1. Go to the VINE person search for Wyoming.
2. Type the first and last name. Skip middle names and nicknames. If nothing shows up, try a shorter spelling.
3. Click the record that matches. Look at the custody status and the place listed.
4. Call the Detention Center at 307-755-3521 to be sure. Staff can tell you if the person is there, and most of the time the charge and bond too.

Wyoming law lets county jails share a person's name, where they are being held and their release date (W.S. 7-19-106(m)). So it is normal to just call and ask.

Here are the most common reasons, starting with the most likely:

• They are still being booked. Fingerprints, photos and paperwork take a while, and the search catches up later. Wait a few hours or call the jail.
• They already got out on a ticket, a promise to come to court or a paid bond.
• Another agency has them. A federal agency, a nearby county or the Highway Patrol may be holding them somewhere else.
• Their name is spelled another way in the jail's records.

People arrested by Laramie police or campus police also go to the county jail, so this is the one place to check. To get a police report number or learn who made the arrest, call Laramie/Albany County Records and Communications at 307-721-5325. Its records window is at 420 E Ivinson Ave., Laramie, WY 82070. Bring a photo ID. The window serves people on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.

The county has one adult jail, the Detention Center at 420 Ivinson Avenue, Laramie, WY 82070. If the person was wanted by another county or was arrested while on the road, check these nearby jails:

• Laramie County Detention Center, 1910 Pioneer Avenue, Cheyenne, WY 82001, 307-633-4719.
• Carbon County Jail, 1302 East Daley Street, Rawlins, WY 82301, 307-324-2776.
• Platte County Detention Center, 850 Maple Street, Wheatland, WY 82201, 307-322-2331.
• Converse County Sheriff's Office, which runs that county's jail, 1201 Mesa Dr., Suite C, Douglas, WY 82633, 307-358-4700.

Say another county's judge set bond over video while the person sits here. They then have 24 hours to pay it before being driven to that county (W.R.Cr.P. 46.1(g)).

A mugshot is the photo taken when someone is booked into jail. Wyoming law lets county jails release an inmate's photo and description, but it doesn't make them do it (W.S. 7-19-106(m)). To ask for one, contact the Sheriff's Office, 525 E Grand Avenue, Suite 101, Laramie, WY 82070, 307-755-3520, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Most of these requests come from news reporters.

Other agencies have their own rules. For an ICE photo, use the ICE records request page. Federal booking photos are usually kept private. The U.S. Marshals may share one, for example to help catch someone on the run. For a state prison photo, call the Department of Corrections' public information office at 307-777-5889.

Yes. VINE is free, works all day and night, and anyone can use it, not just crime victims. Find the person in the VINE search, then click to sign up. Pick a phone call, a text or an email. VINE will tell you when their custody changes, like a release or a move to another place. For help or to sign up by phone, call 866-994-8463, in English or Spanish.

When a release is about to happen, the surest answer still comes from the jail at 307-755-3521.

Wyoming still uses money bail. The state constitution says almost every charge must have bail. A circuit judge sets the terms at the first court date, often over video from the jail. Many traffic and hunting or fishing tickets have set amounts from $85 to $450. Charges like DUI, theft, battery and drugs need a judge to set the amount.

The jail takes bonds at any hour, and city bonds must be cash. Call 307-755-3521 first to learn the amount and how you can pay. Our Albany County bail guide has all the steps, the price list and how refunds work.

Jail staff can usually tell you the booking charge over the phone. The official charge is in the papers filed with the court. You can read public files on the computers at the Circuit Court, 525 Grand Avenue, Room 400, Laramie, WY 82070, 307-742-5747. Felony cases move to District Court in Suite 305 of the same building, 307-721-2508. Charges can change between the arrest and the court filing, so trust the court file most.

At the first court date, the judge asks if the person will pay for their own lawyer or wants the state to give them one for free, called a public defender. Anyone stuck in jail without money they can use is expected to qualify. So is anyone on public help like Medicaid (W.S. 7-6-106). Free lawyers are given for felonies and for misdemeanors that could lead to jail. Families with questions can phone the state office that runs the public defender program, 316 West 22nd Street, Cheyenne, WY 82002, 307-777-7519. A family can also hire a private defense lawyer at any point in the case.

The jail sets its own visiting rules. Before you drive over, call 307-755-3521 and ask:

• what days and times are open for the person's housing area,
• if you have to schedule ahead, and how,
• what ID you need, and if kids can come,
• if video visits from home are an option.

Our visiting guide explains how jail visits usually work.

You can add money to the person's phone and tablet account in three ways. Use the provider's website, call 866-516-0115, or use the kiosk in the Detention Center lobby at 420 Ivinson Avenue, Laramie, WY 82070. Have their full name ready. Card payments usually have a small fee. Our money deposit page shows each step, and the commissary page explains what they can buy.

People in jail can't get incoming calls. They make calls out, and send tablet messages, using an account that family pays into. You can add to it the same ways as money, including the toll-free line at 866-516-0115. Calls are recorded, except calls with a lawyer that are set up the right way. So never talk about the case on the phone. See our phone guide and messaging guide to get set up.

