The county keeps its jail lookup on the MRC records server, which also carries its warrant lists. Steps:

1. Go to the Sheriff's inmate lookup in a browser.
2. Type the surname. A partial surname casts a wider net when you aren't sure of the spelling.
3. Click the record that fits. The web address of that record ends in an SO number.
4. Save the SO number. Reading it to staff speeds up every call.
5. For anything the record doesn't settle, like a release hour or a transfer, phone 409-883-2612.

On July 1, 2025, the county had an estimated 86,266 residents, per the Census Bureau. The jail's daily average sits a bit above 200 people.

When the search comes back blank, check these possibilities:

• Booking in progress. The record goes up only after fingerprinting, the photo and the forms.
• Already released. A family member may have paid the bond, or the magistrate may have ordered release.
• Waiting in another county. A person arrested elsewhere on a local warrant stays in that jail until the Sheriff's transport unit gets there. Inside Texas that takes up to 10 working days; from another state, up to 30. Pickup dates are kept private. Transport answers at 409-882-7819.
• Held for another agency. Federal and immigration holds each get an answer lower on this page.
• Typed differently. Search a hyphenated surname, a nickname, or a name from before marriage.
• Too young. A child of 16 or under goes to Juvenile Probation instead.

The Sheriff also has a substation in Vidor, 409-769-6391. Bookings still take place at the Border Street jail.

On the Sheriff's pages only one adult jail appears, the one on Border Street, and it books prisoners for every police agency in the county. Someone arrested over the line usually lands in that county's jail. Try these:

• Jefferson County, Beaumont. Two sites. Ask whichever you reach first to check both: the Jefferson County Correctional Facility, 5030 Highway 69 South, Beaumont, TX 77705, 409-726-2540, or the Jefferson County Downtown Jail, 1001 Pearl Street, Beaumont, TX 77701, 409-434-4653.
• Hardin County, Kountze. Hardin County Jail, 300 West Monroe Street, Kountze, TX 77625, 409-246-5105.
• Newton County, Newton. Newton County Jail, 110 E. Court Street, Newton, TX 75966, 409-379-3636.
• Jasper County, Jasper. Jasper County Jail, 101 Burch Street, Jasper, TX 75951, 409-384-2411.

Mugshots aren't something to count on finding in the online lookup. The way to get one is a written request to the Sheriff's Office. The Public Information Act, Government Code chapter 552, covers it:

1. Keep the request short: who was arrested, roughly when, and that you are asking for the booking photo.
2. Send or hand it to the Sheriff's Office, 205 S. Border St., Orange, TX 77630. Call 409-883-2612 first to ask how they like to receive requests.
3. The law expects a prompt answer. Needing more than ten business days, it must write back with a date.
4. An office that wants to keep a record back usually must ask the Attorney General to rule, and tell you it did. If ten business days pass with neither a reply nor a ruling request, the Attorney General's Open Records Division takes complaints.

Some commercial websites post mugshots and charge a removal fee. Where that fee is $150 or more, the Business and Commerce Code, chapter 109, requires the site to fix or delete an inaccurate or incomplete record without charging. It also bars posting anything covered by an expunction or a nondisclosure order. ICE photos are requested on ICE's FOIA page. Federal agencies keep their own booking photos private. Only the U.S. Marshals Service sometimes publishes one, typically of a fugitive.

Yes. Texas IVSS-Counties is a free and confidential state service that tracks custody in county jails. Sign up through the IVSS-Counties site or by phone at 866-268-8959, in English or Spanish, day or night. Once registered, you're told when the person is let out or moved. Registration is never automatic.

Crime victims have their own protection: CCP art. 17.29 calls for victims to hear before an accused person goes free in some cases. The District and County Attorney's office, 409-883-6764, can say whether that applies. Meanwhile, keep checking the lookup and phoning the jail.

A magistrate sees each new prisoner within 48 hours. At that hearing the person learns the accusation and their rights, says whether they want appointed counsel, and gets a bail amount and any conditions (CCP art. 15.17).

• Felony warrants already carry a bond the prosecutor recommended. A justice of the peace can follow it or not at arraignment. A written motion can seek a lower amount later.
• No bonding before booking. The Sheriff accepts no money on a warrant until the person has been booked and seen by the magistrate.
• Bond types: the whole amount paid in cash; a licensed bondsman's surety bond, bought for a fee; or a personal bond, where the person's signature on a court promise replaces money. Charges the law classes as violent can't get a personal bond.
• Posting it: the jail, at 409-883-2612, can tell you where to pay and what forms of payment it takes.

