The Sheriff's listing is one big PDF instead of a search box. These steps make it quick:

1. Open the current inmate listing. It can run to about 200 pages, so let it finish loading.
2. On a computer, hit Ctrl+F. On a phone, pick "Find in page" from the browser menu.
3. Enter only the last name. Try other spellings, hyphenated forms and maiden names too.
4. Copy down any SO# shown beside the name. Mail needs it, and the Bond Office can read it to you if it's missing.
5. For a fresh arrest, come back later. Updates arrive hourly, according to the Sheriff.

Only people locked up right now appear. Past bookings and releases aren't on it, so ask the Bond Office at 254-757-2555 about those.

Check these causes first:

• Booking isn't finished. Booking takes a while to finish, and the list itself refreshes once an hour. Look again in an hour or two.
• They are already out. Someone who made bond, or whom a magistrate released, falls off the list.
• A different county has them. Arrests made outside this county are booked in the jail of the county where they happened. Try a name search on Texas IVSS-Counties, the statewide custody system.
• They are 16 or younger. Juvenile detention keeps its own records, apart from the adult list.
• Federal or state prison custody. Those searches come later on this page.

Still stuck? Give the Bond Office at 254-757-2555 the full name and birth date.

Every custody site that county and state records tie to this county:

• County jail, called the McLennan County Jail by the Sheriff and listed by the county as Jail (Highway 6). It houses adults: local defendants, contract prisoners and federal prisoners. A state jail standards report put its capacity at 1,678 and its count at 1,351 on June 1, 2022, with 352 of them federal. Phone the Bond Office at 254-757-2555.
• Jail Intake and Reception, its own entry in the county directory. Ask the Bond Office what this unit handles and whether your person is there.
• Two privately run units. State reports carry two private jail rows for the county, and neither held anyone in June 2022.
• Bill Logue Juvenile Justice Center, only for youths, 254-757-5072.

In-person visits for the adult jail happen in the jail's Bond Office lobby, where they moved on April 5, 2026.

On the Sheriff's Office page, a link labeled "Online Mugshots" sits beside the inmate listing. That page is the place to start.

A copy of one booking photo can be sought in writing from the Sheriff's Office. Under Texas public information law, Government Code 552.108(c) treats the basic details of an arrest as public, to be handed over promptly.

• Private mugshot sites sometimes charge removal fees. Under Texas law, such a site must fix or pull an incomplete or wrong record at no charge, and it can't publish sealed or expunged records (Texas Business and Commerce Code, chapter 109).
• For an ICE photo, the route is an ICE records request and nothing else.
• As a rule, federal agencies do not hand out booking photos. A photo might be shared by the U.S. Marshals while they look for a fugitive.

Yes, through Texas IVSS-Counties. This free statewide service took over from VINE and covers county jail custody. How it works:

• Type a full or partial name on the IVSS-Counties site.
• Choose alerts, with an account or without one.
• Notices cover bookings, releases, transfers to TDCJ, and court events that are set or changed.
• Live phone support runs all day and night in two languages: 866-268-8959.

Registration is confidential, so the person won't be told you are watching.

A magistrate sees every arrested person, face to face or on video, no later than 48 hours in, and decides bail there. Bonds are posted at the jail's Bond Office, 254-757-2555. Jail staff don't give out bond forms, so a licensed bondsman or a lawyer has to bring and complete them.

• Types of bail: cash, a bondsman's surety bond, an attorney bond, or a personal bond handled by the county's Pretrial Services (PR Bond) Office.
• Some charges block a personal bond. Since a 2025 amendment, judges must deny bail in eight serious violent charges when the prosecutor proves risk.
• In a family violence case, the person may be held 4 hours or more after bond.

Our bail page has every step, the payment rules and refunds.

A phone call is fastest. The Bond Office at 254-757-2555 can read off each charge and its bail. The magistrate also states the charge to the person at the first hearing.

After the case is filed, try the county's case search page. For a felony, the District Clerk's Criminal Division holds the file, 254-757-5054. Misdemeanor papers sit with the County Clerk; begin at its criminal misdemeanor page. Statewide, re:SearchTX shows the indictment or information to anyone who registers for free.

Say yes when the magistrate asks about a lawyer, and the magistrate must help fill in the form. Since over 250,000 people call this county home, it has one working day, after the judges who appoint receive that form, to assign a lawyer.

Appointed cases go to private lawyers under the county's indigent defense plan, and the county also posts an Office for Appointed Criminal Attorney page. A defendant with mental illness may be paired with counsel by a managed assigned counsel office in Suite 405, 501 Washington Ave., Waco, TX 76701, 254-447-0111.

Since April 5, 2026, visits take place in the McLennan County Jail Bond Office Lobby. The Sheriff's rules:

• In the lobby: Sundays 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., last sign-in at 4:30. Mondays noon to 8:00 p.m., last sign-in at 7:30.
• Limit: two visits of 30 minutes each per person in custody.
• Before you go: get on the person's visitor list and open an account with the company that runs the jail's tablets and visits.
• Video from home: Tuesday to Saturday, 1:00 to 9:00 p.m., in that company's apps.

The Bond Office at 254-757-2555 can give the lobby address and any rule changes. Our visiting page has more general advice.

Check with the jail first. Phone the Bond Office at 254-757-2555 to ask how deposits can be made today, and have the name and SO# handy.

Never mail a check or money order to Phoenix, Maryland. The Sheriff directs them to the facility itself, so get that address from staff. Our inmate deposits page and commissary page describe how jail accounts commonly work.

This jail runs on tablets. Starting November 1, 2022, mailed letters and photos have been scanned and delivered to the person's tablet screen. The tablet company also hosts video visits through its apps.

