Find Lehigh County Inmates

Lehigh County Jail Roster Overview

The Lehigh County Jail is run by Lehigh County Corrections, not by the Sheriff's Office. The jail sits at 38 North Fourth Street in Allentown, a short distance from the downtown courthouse cluster. It opened in 1992 as a direct-supervision high-rise. The building runs about 250,000 square feet and holds up to 1,352 inmates. It is a maximum-security site. Most people inside are pretrial detainees or those serving local-term sentences. Warden Jeffrey R. Smith leads the staff, with Robert McFadden as Deputy Warden for Security and Dr. Sara Jarosz as Deputy Warden for Treatment.

Here is the part that trips up most searchers. Lehigh County does not publish an official online jail roster or name-lookup form. There is no county portal that returns a booking photo, a charge list, or a bond amount on demand. To confirm that someone is held in Allentown, you call the jail or use a state notification service. Anyone selling a "Lehigh County inmate roster" outside the official lines is a third-party site, and the data there often conflicts with the county's own numbers.

The state inmate locator does not fill this gap. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections locator covers state-sentenced inmates and parolees only. Its own page says county facility inmates cannot be found through it. So a person sitting in the Lehigh County Jail will not appear in the state tool at all. Federal custody and the sex-offender registry are separate again, each with its own search. For court case status that may show a release or bail event, check criminal records through the statewide docket system.

How to Verify Lehigh County Custody

Because no public roster exists, verifying custody is a short call-and-check routine rather than a web search. The most accurate path is the jail itself. Start there, then layer in the state notification service and the court docket if the person may have already moved through a hearing. Have your facts ready before you dial, since the records staff cannot guess at a common name.

1. Call Lehigh County Jail general information at 610-782-3270 and ask whether the person is in custody.
2. For records and booking details, call the jail records line at 610-782-3263.
3. Register with PA SAVIN/VINELink to get an alert on release, transfer, or escape.
4. Check the statewide UJS docket later for a Magisterial District or Common Pleas case, since very new arrests may lag.
5. If the person may be in state or federal custody instead, use the PA DOC locator or the federal BOP locator.

This order matters. The jail line gives a live answer. The notification service watches for changes after that. The court docket confirms charges and bail once a magisterial district judge or the Court of Common Pleas has acted on the case.

What Information to Have Ready

Since there is no roster to filter, the jail staff and the notification tools work best when you can give clear identifiers. A full legal name alone may not be enough for a common surname. The more you can confirm, the faster the answer. Keep the details below in front of you before you call or register.

• Full legal name of the person, plus any aliases you know.
• Date of birth, which helps separate people with the same name.
• Approximate arrest date so staff can check recent intake.
• Arresting agency, such as the local police or the sheriff.
• Docket or OTN number if a case has already been filed.
• Inmate ID number if one has been assigned.

Note: a charge is only an accusation, so the fact that someone is booked does not mean they have been found guilty of anything.

PA SAVIN and VINELink Search Fields

PA SAVIN is the state's victim and public notification service, and it runs through the VINELink site. It is the closest thing to a live inmate-status check that covers county custody streams. You can search by name and then sign up for an alert. It is not a full jail roster, but it can tell you when a person is released, moved, or escapes. The fields below show how the search works.

To register, you can sign up online at VINELink, call 1-866-972-7284, or use the VINELink mobile app. The state also explains the service on its offender release notification page. If your phone number or email changes, you must update the registration so the alert still reaches you.

PA DOC Locator Search Fields

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections locator is a different tool with a narrow scope. It covers state-sentenced inmates and parolees only. Its own page is clear that county facility inmates cannot be found there, so it will not return a person held in the Lehigh County Jail. Use it when a case has gone to a state prison sentence or when you are tracking a parolee. The search is simple, as the table shows.

You can reach this tool on the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections site. Remember the split. County jail held in Allentown means call the jail; state prison or parole means use this locator instead.