Our bail and bond page goes deeper on amounts, holds and refunds. For the wider Texas picture, our Texas bail laws page is a quick read.

Jail officers can say whether someone is booked. They generally aren't told case details, though, and they give no legal advice. For the charges themselves:

• Felony cases: the District Clerk's criminal desk, 409-882-7817.
• Misdemeanors (Class A or B): the County Clerk, 409-882-7055. Its criminal files are open to the public, and an online records search is on its site.
• Any Texas court: the free re:SearchTX site shows case numbers and filed charges once you register.
• The person: ask on a visit or by letter.

Both clerks work in the courthouse at 801 W. Division Ave., Orange, TX 77630. A charge's class or degree decides its sentencing range under Penal Code chapter 12. The District and County Attorney chooses which charges are finally filed.

The county has no public defender office. Its judges appoint private attorneys by rotation from a list instead. There are two ways in:

1. Tell the magistrate the person wants a lawyer. Within 24 hours, the paperwork reaches the Court Administrator.
2. File an Affidavit of Indigence in person or by fax with the Court Administrator, 801 West Division, third floor, Orange, TX 77630, 409-882-7075.

Benefits such as SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, TANF or public housing make a person presumed eligible. A household income at or under the poverty guideline does too. Posting bond is not held against anyone. For deadlines and forms, read the county's indigent defense plan.

Visiting hours are:

• Monday through Friday, 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
• Saturday, 8:00 to 11:30 a.m.

Holidays can change the schedule, so call 409-883-2612 before you go. Rules from the jail's visiting sheet:

• Two visits a week per prisoner, one on any day, 20 minutes apiece.
• At most two adults and two minors per visit.
• No photo ID, no entry.
• Kids under 17 need their parent or a legal guardian beside them, and a guardian must be cleared by jail administration.
• Clothing must be complete and appropriate.

Ask on the phone whether visits are behind glass or by video. Our visitation page has general tips.

Account funds cover commissary purchases and phone calls. Deposit them one of three ways:

• Kiosk. Find it in the Visitation Room lobby during visiting hours. It accepts cash and credit or debit cards.
• Online. Use the inmate phone company's website. The deposit sheet on the Sheriff's Corrections Information page gives its name.
• Mailed money order. Payee: "Inmate Commissary Fund." Memo line: the person's name and inmate number. Cash, checks and other instruments sent by mail are turned back.

Our money deposit page and commissary page give general background.

Calls out of the jail draw on the same account that pays for commissary. The jail's telephone sheet sits with the other forms on the Sheriff's Corrections Information page. Its phone company's website also takes online deposits.

Questions the sheet leaves open go to 409-883-2612. For background, read our pages on jail phone calls and inmate messaging.

The return address in the upper left must show your first name, last name and address. Mail missing it is returned. Address the envelope like this:

Person's full name, inmate number
Cell or dorm
C/O Orange County Corrections Facility
P.O. Box 1928
Orange, TX 77631

Items that keep mail from being delivered:

• Photos beyond the number or size staff allow, and nude images of any kind.
• Packages or care boxes, and 9x12 or larger envelopes with anything but writing inside.
• Stickers, tape, glue, labels, stains, powder, perfume or lipstick.
• Unused stationery, envelopes, cards or stamps.
• Greeting cards that play music, are laminated or glued, or count as novelties.
• Unapproved books, magazines or pamphlets, and pages printed from the internet.

Staff remove any money order found in a letter and credit it to commissary. Our mail page has more.

Whatever is left in the account is handed back at release, during visiting hours. A move to another facility sends the balance along to it.

Personal items such as clothes, keys, wallets and phones fall under the jail's property sheet, posted on the Sheriff's Corrections Information page. Phone 409-883-2612 before making the trip to 205 S. Border St., Orange, TX 77630. Bring photo ID. Also ask if staff need a form signed by the person naming you as the one picking up.

Medical care is one of the services the Sheriff lists for the jail, next to meals and recreation. Families who know of a health problem or prescription should call 409-883-2612 and describe it, naming each medicine. Expect staff to say little back, since health details are private.

County jails answer to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. A concern that the jail doesn't resolve can go to the commission through its complaints and inquiries page or at 512-463-5505.

Most county warrants are served by deputies in the Sheriff's Warrant Division; constables and city officers handle others. Call 409-883-2612 on weekdays, 8 to 5, with your name, your number and the person's name and birth date. Staff can answer only for Sheriff's warrants. Online, see the county warrants page, the felony warrant list, the misdemeanor warrant list, the prosecutor's Most Wanted, the City of Vidor's warrants and DPS Most Wanted. Clearing one means a planned surrender, best done with a defense attorney, at the court whose judge signed it. Pay a Class C warrant at its justice or city court. Felony court records: District Clerk, 801 W. Division Ave., Orange, TX 77630, 409-882-7817.

