Yes. SC VINE follows custody status and location for county jails and state prisons at no cost. Search on VINELink South Carolina or dial 866-727-2846, then register for notices.

The Sheriff's website points crime victims to that same network. For help as a victim, phone the Sheriff's victim advocate, 803-313-2118.

South Carolina's constitution guarantees bail to most accused people (S.C. Const. art. I, § 15). Within 24 hours after the arrest, a judge has to hold the bond hearing (S.C. Code 22-5-510).

• Here, hearings are held daily at 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. over video from the Magistrate's Office. Afterward, the bond line at 803-416-9483 can share the amount.
• Options for the judge range from release on a signed promise, to money bail, to added conditions.
• Murder, and other charges carrying possible life sentences, wait for a circuit judge, which usually adds days.
• Bail bondsmen post at the Magistrate's Office. By law, a bondsman's premium tops out at 15 percent.

Our bail page goes step by step through payment, cash deposits, property bonds and refunds.

Open the booking record in the jail lookup, then confirm the charge with detention staff at 803-283-2084. A warrant or ticket the person received names the offense as well.

• Filed cases: pick this county in the Judicial Branch case records search.
• Lesser charges and preliminary hearings: Magistrate Court, 803-283-3983.
• General Sessions felony files: Clerk of Court, 803-285-1581.

Police reports describing what happened and where are public (S.C. Code 30-4-50(A)(8)). A statewide criminal history costs $25 through SLED's CATCH site, which leaves warrants out.

The person completes a sworn statement of income and debts. A judge then assigns the public defender, and the $40 application fee can be cut or waived by the clerk (S.C. Code 17-3-30).

• Public defender, county office: 803-285-5585.
• Statewide agency: South Carolina Commission on Indigent Defense, 1330 Lady Street, Suite 401, Columbia, SC 29201, 803-734-1343.
• The prosecution side is the Sixth Circuit Solicitor, 104 N. Main Street, Lancaster, SC 29720, 803-416-9367.

Relatives remain free to retain a private defense attorney whenever they choose. Attorneys arrange client meetings directly with the jail.

All visiting is by video. Four kiosks inside the building run from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., and every approved account gets one session a day, a limit that can shift with crowding. Our visitation page has more.

1. Sign up with the jail's phone and video provider. Its help desk: 888-843-1972.
2. Wait until the Visitation Department approves the account.
3. Show a current government photo ID whose name matches the account. Visitors must be at least 18.

Screen etiquette matters too: never visit from behind the wheel, record nothing, and keep any extra phone out of the camera. Dress and conduct rules also apply.

Funds on an inmate account buy canteen items and calling time. The official routes:

• Online, through the jail's commissary store; see our deposit page and commissary page.
• By telephone with the jail's communications provider at 888-843-1972, which handles account setup as well.

Keep the full legal name and booking number handy, and read the fee before paying. For anything else, ask detention staff, 803-283-2084.

Outbound calls, video sessions and account billing all run through the jail's communications provider, 888-843-1972. Detention staff refer phone or video trouble to that line. Our jail phone page lays out account types.

Letters and photos may also travel electronically through the provider's mail service; our inmate email page explains. Assume staff can monitor every call and message.

Personal mail never goes to Pageland Highway. Since May 17, 2021, it has gone to a processing center in Florida, addressed like this:

Lancaster County Detention Center, the person's full name and # plus booking or ID number, PO Box 9106, Seminole, FL 33775-9106

The name and number must be printed on the envelope's outside. Put your return address in the upper left.

• Legal papers, court documents, bank statements and publications are delivered to the facility itself via P.O. Box 908, Lancaster, SC 29720.
• Our inmate mail page explains content limits, or phone detention staff, 803-283-2084.

Clothes, wallets, keys and phones taken during intake are normally held until release and handed back on the way out.

To collect anything sooner, ring 803-283-2084 and ask what paperwork the jail wants and what hours work. Items seized as evidence stay with the arresting agency, so direct those questions there.

Counties must supply inmates with food, water, clothing and a path to medical treatment (S.C. Code 24-5-80). An SCDC inspection division reviews each South Carolina jail yearly or more often (S.C. Code 24-9-10).

• Report prescriptions, allergies or fresh injuries promptly, either to 803-283-2084 or the Detention Director's listed line, 803-313-2224.
• Under PREA, the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, the Sheriff's Office holds zero tolerance for sexual abuse or harassment behind bars. Make reports to 803-283-3388.

