Because Stanley prisoners sit in another county's jail, the statewide lookup is the main online tool. Try it this way:

1. Click into the official inmate lookup.
2. Use the surname box first, then add the first name. Shortening the spelling can catch a typo.
3. Check two things on the result: is the person in custody, and where (likely the Hughes County Jail).
4. Jot down any booking or offender number on the record.
5. No match? Phone the jail in Pierre at 605-773-7475.

Ask jail staff, too, whether the person came in on a Stanley County hold or on some other agency's charge.

• Still being booked. Paperwork for a fresh arrest takes a while to appear.
• Held in Winner. Some Stanley prisoners go there. Call 605-842-3328.
• Released. Somebody paid bond, or the court let them go.
• Another agency's arrest. Pierre police, troopers or federal officers may have made it.
• A minor. A teen is sent to a youth center, if held at all.
• Spelling. Search other versions of the name, including any nickname or former last name.

The Sheriff's Office knows where its arrests were taken. Call 605-223-7792 on weekdays or 605-773-7410 after hours.

Stanley pays other jails to house its prisoners, as SDCL 24-11-3 allows. Its own Sheriff makes the arrest and its own courthouse hears the case. The jails it uses:

• Hughes County Jail, 3100 E Hwy 34, Pierre, SD 57501, 605-773-7475. The main stop for Stanley adults. Federal detainees of the Marshals are housed there too.
• Winner City Jail, 217 E 3rd St., Winner, SD 57580, 605-842-3328. Run by the City of Winner, it takes contract prisoners from several counties, Stanley among them.

To learn which of the two has your person, or where women are housed, call the Sheriff's Office at 605-223-7792. Youth go to juvenile detention instead. Tribal members arrested by BIA officers on Lower Brule land are held by tribal or federal authorities; the BIA Lower Brule Agency, 190 Oyate Circle, Lower Brule, SD 57548, 605-550-1932, can say where.

The online state search doesn't post them, so booking photos from a Stanley arrest are handled by request. Call the Sheriff's Office at 605-223-7792; news media make their requests there as well.

• An ICE photo needs a records request filed on the ICE FOIA page.
• Federal booking photos generally stay private. The U.S. Marshals Service may make one public, for instance when a fugitive is being sought.

SAVIN, South Dakota's free notice service, tracks a person's custody status and location. Choose phone, text or email, and you hear about a release or a move around the clock. Phone help is at 844-299-4608, weekdays 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Central.

Nobody is signed up for you; register for each person you're following. Juvenile cases are left out of SAVIN. For a same-day answer, the Hughes jail at 605-773-7475 is still the surest source.

South Dakota release begins with the person's signed promise, and conditions or cash get added only as needed (SDCL 23A-43-2, 23A-43-3). Many Stanley charges get a bond from the Sixth Circuit chart. A first DUI runs $225 to $1,000, for example. Domestic arrests, along with murder, kidnapping and first-degree manslaughter charges, get bond only from a judge.

Bonds can be posted at the Hughes County Jail by anyone 18 or older with ID. Payment can be cash, a cashier's check, a postal money order, or a card through the online service its page links. Our bail guide walks through amounts, bondspersons and refunds.

The jail can read the booking charge over the phone at 605-773-7475. Once the State's Attorney files, the court record holds the formal charge.

• Search Find a Court Date or UJS eCourts by name or case number.
• Phone the Fort Pierre clerk's office, 605-223-7735.
• The State's Attorney decides the final charges, from 204 N. Euclid Ave., Pierre, SD 57501, 605-224-0491.

Misdemeanors split into Class 1 and Class 2. Felonies have nine grades, with Class 6 the mildest and Class A the gravest (SDCL 22-6-1, 22-6-2).

The opening hearing includes an explanation of counsel and how to request it (SDCL 23A-4-3). Someone who can't afford counsel asks the court, and the county pays the appointed lawyer (SDCL 23A-40-6, 23A-40-8). The request form is the UJS-224R.

A judge can later bill the defendant for that lawyer (SDCL 23A-40-10). Family can also hire a private lawyer. Defense lawyers can set up a visit through the jail at 605-773-7475.

The Hughes County Jail offers two kinds of visits:

• Remote video visits from your own phone, tablet or computer, 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. every day. You book them online through the jail's phone provider.
• On-site visits at the jail, 3100 E Hwy 34, Pierre, SD 57501. These are non-contact, and each prisoner gets one per day.

For the on-site schedule, visit length and how many guests may come, call 605-773-7475. If your person is in Winner, phone 605-842-3328 for that jail's rules. Our visiting tips help you prepare.

Account money buys canteen items and covers calls. At the Hughes County Jail you have three ways to deposit:

• By mail: up to $500 per item, by cashier's check or by U.S. postal money order only. Send it to Hughes County Jail, Inmate [full name], 3100 E Hwy 34, Pierre, SD 57501.
• Online: the jail's page links a deposit service that takes Visa, MasterCard or Discover.
• Kiosk in the jail lobby: cash or a card, with a $3.00 fee. Kiosk deposits are final and can't be refunded.