Clerks have hearing dates first. Phone the District Clerk at 409-882-7817 on a felony, or the County Clerk at 409-882-7055 on a Class A or B case. Give the name and birth date, or a cause number.

• re:SearchTX shows the case number and court but leaves out hearing dates.
• For case questions, the jail points families to the Court Administrator, 409-882-7075, or to probation or parole staff.
• For a ticket, call the justice or city court printed on it.

Our court page walks through each courtroom and every step of a case.

Beaumont hears this county's federal cases as a division of the Eastern District of Texas. Its clerk sits at 300 Willow Street, Suite 104, Beaumont, TX 77701, 409-654-7000.

1. At the first appearance, as a rule, a U.S. magistrate judge hears whether the person can be released on conditions or must stay locked up (18 U.S.C. 3142). Federal court has no bondsmen.
2. Pending trial, the U.S. Marshals Service picks the jail. Ask its Beaumont office, 409-839-2581, where the person is.
3. Defense counsel can come from the Federal Public Defender's Beaumont office, 510 Park Street, Suite 450, Beaumont, TX 77701, 409-839-2608.
4. Once a federal sentence starts, search the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.

Finishing the state case doesn't end an immigration hold. Here's the order of events:

1. ICE's request comes on Form I-247A. With this detainer, the Border Street staff are asked to hold the person until agents arrive.
2. The jail can keep the person up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. ICE takes custody. The Houston Field Office, 126 Northpoint Drive, Houston, TX 77060, 281-774-4816, covers Southeast Texas. One of its detention sites is the Montgomery Processing Center, 806 Hilbig Road, Conroe, TX 77301, 936-521-4900.
4. Look the person up in the ICE Online Detainee Locator. Searching takes the A-number; failing that, type the name and pick the person's birth country.

Texas law shapes this too. A jail must comply with a detainer (CCP art. 2A.060) unless the person documents citizenship or legal status in the country. A 2017 statute, Gov't Code 752.053, stops local governments from limiting enforcement. And S.B. 8, a 2025 law, directs sheriffs running jails to pursue 287(g) agreements with ICE; for the status here, call the Sheriff's Office.

A person sentenced to prison or a state jail waits on Border Street until the Texas Department of Criminal Justice sends for them. TDCJ first runs them through intake, where they are tested and classified, and then assigns a unit that matches their security level and needs.

• Use TDCJ's inmate search. Search by TDCJ number, by SID number, or by surname with a first initial. The results cover only people TDCJ holds right now and refresh on working days.
• For descriptions of Texas units, visit our Texas state prisons page.

Texas treats a child of 10 through 16 as a juvenile (Family Code 51.02); from 17 on, the adult system applies. Officers must bring a child straight to a juvenile processing office, a detention center or a medical facility. A parent must be notified promptly under Family Code 52.02.

To find out where a child is held, call Juvenile Probation on a weekday between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.:

• Main office: 213 Market Street, Orange, TX 77630, 409-882-7885
• Vidor office: 190 Camp Street, Vidor, TX 77662, 409-769-8439

Family Code 54.01 promises a detained child a court review inside two working days. Counsel gets assigned ahead of that review. Juvenile prosecutions here belong to the District and County Attorney.

Start with whoever made the arrest; that agency knows the reason and where the person was taken. City departments and their contacts:

• Orange Police Department: 201 8th Street, Orange, TX 77630, 409-883-1026
• West Orange Police Department: 2700 Western Avenue, West Orange, TX 77630. Chief's office 409-883-7574; after hours 409-883-0059
• Bridge City Police Department: 110 Rachal Avenue, Bridge City, TX 77611, 409-735-5028

For Vidor, Pinehurst, Pine Forest, Rose City or a state trooper arrest, phone the Sheriff's Office at 409-883-2612 or its Vidor substation at 409-769-6391.

Constables serve warrants and court papers from four precinct offices:

• Precinct 1: 801 W. Division Ave., Orange, TX 77630, 409-882-7810
• Precinct 2: 3500 Edgar Brown Dr., Orange, TX 77630, 409-882-7811
• Precinct 3: 2520 S. Hwy 87, Orange, TX 77630, 409-882-7812
• Precinct 4: 190 Camp St., Vidor, TX 77662, 409-769-0513