The county's jail list is a shared file, so you read it like a short document. Try these steps:

1. Pull up the jail roster on whatever screen you have handy.
2. Look for a date or time stamp near the top. It shows how fresh the list is.
3. Press the find tool in your browser, then type the last name.
4. Try a first name too, in case the surname is common.
5. Copy down whatever the roster shows beside the name. The jail desk can use it.

Washington also runs a free tracker called VINE that shows custody status for people in its jails. Use the VINE website or call 877-846-3492.

An empty result may not mean freedom. Here are likely causes:

• Booking is underway. Prints, photos and forms eat up time.
• At a police station for a bit. Newport officers may question someone before the jail takes custody.
• Handed a ticket. Officers sometimes release a person on the spot with a ticket to answer in court.
• Already out. A bond, a signed promise to return, or a judge's release order may have opened the door.
• In a different jail. An arrest outside the county can mean another lockup.
• A spelling slip. Swap in a nickname or try the name the person used before marriage.

Phone the jail at 509-447-3151 and ask staff to search booking records. Have the legal name and birthday ready.

This county has a single adult lockup, the Pend Oreille County Correctional Facility, 331 S. Garden Ave, Newport, WA 99156, 509-447-3151. Forty beds serve both men and women, and the same cellblocks hold pretrial detainees and those on short sentences. It also takes inmates for other agencies, so the roster can include someone with no local case.

• No town here runs a lockup of its own, according to the county's court office, so every local police agency books into this jail.
• An arrest in Spokane County could mean the Spokane County Jail.
• An arrest in Stevens County could mean the Stevens County Jail.

The Newport jail desk can tell you if someone was sent away.

Plan on names and jail details, not mugshots. Under RCW 70.48.100, a jail booking picture stays private, though police may use it in an investigation. A conviction for a sex crime changes that, and such a picture can be shared.

• For a picture, ask the officers who booked the person. The Sheriff's Office is at 509-447-1901. Newport Police is at 509-447-6497.
• For ICE pictures, send a FOIA-style request through the ICE records portal.
• Photos from federal arrests are kept private. The lone exception is the U.S. Marshals Service, which can share one if a fugitive is loose.

Yes. Washington's VINE tracker sends a free alert when someone in a city or county jail, or in state prison, is freed or moved. You choose phone, text or email. Fresh data flows in every 15 to 30 minutes.

1. Open the VINE page for Washington, or dial 877-846-3492 at any hour.
2. Enter the person's name in the search.
3. Choose how the alert should reach you.

VINE leaves out juvenile detention and gives no court news. For release timing, ask the jail at 509-447-3151.

Court rules in this state start by freeing a person on a simple pledge to come back. A judge tacks on terms, such as a no-contact order, check-ins or a bond, only if a real risk exists. The terms must be the mildest that do the job, and money amounts must fit the person's means. Bail paid only in cash is forbidden.

• Some domestic violence arrests keep the person inside until a judge acts or bail is paid.
• The jail takes bail at any hour, in cash or through a bond from an approved company.
• A court clerk may accept payment in office hours, and cards may work at the window.
• Before hiring a bail bond agent, verify the license through the Department of Licensing at 360-664-6611, and insist on every fee in writing.

Amounts and steps live on our bail page, and a lighter overview of state law sits on JE's Washington bail law summary.

Ring the jail desk first, at 509-447-3151, and ask what was written down at booking and what bail was set.

Once a case opens, a court holds the file:

• District Court, 229 S Garden Ave, Newport, WA 99156, 509-447-4110, handles misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors.
• County Clerk, 229 S Garden Ave, Newport, WA 99156, 509-447-2435, keeps felony files from Superior Court.
• Prosecuting Attorney, 229 S. Garden Avenue, Newport, WA 99156, 509-447-4414, picks which charges to file.

The Washington Courts case search accepts a name and points to the court that holds the file.

People who can't pay have a right to a free lawyer. Any one of three things qualifies a person: certain public aid, a paycheck near or beneath the 125 percent poverty mark, or too little cash to hire counsel (RCW 10.101.010).

1. At the first hearing, tell the judge a lawyer is needed.
2. Court staff screen the person's money situation.
3. If the person qualifies, one of the county's contract defense lawyers takes the case.

District Court has a public defender application. Call 509-447-4110 to ask how to turn it in. The state Office of Public Defense explains the system.

Visits are in person, on Sundays and Tuesdays from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. What to do:

• Arrive between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. and sign up in the Sheriff's Office lobby.
• Carry a government photo ID that has not expired.
• Visitors must be 18 or older. A younger visitor needs a Visitation Affirmation Form.
• A visit may include up to three people.
• Phones, purses and backpacks stay in the car.

More tips are on our visiting page. Times can shift, so phone the jail at 509-447-3151 before you drive to 331 S. Garden Ave, Newport, WA 99156.

On visit days, staff accept money in person between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. and again between 8:00 and 8:30 p.m. You can also mail a money order made out to "Pend Oreille Corrections," with the inmate's name written on the envelope.

Account money is not bail. Bail goes to the jail or a court. Our money page adds detail, and the commissary page covers store orders. Ask the jail at 509-447-3151 where a money order should go and what limits apply.

