1. Open the Sheriff's roster file. Its title says "Report of Prisoners With Their Offenses," with that day's date on top.
2. The file tops 100 pages, so press Ctrl+F, or on a phone open the browser's find-in-page option, and enter the surname.
3. Compare first name, sex and age to rule out a namesake.
4. Copy down the SO number printed beside the name. Mail and deposits both ask for it.
5. Go through each charge line: level code, statute, court, case number, bond and status.

Four status labels turn up most: Pending Disposition, Sentenced, Bonded and Release Hold Per Agency. Together they say where each count stands.

Usually one of four things explains it.

• Booked after the file printed. The Sheriff also posts a daily book-in report of new arrivals.
• Freed already. The roster lists only those inside on its date.
• Spelled another way. Enter only part of the surname, or a hyphenated or birth surname.
• Arrested in Randall County. Part of Amarillo sits in Randall County, which keeps its own jail.

Still nothing? Ring Booking at 806-335-4100. After an arrest inside the city, the Amarillo Police Department's non-emergency number, 806-378-3038, is a second place to ask.

A county of 114,453 people (Census Bureau estimate, July 2025) runs a single adult jail. The Sheriff's Office stands next door at 13103 NE 29th Ave, Amarillo, TX 79111, 806-379-2900.

• Detention Center, 13100 NE 29th Ave, Amarillo, TX 79111, 806-335-4100. Finished in November 1995, it holds men and women in 576 general beds, plus a 27-bed infirmary and two violent cells.
• Randall County Jail, 9100 S. Georgia St., Amarillo, TX 79118, 806-468-5752, for the Randall side of the city.

An arrest just over a nearby line puts the person in that county's lockup instead:

• Carson County Jail, 201 US-60, Panhandle, TX 79068, 806-537-3511.
• Oldham County Jail, 105 S. Main Street, Vega, TX 79092, 806-639-2174.
• Moore County Jail, 700 South Bliss Avenue, Dumas, TX 79029, 806-935-4145.
• Deaf Smith County Jail, 3780 N Progressive Rd., Hereford, TX 79045, 806-364-2311.

Not from the Sheriff. The roster PDF is words and numbers only, with no mugshots at all. For a booking photo, mail or hand in a written Public Information Act request at the Sheriff's Office, 13103 NE 29th Ave, Amarillo, TX 79111, 806-379-2900. Under GC 552.108(c), basic arrest facts stay public.

Private mugshot sites have rules too. Under Bus. & Com. Code ch. 109, if a site wants $150 or more to delete a listing, then fixing or deleting a wrong or partial one must be free. Records that were expunged or nondisclosed can't be posted at all.

Photos taken by ICE come only through an ICE FOIA request. Federal booking pictures mostly stay sealed; the U.S. Marshals sometimes put one out, such as when hunting a fugitive.

The state's no-cost IVSS-Counties service sends custody notices. Search by a whole or partial name. Alerts come by phone, text or email, and an account is optional. Its 24-hour line, 866-268-8959, answers in English and Spanish.

You'll hear about bookings, releases, hearings and moves like a TDCJ transfer. Sign-ups are confidential, so the inmate won't learn your name. IVSS-Counties took over from the old Texas VINE, so older links to that system are dead ends.

Every day at 11:00 a.m., a magistrate holds magistration at the Detention Center and sets bail; relatives may watch from reception. Bond amounts print on the roster next to each charge. Three routes exist: cash, a licensed surety, or a personal bond paid only if the person later fails to appear.

Roster holds, like FED (immigration), TDCJ, parole, an outside county or a city case, can hold a person after the bond itself is paid. Booking at 806-335-4100 can read them to you. Our bail and release walkthrough covers each step, surety rules and the 2025 law changes.

Each roster charge carries a Texas statute and a two-letter level code:

• MC, MB, MA: Class C, B or A misdemeanor.
• FS, F3, F2, F1, FX: state jail felony, then third, second and first degree, then capital.
• NA: no level, for example a probation violation, an out-of-state hold or a fine-only matter.

The court and case number sit on that same line. Plug the number into the county's case records portal or give it to a clerk. Felony files sit with the District Clerk, 350 SE 6th Ave., Suite 1B, Amarillo, TX 79101, 806-379-2313. Misdemeanor files sit with the County Clerk, 500 S. Fillmore St., Suite 201, Amarillo, TX 79101, 806-379-2296.

At magistration your person may ask for a free lawyer. The forms can go to the courts from inside the jail. The county's plan says a lawyer must be named within three working days. People on SSI, Medicaid, TANF, food stamps or public housing are presumed unable to pay. So is a home whose income is no higher than 125 percent of the federal poverty line.

The office serving Potter and Armstrong defendants is in the Santa Fe Building, 900 S. Polk St., Suite 206, Amarillo, TX 79101, 806-242-3415, open weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Relatives can begin a request on its apply for counsel page.

Visits happen face to face through glass, never with contact. An inmate gets two visits of 20 minutes each per Sunday-to-Saturday week. Which weekday you come is set by the inmate's surname:

• A through D: Monday
• E through J: Tuesday
• K through N: Wednesday
• O through R: Thursday
• S through Z: Friday

Sessions run 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., and sign-in opens 15 minutes ahead. Carry a current photo ID; anyone holding a paper license also needs a second photo ID showing the right address. A visit allows two adults, or one adult bringing kids younger than 16. Phones, purses, bags, cameras and strollers stay outside. Former inmates released within six months are barred, though a spouse, parent or child may be allowed by a supervisor. See our visiting tips too.

