Either host jail could hold your person, so go through both lists:

1. Open the official inmate lookup first.
2. Next, open the Brookings jail's Current Inmates list. The jail says it refreshes every 15 minutes.
3. Then open the Watertown jail's Current Inmates list. Each row gives the name, age, charges and bond. The print date sits at the top.
4. Each list opens as a PDF. Tap the search or "find in page" option and enter the last name.
5. Note the charge and the bond, then phone whichever jail has them.

Brookings answers at 605-696-8308, and Watertown at 605-882-6284.

Common reasons include:

• In transit. Getting to Brookings or Watertown, plus fingerprints and paperwork, eats up time.
• Already out. A judge may have released them on a promise, or bond was paid.
• Printed too early. Check the date on the Watertown list.
• Different spelling. Look for a birth surname, a hyphenated surname or a nickname.
• Another agency's hold. Federal officers, ICE or an outside county may have custody.
• A minor. Teens are not placed on adult jail lists.

The county Sheriff's Office knows where each of its arrests ended up. Phone 605-783-3232; give the legal name and a birth date.

Since February 2024 the county has relied on contracts with two jails. Deputies drive people from either one back to Hayti for court:

• Brookings County Detention Center, 315 7th Avenue, Brookings, SD 57006, 605-696-8308. It holds up to 84 adult men and women of every security level, before trial, before sentencing and after. It runs work release and a trustee program. Four other counties also send adults here.
• Codington County Detention Center, 14 1st Avenue SE, Watertown, SD 57201, 605-882-6284. This 96-bed regional jail holds pretrial and sentenced adults, and offers court-ordered work release. A juvenile unit is housed alongside it.

The host for any one arrest can vary. Ask the Sheriff's Office, 300 4th Street, Hayti, SD 57241, 605-783-3232.

Watertown's printout gives each person's name and age, the charges and the bond, but no mugshots. The Brookings printout may or may not show them; confirm at 605-696-8308.

Ways to request a photo:

• The Codington County Sheriff handles online requests for booking photos when an adult was arrested on a felony within the past six months. Questions go to 605-882-6280.
• For an arrest by this county's deputies, ask the Sheriff's Office at 605-783-3232.
• ICE takes photo requests through its records request form.
• Photos from federal arrests stay sealed in most cases. A wanted fugitive's picture is the usual exception, shared by the U.S. Marshals.

Register with SAVIN, the free notice service run by the state Attorney General. A name search there gives custody status and the facility. Sign up, and it notifies you about a release, a transfer or another status change. The help line, 844-299-4608, is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central.

Youth cases are outside SAVIN. To keep track of hearings, search the case on the free Find a Court Date site.

The state Constitution guarantees bail in nearly all cases (S.D. Const. art. VI, § 8). In this Third Circuit county, the on-call judge sets felony bonds by phone from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Later arrests wait for morning. Most misdemeanors end in release on a promise to return.

• For a person in Brookings, bond goes through the lobby kiosk or the jail's online card payment site, and both add a service charge.
• If the person is in Watertown, call that jail to ask how it takes bond.
• After a domestic violence arrest, a judge must decide release (SDCL 25-10-40). From booking to the first hearing, the jailed person is cut off from the alleged victim's home. Notes passed by family count too. A violation is a Class 1 misdemeanor (SDCL 25-10-43).

Our bail page has amounts, payment steps and the 24/7 Sobriety Program.

On the Watertown roster, every count appears next to its state statute number. For Brookings, call 605-696-8308.

Court records give the formal charge once it is filed:

• Look up the name on Find a Court Date, which is free.
• PARS gives a case summary for $20 a search.
• The Clerk of Courts, 350 Fourth Street, Hayti, SD 57241, 605-783-3751, can read the charge to you.

The first charge may change. The State's Attorney decides what is filed.

The question of a lawyer comes up at the first hearing. Someone without money for one should say so then, and the county will pay for an appointed attorney (SDCL 23A-40-6, 23A-40-8). Family may also pay a private attorney to step in at any stage.

The Clerk of Courts at 605-783-3751 can say who was appointed. The person may later be ordered to repay the county (SDCL 23A-40-10). Brookings lists attorney visits among its services.

Each jail sets its own visiting rules.

Brookings: visits happen by video. Lobby video visits run Monday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to noon, and Saturday, 6 to 9 p.m. Book at least 24 hours ahead on the jail phone company's website. From home, video visits through the company's free app cost $0.25 a minute during inmate phone hours. Scheduling trouble: 605-696-8308.

Watertown: in-person visits follow a weekly schedule.

• Pretrial: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday is for immediate family.
• Sentenced: Tuesday 7 to 9 p.m., Thursday noon to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m., Sunday noon to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday is for immediate family.
• Someone held there in the last six months, or now on probation or parole, may not visit.

Video visits are offered every day as well. Questions: 605-882-6284. More tips are on our visitation page.

At both jails you can load money at a lobby kiosk using bills or a card, or online through a deposit website. Fees apply. Brookings charges $3 on cash, and on a card either $3 or 10 percent, whichever is larger.

• Never mail cash, checks or money orders to the Brookings jail.
• Commissary orders in Watertown are due Friday by 7 a.m., and items arrive the next Tuesday.
• Brookings lets family send care packages through the deposit site.

For walk-throughs, see our deposits guide and the commissary rundown.