Arrest warrants here come from the Magistrate Court. Deputies carry them out countywide, and the city patrol division handles ones inside its limits. For a check, call the Sheriff's Office, 803-283-3388, or Lancaster police, 803-283-3313. Statewide fugitives appear on the Most Wanted Offenders list kept by Probation, Parole and Pardon Services. The national 15 Most Wanted list comes from the Marshals. Anyone named should bring a defense attorney when giving themselves up to the issuing judge, or phone that judge's office ahead of time. Magistrate Court: 761 Highway 9 Bypass East, Lancaster, SC 29720, 803-283-3983.

Start with our court page, then go to the office that controls the calendar:

• Felony. General Sessions dates come from the Solicitor's Office rather than the clerk, 803-416-9367.
• Misdemeanor. Magistrate Court, 803-283-3983. Ask for any preliminary hearing within 10 days after bond is set (Rule 2(a), SCRCrimP).
• Juvenile. Rosters appear on the statewide Family Court portal.
• Anything filed. Run a name through the Judicial Branch records tool with this county selected.

Federal prosecutions starting here fall in the Rock Hill Division, and its judges sit in Columbia (Matthew J. Perry, Jr. U.S. Courthouse, 901 Richland Street, Columbia, SC 29201, 803-765-5816).

1. Release is decided at a detention hearing during the initial appearance (18 U.S.C. 3142). Either side may ask to postpone it: the defense by up to five days, the government by up to three.
2. Before sentencing, the U.S. Marshals choose the holding jail. Columbia office: 901 Richland Street, Suite 1300, Columbia, SC 29201, 803-765-5821.
3. After sentencing, the BOP inmate locator shows the prison. It searches by register number or name and reaches back to 1982.

The usual sequence:

1. Jailers have 72 hours after booking someone on a criminal charge to try a status check. If the check shows no lawful status, the jail must alert federal officials (S.C. Code 23-3-1100).
2. Bond judges consider unlawful presence when they size up flight risk (S.C. Code 22-5-510).
3. ICE may file a detainer on Form I-247A, requesting that the jail hold the person up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
4. Agents pick the person up during that period and transfer them to immigration detention.
5. Locate them next through the ICE Online Detainee Locator.

South Carolina's ICE field office: 3950 Faber Place Drive, North Charleston, SC 29405, 843-746-9800. Before any plea, ask an immigration attorney how it could affect status.

Sentences up to three months normally get served at the county level (S.C. Code 24-3-30), and this jail keeps terms under 90 days. Anything longer means custody of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, which assigns the prison (S.C. Code 24-3-20).

• Each new arrival goes through reception and evaluation. Families wait for the move to a prison before seeing the person face to face, unless intake drags past 30 days.
• The SCDC incarcerated inmate search finds them, and its data is current through the previous midnight.
• SCDC headquarters: 4444 Broad River Road, Columbia, SC 29210, 803-896-8500.
• Every state facility appears on our South Carolina prisons page.
• People on probation or parole show up in the state's supervised offender search.

Yes. Family Court and the Department of Juvenile Justice handle youth cases. Children may be kept in an adult jail six hours, no longer, and nobody aged 10 or under may be jailed at all (S.C. Code 63-19-820).

• The detention hearing comes within 48 hours of custody, though the hours exclude weekend days and holidays (S.C. Code 63-19-830).
• Youths held until trial are usually sent to DJJ's Juvenile Detention Complex, 1725 Shivers Road, Columbia, SC 29210, 803-896-9440.
• DJJ's county office: 104 North Main Street, Lancaster, SC 29720, 803-285-9447.
• For the most serious felonies, a judge may hold a waiver hearing and send a teen's case up to General Sessions (S.C. Code 63-19-1210).

Adults picked up by any of these agencies generally end up at the Detention Center.

• Sheriff's Office, 1520 Pageland Highway, Lancaster, SC 29720, 803-283-3388; deputy dispatch for non-emergencies, 803-283-4136. Deputies cover unincorporated land, Indian Land included, where a substation stands at 1821 Sandelbrook Road, Indian Land, SC 29707.
• Town of Kershaw relies on the Sheriff instead of a town force. Under contract, two deputies stay on duty around the clock from a substation inside Town Hall, 113 S. Hampton Street, Kershaw, SC 29067, 803-475-6065. That's the town, separate from Kershaw County.
• Heath Springs: ask the Sheriff's Office which agency handled an arrest in town.
• Lancaster Police Department serves the city from 405 E. Arch Street, Lancaster, SC 29720; non-emergency 803-283-3313.
• USC Lancaster campus security, non-emergency 803-313-7084.
• SC Highway Patrol Troop 4 patrols the county's highways from 454 S. Anderson Road, Suite 400, Rock Hill, SC 29730, 803-639-9035.