Not a government website
searchinmates.org is a private website. It is not run by, affiliated with, or endorsed by any sheriff, jail, prison, court, department of corrections, or other government agency. For the most current information, always contact the facility or agency directly.
What we do
Many sheriffs and corrections departments publish jail rosters and booking lists, but each one is on a different website with a different format. We copy those public lists, put them in one place, and add a plain-English guide for every facility we know about: how to visit, set up calls, send money and mail, and post bail.
Our promises
- Searching is free. No account, no paywall.
- Removal is free, always. We never charge anyone to remove a record, and we do not work with paid removal services. Request removal.
- No booking photos. We do not collect or show mugshots.
- Presumed innocent. An arrest is not a conviction. We say so on every record.
- Honest about limits. Our copy can be out of date or incomplete. We show when each source was last checked.
- Not for screening. We are not a consumer reporting agency under the FCRA, and our data must not be used for employment, housing, credit, insurance or other FCRA purposes.
How we collect data
Our software visits public web pages the same way a browser does, slowly (no more than one request per second to any website), and identifies itself honestly as searchinmates.org-bot (+https://searchinmates.org/about). We respect robots.txt, and we never bypass captchas, logins or other access controls. If you run a public records website and want us to slow down or stop, email help@searchinmates.org. See the full list on our data sources page.
How we make money
We may show clearly labeled sponsored links, for example to lawyers, bail bond agents or inmate services, and in the future a small number of ads. Sponsors never affect which records we show, and we never accept money to remove or hide a record.
Contact
Email help@searchinmates.org, or see our contact page.