Write the person's full legal name on the envelope. Before you mail anything, call the jail at 307-755-3521 to check the current address and rules. Ask if photos are OK, if books must come straight from the seller, and how mail from a lawyer should be marked. Send only plain letters until you know the rules. Never send cash. Our mail guide covers the usual jail mail rules.

At booking, staff list and store the person's clothes, wallet, phone and keys. They get them back when they leave. If the person wants a family member to pick up something, like car keys or a phone, they usually have to ask staff for a property release form. Call 307-755-3521 to set a pickup time, and bring a photo ID. Anything kept as evidence stays with the police until the case allows it to be returned.

Jails have to give medical care to the people inside. If the person takes daily medicine, has a serious health problem or was hurt during the arrest, call the jail at 307-755-3521 right away. Ask for the medical staff or the shift supervisor. Share the names and amounts of their medicines and their doctor's phone number. Ask how the jail checks prescriptions. If a problem doesn't get fixed, call the Sheriff's Office at 307-755-3520 during the workday.

Warrants here are carried out by the sheriff's deputies. Their office at 307-755-3520 can tell you if one is out for someone. Calling is the way to check, since Wyoming has no statewide warrant search. Case files can also be read on the courthouse computers. The safest way to clear a warrant is to turn yourself in at the jail with a lawyer: 420 Ivinson Avenue, Laramie, WY 82070. You can also ask the District Court clerk for a new court date: 525 Grand Avenue, Suite 305, Laramie, WY 82070, 307-721-2508.

It is printed on the release papers, and the court clerk can tell you. Call the Circuit Court at 307-742-5747 for misdemeanors and early felony hearings. Call the city court at 307-721-5205 for city tickets. Our county court guide explains each hearing and how long felony cases take.

Federal cases from this area are heard at the U.S. District Court, Joseph C. O'Mahoney Federal Center, 2120 Capitol Avenue, Room 2131, Cheyenne, WY 82001, 307-433-2120. At the first hearing, a judge rules on whether they wait for trial in custody or at home (18 U.S.C. 3142). Before trial, the U.S. Marshals are in charge of them. The Marshals keep many federal prisoners in county jails, and the Laramie jail is one of them. To find someone before trial, call the Marshals in Cheyenne at Suite 1100 of that building, 307-829-3710. After sentencing, once they move to a federal prison, look them up in the Bureau of Prisons locator by name or register number.

1. If ICE thinks someone in the jail can be deported, it sends the jail a hold request called a detainer, Form I-247A.
2. Jail staff are then allowed to keep the person up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. ICE picks them up and takes them to an immigration detention center.
4. Search the ICE Online Detainee Locator. Use the nine-digit A-number with their birth country, or their exact name with their birth country.

If that search comes up empty, call ICE's Denver Field Office, 12445 E. Caley Avenue, Centennial, CO 80111, 720-873-2899. It covers all of Wyoming. Its Cheyenne check-in office serves this county: 7052 Commerce Circle, Suite 130, Cheyenne, WY 82007, 307-432-7440. A 2025 Wyoming law bans local rules that limit help to immigration officers (W.S. 9-25-102).

After a felony prison sentence, the person leaves the county jail and goes to the Wyoming Department of Corrections. They start at a center where staff get to know them and sort out how closely they must be watched. After that, they go to the prison picked for them. Find them with the WDOC locator by name or offender number. It shows people in prison and people on probation or parole. Our Wyoming prisons directory has every prison. The department's central office is at 1934 Wyott Drive, Suite 100, Cheyenne, WY 82002, 307-777-7208.

Kids are kept away from adult inmates. Under Wyoming law, a child in custody goes home to a parent or another responsible adult. The exceptions are a court order, or a child who is a danger or might run away. Parents must be told quickly (W.S. 14-6-206). A child who is held must see a judge within 48 hours, with weekends and holidays left out of the count. Cases about kids are kept private, so expect little in public searches. Kids who need to be locked up go to a youth center, like the Laramie County Juvenile Services Center, 13794 Prairie Center Circle, Cheyenne, WY 82009, 307-775-7301. Parents can find out where their child is by calling the Sheriff's Office at 307-755-3520.

The county has two towns, plus places like Centennial that are not part of a town. Here is each agency that makes arrests, with its non-emergency number:

• Laramie Police Department, 620 Plaza Court, Laramie, WY 82070, 307-721-2526. This number also reaches the shared dispatch center at any hour.
• University of Wyoming Police Department, 1000 E. University Ave., Laramie, WY 82071, 307-766-5179, staffed around the clock.
• Albany County Sheriff's Office, 525 E Grand Avenue, Suite 101, Laramie, WY 82070, 307-755-3520. Deputies cover Rock River, Centennial and all the countryside.
• Town of Rock River, 321 Avenue D, Rock River, WY 82083, 307-460-8752. Sheriff's deputies handle police work there.
• Wyoming Highway Patrol, main office at 5300 Bishop Boulevard, Cheyenne, WY 82009, dispatch 307-777-4321. Troopers make arrests on Interstate 80 and state highways.