Each jail uses its own phone company. Here is how to stay in touch:

• Brookings: add phone minutes on the jail phone company's website. To leave a voice message for a person held there, dial 605-305-4530 during normal inmate phone hours.
• Watertown: the jail's provider offers voice calls, video, texts and electronic messages. People held there can move commissary money to pay for phone time.

Setup steps live on our calling guide plus the e-message guide.

Brookings: as of February 1, 2026, everyday letters must be addressed to an out-of-state processing center. Pages get scanned onto the person's tablet, and the originals are destroyed. Anything addressed to the jail itself is returned to the sender. Use this format:

Brookings County Jail - SD
Inmate [the person's full name]
1533 S 42nd Street, Suite 200, Grand Forks, ND 58201

• Put your return address on it. Keep it in a regular envelope with sheets 8.5 by 14 inches or smaller, and skip staples.
• No money, packages, magazines, nudity or threats.
• Legal mail still goes to 315 7th Avenue, Brookings, SD 57006.

Watertown: the jail's mailing address is 14 1st Avenue SE, Watertown, SD 57201. Call 605-882-6284 for its mail rules. See our mail page as well.

What a person carried at booking goes into storage and comes back at release. Dropping things off works very differently at the two jails.

Brookings takes no packages and no drop-offs. The one exception is a medical item the jail nurse approves ahead of time. The jail supplies basic needs, and extras come from commissary. Call 605-696-8308 before you bring anything.

Watertown takes drop-offs and pickups Tuesday 6 to 10 p.m., Wednesday and Friday noon to 4 p.m., and Sunday noon to 10 p.m. Medicine can be dropped off any time. Allowed items include:

• 5 pairs of socks and 5 pairs of underwear
• 3 sleeved T-shirts in a solid color, with no logos or pockets
• 1 set of long underwear, plus 5 bras with no wire for women
• up to 4 photos, 3 soft-cover books and 3 magazines
• eyeglasses (leave the case at home), hearing aids, dentures, and contact lenses with a new, sealed bottle of solution

Call the jail right away and share what you know, such as a health condition, an allergy or a medicine they take.

• Brookings has a full-time nurse, round-the-clock medical care and mental health counseling. Phone 605-696-8308.
• Watertown accepts prescriptions only if they are current and in the original bottle. Medical staff check them before giving any doses. Phone 605-882-6284.

Deputies from the county Sheriff's Office serve arrest warrants. Call 605-783-3232 to ask about one. Two state links help too:

• UJS ePayments shows an active warrant on a court case.
• The Department of Corrections Most Wanted page lists people who escaped or walked away.

A bench warrant calls for a lawyer's help first, then a planned surrender at the courthouse. Hayti's Clerk of Courts is at 350 Fourth Street, Hayti, SD 57241, 605-783-3751.

Type a name or case number into Find a Court Date, a free state site. The same site shows the county's daily docket a couple of weeks out.

Or call the Clerk of Courts at 605-783-3751, Monday to Thursday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Friday 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Hearings take place in Hayti. For a walk-through of the case from first hearing to sentence, see our court page.

Federal cases from northeast South Dakota go to the Northern Division of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota, which holds court at 102 Fourth Avenue SE, Aberdeen, SD 57401. Jail or release is argued right at the first federal appearance (18 U.S.C. 3142).

Pending trial, the Marshals keep charge of the person and at times rent space in a county lockup. Ask the Aberdeen office, 102 Southeast 4th Avenue, Suite 409, Aberdeen, SD 57401, 605-226-1794. After sentencing, find them with the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

ICE can ask either host jail to keep someone with a Form I-247A detainer. The request covers up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)). After that, ICE may take custody.

1. Search the ICE Online Detainee Locator for the person.
2. Call ICE's St. Paul Field Office, which oversees this state: 1 Federal Drive, Suite 1601, Fort Snelling, MN 55111, 612-843-8600.
3. Ask about bond and the next hearing.

ICE counts the Pennington County Jail, 307 Saint Joseph Street, Rapid City, SD 57701, 605-394-6116, among its detention facilities. Under SB 7 (SL 2025, ch 100), passed in 2025, no county or city may restrict its staff from passing immigration status to federal officials.

After a judge imposes felony prison time, the person leaves the host jail for the South Dakota Department of Corrections.

Enter either part of the name, or the DOC number, in the DOC offender locator. The DOC central office is at 3200 East Highway 34, Pierre, SD 57501, 605-773-3478. Facts about the prison they are sent to are on our South Dakota prisons page.

Young people are kept apart from adults. Most go home with a parent after an arrest. The law allows holding a youth only on specific grounds (SDCL 26-8C-3).

The Codington County Detention Center, 14 1st Avenue SE, Watertown, SD 57201, 605-882-6284, provides juvenile care in a separate unit. For the place a minor was brought, ask the Sheriff's Office at 605-783-3232. Juvenile cases go to circuit court in Hayti.

The county Sheriff's Office patrols the towns and rural roads, and holds police contracts with four towns.

• County Sheriff's Office: 300 4th Street, Hayti, SD 57241, 605-783-3232, answered 24 hours. Office hours for records are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays.
• Bryant, Castlewood, Estelline and Hayti: policed by sheriff's deputies under contract. Call the Sheriff's line.
• Hazel and Lake Norden: call the Sheriff's line to learn which agency handled a call.
• Watertown Regional Dispatch: 605-882-6210 takes non-emergency calls for the Sheriff. Dial 911 in an emergency.
• South Dakota Highway Patrol District One: PO Box 1797, Aberdeen, SD 57402, 605-626-2286. This district covers the Watertown and Glacial Lakes region.