Lehigh County Jail Facilities

The county runs two correction sites with very different roles. The main jail is the secure high-rise in Allentown. The Community Corrections Center is a 400-bed site for sentenced people, renovated in 2011, that acts as an alternative to secure confinement. It offers rehabilitative programs, work release, community work, and structured use of community resources. Do not treat its beds as the same custody level as the jail's. The contact details for both sit below.

For inmate suicide concerns, the general line at 610-782-3270 routes you when you press 6. The medical line handles health questions, and the mail line answers questions about what can be sent in. Keep these split out so your call reaches the right desk.

Booking Process in Lehigh County

An arrest can come from local police, the sheriff, a warrant officer, or another agency. If the person must be held, they are taken to intake at the county jail. There, staff confirm identity, create booking records, inventory property, and run medical and mental-health screening. A housing classification follows. This is the point at which a person becomes "booked" into the Lehigh County Jail, even though no public roster will show that to an outside searcher.

Bail and arraignment status are set by a magisterial district judge or by the Court of Common Pleas, depending on the stage of the case. The court's Criminal Division keeps bail records and accepts cash only for monetary bail, and it issues refunds. Release can follow a posted bail, a court order, a finished sentence, a transfer, or other authority. To see how an active warrant ties into all of this, see warrant records for the way warrant clues show up in court files.

Visitation Hours and Rules

Visits at the Lehigh County Jail are non-contact. You speak by telephone while viewing the inmate through glass, and those conversations may be monitored and recorded. Visits for general population run on a rotating schedule by housing unit, roughly every three days. The set hours are below. Confirm the current housing-unit rotation through the jail's Visitation Information line before you drive in.

A few rules cover almost every visit. You should know the inmate's full name and ID number. Adults must show a valid government photo ID with date of birth, such as a driver's license, passport, or PennDOT card. Expired ID and check-cashing cards are not accepted. A parent or legal guardian must come with minors, and an original birth certificate is required to prove a minor visitor's relationship. Limit two visitors per inmate at a time, and one visit per day per visitor. Attorney and law-enforcement visits are allowed at any reasonable time, with a preferred window of 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on weekdays. Attorneys need photo ID and a Bar Association card.

Segregated inmates follow tighter limits. Administrative segregation allows one visit per week for 30 minutes. Disciplinary segregation allows one 30-minute visit about every 30 days, and that depends on behavior.

How to Contact a Lehigh County Inmate

Mail and visits are the main ways the public reaches someone inside. For mail questions, the jail keeps a dedicated line at 610-782-3216, where staff explain what can be sent in and how it should be addressed. Always include the inmate's full name and ID number on any mail so it reaches the right person. Medical questions go to a separate line at 610-782-3134.

Visitors who arrive should plan for screening. All visitors, including children, are subject to search, and personal items must be secured before you pass through the metal detectors. Dress must be appropriate, and the Shift Commander decides any questionable attire. A baby may come with one diaper, one wipe pack, one blanket, and one bottle, but the stroller stays in the lobby. Anyone believed to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol will not be allowed in.

Federal Custody and the BOP Locator

Not everyone arrested in the Allentown area lands in the county jail. Federal charges send a person into the federal Bureau of Prisons system, which has its own public locator. The federal tool covers inmates from 1982 to the present and lets you search by name or by an official number. If the county jail says it has no record and there is no state prison match, federal custody is the next place to check.

You can run a federal search through the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator, the official tool for people in federal custody.

That locator returns federal results only, so a person held in the Lehigh County Jail will not show up there. Match the tool to the custody stream, and you avoid a lot of dead ends.

The Pennsylvania Sex Offender Registry

The state Megan's Law registry is a separate public database from any jail roster. It lists registered sex offenders, not people currently booked or recently released from jail. You can search it by name or by county, including Lehigh, and narrow by municipality, ZIP, or a mile radius around an address. It is useful for confirming a registration status, but it is not a custody check.

The registry is searchable on the Pennsylvania Megan's Law site, run by the State Police.

Results there can show a name, status, location, and offense data, but they do not tell you whether a person is in the Lehigh County Jail today. For that, the jail line is still the answer.

Related Searches

For people recently released, see released inmates. For broader population data, see inmate population. For active warrants, see warrant records. For underlying cases, see criminal records.