An inmate phone system is installed, and calls generally start on the inmate's end. You can't dial in. Ask the person to add your number to their call list. Our phone page has more, and the email page covers written messages.

Text or video choices depend on how the jail is set up right now. At 509-447-3151, ask what exists, the price, and the way to start an account.

Use this address exactly:

Pend Oreille County Corrections
Attn. Inmate [Full Name]
P.O. Box 5079
Newport, WA 99156

• One letter may hold up to five photos.
• Leave out glitter, glue, stickers, perfume and stamps.
• Don't send phone cards or care packages.
• Books have to arrive directly from a publisher or retailer, already paid for.

Cash never goes in an envelope. Extra advice is on the mail page, and the jail line, 509-447-3151, can settle doubts.

Whatever officers took at booking is kept in storage. To set up a pickup, dial 509-447-3151 and ask who may collect and which papers to carry. The building is 331 S. Garden Ave, Newport, WA 99156.

Property goes back to the owner at release. Planning to drop off clothes for a hearing or the trip home? Ask the jail beforehand what it will accept.

A clinic sits inside the jail, and Newport Community Hospital staff provide the care. Call 509-447-3151. Describe the problem and name any medicine the person takes every day.

Also urge the person to ask officers on their unit for a medical request form. For anything urgent, open the call by saying so.

The Sheriff's Office, 509-447-1901, serves warrants in the county, and Newport Police, 509-447-6497, serve them in town. Ask each office whether a warrant is active. For a case lookup, phone the District Court clerk at 229 S Garden Ave, Newport, WA 99156, 509-447-4110, or try the Washington Courts case search. To resolve a warrant, get legal advice first, and afterward call the court behind it. The Superior Court clerk is at that same address, 509-447-2435.

Every state court hearing takes place at 229 S Garden Ave, Newport, WA 99156:

• District Court, 509-447-4110, hears misdemeanors for the county and its towns. No town here has a municipal court.
• Superior Court, 509-684-7527, hears felonies. The County Clerk, 509-447-2435, keeps those files.
• Cases tied to the Kalispel Tribe may go to the Kalispel Tribal Court, 509-445-1664. Ask there for its address.

Misdemeanor court usually meets Wednesdays, and felony court usually meets Thursdays. Our court page explains more. The clerk's office can give you the arraignment date.

Federal cases from here fall under the Eastern District of Washington. Its Spokane clerk, 920 West Riverside Avenue, Room 840, Spokane, WA 99201, 509-458-3400, is the nearest office. Call to learn the courthouse for a case.

1. The first hearing includes a detention hearing, where a federal judge weighs jail against freedom until the trial (18 U.S.C. 3142).
2. The U.S. Marshals, 920 West Riverside Avenue, Suite 200, Spokane, WA 99201, 509-842-1400, can say where a person is held.
3. Ask the clerk about a federal defender when the person can't pay.
4. Following a federal sentence, the BOP inmate locator shows where the person went, using a name or register number.

The county's jail page says it holds people under agreements with several federal agencies, ICE among them. When ICE wants a person, this is how it often goes:

1. A detainer is the first piece: ICE's Form I-247A is the detainer, a note seeking extra holding time on one person.
2. Under 8 CFR 287.7(d), the jail may keep the person for up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released.
3. Search the ICE Online Detainee Locator.
4. If nothing shows, call the ICE Seattle Field Office, 12500 Tukwila International Boulevard, Seattle, WA 98168, 206-277-2000.

A state law, RCW 10.93.160, also called the Keep Washington Working Act, bars local jails from jailing a person only on an administrative immigration paper. It also bars holding a person just to learn status, and it does not allow local 287(g) agreements.

Someone bound for state prison first stops at the Department of Corrections intake unit, and that unit chooses the prison. A wait in the local jail may come first, so call 509-447-3151 to ask.

• Run the incarcerated individual search using a surname or a DOC number.
• The state agency's headquarters is at 7345 Linderson Way SW, Tumwater, WA 98501, 360-725-8213, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• JE's Washington prison pages explain visits and mail.

Young people are handled by the Juvenile Court, part of Superior Court, at 229 S Garden Ave, Newport, WA 99156, 509-447-4021. They don't go through adult booking.

Washington Courts' juvenile list names Martin Hall, in Medical Lake, as a detention center for youth from here. Ask the Juvenile Court for its address and visiting rules. When a child is locked up ahead of any filed charge, a judge has to review that detention inside three court days, and the child goes home if that doesn't happen (JuCR 7.3). Juvenile detention is outside VINE.

Knowing which office made the arrest helps when you talk with the jail. Law enforcement here includes:

• Pend Oreille County Sheriff's Office, 509-447-1901. Its deputies patrol outside city limits, and it operates the jail at 331 S. Garden Ave, Newport, WA 99156.
• Newport Police Department, Newport, WA 99156, general line 509-447-6497. Non-emergency dispatch is 509-447-3151.
• Kalispel Tribal Public Safety patrols the reservation near Usk. Call the Kalispel Tribal Court at 509-445-1664 for the right office.
• Cusick, Ione, Metaline and Metaline Falls: ask at the Sheriff's Office who covers each of these towns.
• Washington State Patrol works the state routes. Its district offices are listed on the WSP contact page.