To learn which company handles calls and messages today, and how accounts get opened, call the Bond Office at 254-757-2555. For the usual setup, read our jail phone page along with the inmate messaging page.

Paper letters stop at a scanning center in Maryland, and the person reads a scan on a tablet. Address them exactly like this:

McLennan County Jail, TX
[Inmate's full name] SO# [their booking no.]
PO Box 247
Phoenix, MD 21131

Follow these rules:

• Write out the whole facility name and skip abbreviations.
• Include the person's full name plus SO#.
• Show your full name and physical address as the sender.
• Letters, pictures and drawings are all accepted.
• Never send checks, money orders, attorney-client mail or packages to Phoenix. Per the Sheriff, those go straight to the facility; phone 254-757-2555 for that address.

Under state jail standards, letter counts are unlimited, and legal mail gets opened only when the person can see it happen. See our jail mail page as well.

Property taken during booking stays in storage. Before driving over, phone the Bond Office at 254-757-2555. Find out the pickup hours, if you need the person's signature to take their things, and which ID you need. While you're on the line, ask how remaining account money gets refunded.

Phone the jail at 254-757-2555. Describe the illness, injury, medicine or allergy, and ask how that information reaches the medical staff.

• Signs of mental illness trigger a rule. The jail has 12 hours to notify a magistrate, who can order an expert to evaluate the person (Texas CCP 16.22).
• Every jail must explain to those inside how to file a complaint.
• Unsolved problems can go to the state agency that inspects jails, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, by way of its complaints and inquiries page or at 512-463-5505.

County warrants belong to the Sheriff's Warrant Division, while each city's officers handle warrants from their own court. Check the Texas 10 Most Wanted, the Sheriff's Fugitive Apprehension Program, the county Warrant Payments page and adult probation's absconder list. For one name, call the District Clerk's Criminal Division, Suite 300, Courthouse Annex, 501 Washington Avenue, Waco, TX 76701, 254-757-5054, or, for a ticket, the JP court that wrote it. Clearing it means hiring a lawyer and surrendering at the jail, or asking whichever court issued it for another date. For bond questions, try the Bond Office, 254-757-2555.

Ask the court that has the case:

• Felony: the District Clerk's docket coordinator at 254-757-7550, or the Criminal Division at 254-757-5054.
• Class A or B misdemeanor: look up County Court at Law No. 1 and its sister courts.
• Ticket: whichever JP or city court appears on the citation.

IVSS-Counties will also send a notice if a hearing gets a date or a new one. Our court guide lists every courthouse and walks through the stages.

When a federal agency charges someone from this area, the case goes to the Western District of Texas courthouse in Waco. Its clerk: 800 Franklin Avenue, Room 380, Waco, TX 76701, 254-750-1501.

• A federal judge settles release or pretrial custody at the person's first appearance (18 U.S.C. 3142).
• Ahead of trial, custody stays with the U.S. Marshals, who frequently use county jail beds. On June 1, 2022, this jail held 352 federal prisoners. The Marshals office: 800 Franklin Avenue, Room 200, Waco, TX 76701, 254-750-1570.
• Pretrial prisoners may not appear in federal prison searches yet.
• Once sentenced, search the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator by name or by register number.

An immigration hold usually unfolds this way:

1. First comes a detainer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency called ICE. Its form number is I-247A, and it names the person ICE wants held.
2. After that, the person may be kept up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Since 2017, Texas law has made jails comply with detainers; proof of lawful status is the exception (Government Code ch. 752). A 2025 law adds a duty for every county with a jail: ask ICE for a 287(g) agreement. The cutoff date is December 1, 2026.
4. Once ICE takes the person, they are moved to an ICE detention site.
5. Search the ICE Online Detainee Locator using their full name with country of birth, or their A-number with country of birth.

ICE tells families with no locator match to reach the field office. Its Dallas Field Office is at 8101 N. Stemmons Freeway, Dallas, TX 75247, 972-367-2200.

After a felony sentence, people remain in the county jail. Later, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) moves them to its intake center. Intake staff then pick the unit.

• Search TDCJ's inmate database with a TDCJ number, a SID number, or an exact last name plus a first initial.
• Only current TDCJ prisoners show up. Data changes on working days, at least a day late.
• Each unit gets a profile on our Texas state prisons page.

In Texas, juvenile court is for ages 10 through 16, so a 17-year-old lands in the adult jail. Detained youths go to the Bill Logue Juvenile Justice Center, which the county web page titles its Detention Center, 254-757-5072.

• Only a parent or guardian may visit: Tuesdays 6 to 8 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m. to noon.
• Waco ISD teaches there year round, and nurses plus a counselor are on staff.
• A parent must be notified promptly. A detention hearing follows inside two working days, with a lawyer for the child already appointed.

Juvenile records are kept from the public, so youths never show up on the adult listing.

The county counted about 272,020 residents as of the Census Bureau's July 1, 2025 estimate. Several agencies police them. Adults arrested by any of them are usually brought to the county jail:

• Sheriff's Office. Rural homeowners can ask the Sheriff for a vacation watch. Visit the Sheriff's Office page. Questions about booking go to the Bond Office, 254-757-2555.
• Waco Police Department, 3115 Pine Ave, Waco, TX 76708. Its department web page lists contact numbers.
• Other agencies. Smaller towns in the county may make arrests through their own officers. If the arresting agency is unclear, ask the Bond Office which one did the booking.
• State officers. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers make arrests on state highways, and Texas Rangers Company F is headquartered in Waco.

The booking record names the arresting agency. When you call the Bond Office, ask for it.