• Kiosk in the visitation lobby, 13100 NE 29th Ave, Amarillo, TX 79111. Cash must be $5 bills or larger, and it makes no change. It accepts debit and credit cards but refuses prepaid cards.
• Internet deposits through the service the Sheriff's page links.
• Phone help from that service at 866-345-1884, any hour.

Never mail a money order or cashier's check; the jail ships those straight back. Balances buy snacks, underwear, writing paper and hygiene goods; our commissary explainer lists more, and our money guide covers fees and refunds.

Calls go out collect from phones on the housing units, and nobody can dial in to an inmate. To stop calls to your number, ask the Detention Center at 806-335-4100 to block it.

Tablets carry scanned letters and electronic messages from the jail's message vendor, whose support contact is on the Sheriff's page. Setup help is in our calling guide and e-messaging guide.

Personal letters are not mailed to Amarillo. They go to a scanning box in Maryland, addressed in this order:

• Potter County Detention Center
• Inmate's name and SO#
• P.O. Box 247, Phoenix, MD 21131

Print the name and SO# neatly and include a return address. Staff can't scan what they can't read, and each letter reaches the inmate as a tablet image.

Legal mail and court papers skip Maryland and go to Potter County Detention Center, 13100 NE 29th, Amarillo, TX 79111. Sealed soft-cover books, plus one soft-cover Bible, must ship from a publisher or distributor and end up in the jail library. Magazines, newspapers and periodicals are banned. More in our mail rules guide.

An inmate can ask staff to hand personal property to a visitor while still in custody. On release day, staff handle the property forms.

Phone 806-335-4100 before driving out to NE 29th Ave. Ask which hours property goes out and which ID to bring. If the things belong to someone else, check whether that inmate has to sign first and list you by name.

The jail runs its own medical unit with a trauma room, an exam room, a pharmacy and a dental room. Full-time medical officers work with a registered nurse supervisor, EMTs, paramedics and LVNs. A contract physician and dentist visit weekly, and inmate health is covered around the clock.

Is your person sick or on a medication? Phone 806-335-4100 and ask for medical. The Sheriff's transport unit drives inmates to hospital visits. Concerns that stay unresolved may go to the state jail commission through its complaint form or 512-463-5505.

First open the Sheriff's Active Warrants PDF. Status isn't given over the phone, so for an in-person check visit the warrants section at the Sheriff's Office, 13103 NE 29th Ave, Amarillo, TX 79111. Its line, 806-379-2982, takes tips on where a wanted person is. City cases appear on the municipal court warrant list and the police department's warrant page. Statewide, DPS posts the Texas 10 Most Wanted fugitive list. To clear a warrant, deal with the issuing court, preferably through a lawyer. For felonies that means the District Clerk, 350 SE 6th Ave., Suite 1B, Amarillo, TX 79101, 806-379-2313.

Hearing dates come from the two clerks rather than the jail. Felony: District Clerk's criminal desk, 806-379-2313. Class A or B misdemeanor: County Clerk's court department, 806-379-2296.

To look it up yourself, open the dockets page or the case records portal and enter the roster's case number. Our court process guide walks through what happens at each hearing.

Panhandle federal prosecutions go to the Amarillo Division, 205 SE 5th Ave., Room 133, Amarillo, TX 79101, 806-468-3800. Under 18 U.S.C. 3142, a federal judge in that building weighs release or custody pending trial at a detention hearing.

• Before sentencing, the Marshals Service decides where a federal defendant sleeps. Its Amarillo office, 205 SE 5th St., Unit 214, Amarillo, TX 79101, 806-324-2350, can name the jail.
• A June 2022 state count found 145 federal inmates at the Randall County Jail and zero at the Detention Center.
• Once sentenced, use the BOP locator with a name or register number.

1. ICE lodges a detainer (Form I-247A), which the roster lists as a FED hold.
2. The jail may keep the person up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)), giving ICE time for pickup.
3. Texas requires jails to comply with that detainer (CCP art. 2A.060). The one way out is proof of lawful status.
4. Once ICE has the person, try the ICE Online Detainee Locator, using an A-number or else name, birth date and birth country.
5. No match? Phone the ICE field office in Dallas, serving North Texas, at 8101 N. Stemmons Freeway, Dallas, TX 75247, 972-367-2200.

Someone handed a TDCJ term waits in the Detention Center for a ride from the Sheriff's transport unit, 806-379-2936. TDCJ intake then classifies each new arrival and picks a unit.

Search TDCJ's online inmate database by surname plus first initial, or by a TDCJ or SID number. It lists people currently in a TDCJ unit and refreshes on business days. For unit details, see our Texas prisons directory.

Kids from 10 to 16 go through juvenile court, and if held, a juvenile detention center instead of the Detention Center on NE 29th Ave. At 17, Texas books a person as an adult (FC 51.02(2)).

Start with the Juvenile Probation Department, Santa Fe Building, 900 S. Polk St., Suite 500, Amarillo, TX 79101, 806-349-4900. Detained local youth are most likely taken to The Youth Center of the High Plains, 9300 S. Georgia St., Amarillo, TX 79118, 806-468-5700; confirm that with juvenile probation or the jail. FC 54.01 gives a held child a detention hearing within two working days. When intake falls on a Friday or Saturday, that window shrinks to one.

Most local arrests come from one of two departments:

• Amarillo Police Department, inside city limits: 200 SE 3rd Ave., Amarillo, TX 79101, non-emergency 806-378-3038, office open weekdays 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Detective Division 806-378-4251.
• Sheriff's Office, outside city limits and across the rest of the county: 13103 NE 29th Ave, Amarillo, TX 79111, 806-379-2900.

Unsure which one acted? Booking records show the arresting agency, so a call to the Sheriff's Office settles it.