Canteen runs twice a week. Read our deposit guide and commissary guide for more. For Winner, call 605-842-3328.

The Hughes County Jail runs calls and texting through its phone provider. Customer support for setting up an account is 800-896-3201. A voicemail line for prisoners is 605-223-5244.

Treat every jail call as monitored and save talk about the case for defense counsel. In domestic cases, SDCL 25-10-43 forbids contact with the alleged victim's home until the first court date, so don't relay messages. For call accounts, read our phone guide, and for texts and messages, our messaging guide.

Since July 1, 2026, the Hughes County Jail splits its mail into two addresses:

• Personal letters and cards: Inmate [full name], 1533 S 42nd St Suite 200, Grand Forks, ND 58201. This is an out-of-state mail center that handles the jail's personal mail.
• Legal mail and money orders only: Hughes County Jail, Inmate [full name], 3100 E Hwy 34, Pierre, SD 57501.

Anything else sent to the Pierre street address comes back to the sender. Use the full legal name and a return address. For Winner, call 605-842-3328 before mailing. Our mail guide lists common rules.

Phones, wallets and clothes are bagged at booking and stored by that jail. Call the Hughes County Jail at 605-773-7475 to ask when items and any account balance can be picked up, and whether the prisoner must sign a form for you. Bring photo ID. In Winner, the number is 605-842-3328.

Medical staff at the Pierre jail include a registered nurse reachable 24/7 and a doctor who sees patients weekly or more. Counselors provide mental health care about 24 hours each week and can be called in after that.

Worried about a prescription, a condition or self-harm? Phone 605-773-7475 quickly and describe the medicine, its dose and the doctor behind it. Sexual abuse of prisoners is never tolerated there. Outside the jail, emergencies go to 911.

Stanley deputies serve warrants county-wide, and that includes Fort Pierre. Phone 605-223-7792 on weekdays or 605-773-7410 after hours, with the person's name and birth date on hand. Two state pages help: the DOC Most Wanted page (escapes and walkaways) plus the Sex Offender Registry. UJS ePayments marks a case with an active warrant. A lawyer can arrange the surrender, at the issuing court or the Hughes County Jail, 3100 E Hwy 34, Pierre, SD 57501. The clerk sits at 8 E. 2nd Ave., Fort Pierre, SD 57532, 605-223-7735.

Stanley cases are heard at the courthouse, 8 E. 2nd Ave., Fort Pierre, SD 57532. The free Find a Court Date search accepts a name or a case number. The Clerk of Courts answers at 605-223-7735, Monday through Thursday. Pierre prisoners often attend by video link. Read our court guide for the stages of a case.

1. Stanley sends federal cases to the U.S. District Court, Central Division, 225 South Pierre Street, Pierre, SD 57501, 605-945-4600.
2. Jail or release is settled at the defendant's opening federal hearing (18 U.S.C. 3142).
3. Pending trial, the U.S. Marshals keep custody, often using the Hughes County Jail. Call their Pierre office, Suite 425 in the same building, at 605-224-8396.
4. After sentencing, find them on the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

1. Paperwork arrives first: ICE's Form I-247A, lodged with the Pierre or Winner jail.
2. Staff can then keep the prisoner up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. ICE's St. Paul Field Office picks them up: 1 Federal Drive, Suite 1601, Fort Snelling, MN 55111, 612-843-8600. One site ICE uses in this state is the Pennington County Jail, 307 Saint Joseph St, Rapid City, SD 57701, 605-394-6116.
4. Search the ICE Online Detainee Locator using a name plus birth country, or an alien registration number.

State law adds one more piece. SB 7 (SL 2025, ch 100) cancels any town or county policy in the state aimed at walling off immigration data from Washington.

A felony prison sentence moves the person to the South Dakota Department of Corrections.

• The DOC offender locator lists those under a state prison sentence.
• Our South Dakota state prisons pages cover visits and mail.
• DOC headquarters answers at 605-773-3478.

Officers normally hand a child back to family. To hold a child, an intake officer has to cite a ground found in SDCL 26-8C-3. Pierre's youth center, the Hughes County Juvenile Service Center, has secure and non-secure beds and answers at 605-773-2290. Ask the Sheriff's Office at 605-223-7792 where a Stanley teen was taken.

Law enforcement working in and next to the county:

• Stanley County Sheriff's Office, 08 E 2nd Ave, Fort Pierre, SD 57532, weekdays 605-223-7792, evenings and weekends 605-773-7410. Deputies patrol every part of the county and act as Fort Pierre's police; the city lists the Sheriff as its law enforcement. Rural areas and small communities are covered the same way.
• BIA Office of Justice Services (police on the Lower Brule Reservation), Lower Brule Agency, 190 Oyate Circle, Lower Brule, SD 57548, 605-550-1932.
• South Dakota Highway Patrol, Pierre office, 118 West Capitol Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501, 605-773-3105.
• Pierre Police Department (Hughes County, across the river), 3200 E. Highway 34, Pierre, SD 57501, 605-773-7413. Fort Pierre's own public safety page lists it as a nearby contact.