Search the Lauderdale County Jail Roster

Lauderdale County Inmate Roster Overview

The Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office runs the local jail and posts a public inmate roster online. Sheriff Ward Calhoun, III oversees both the patrol division and the detention center on Courthouse Boulevard in Meridian. The roster is the official source for who sits in county custody right now. It pulls from the jail booking system, so new arrests show up after they are processed. Anyone can view it for free.

The roster covers people held by the county. It does not list federal detainees, inmates serving time in a state prison, or people held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Someone sentenced to the Mississippi Department of Corrections moves out of the county jail and off this roster. A separate state search tracks those inmates. The county tool also splits its records into two groups: people in custody today, and people released within the last two days.

The roster choice page opens with two paths. One link reads Current Inmates and shows everyone held today. The other reads 48 Hour Release and lists people let go within the past two days. The 48-hour view helps when a booking has just cleared and a person no longer appears on the current list. Pick the path that fits before you search.

Charges shown on the roster reflect the booking, not a conviction. An arrest is an accusation. The court decides guilt later. A name on the jail list means the person was booked into the facility, nothing more.

How to Use the Lauderdale County Roster

The lookup starts on the Sheriff's website. A roster choice page lets you pick current inmates or a 48-hour release list, then you search by name. The steps below walk through a current-inmate search from start to finish.

1. Open the Sheriff's roster at lauderdaleso.org/roster.php and choose the current inmate view.
2. Type a first or last name into the Search By Name box, then click Search.
3. Scan the results, which show a thumbnail photo, booking number, booking date, charge, and bond for each match.
4. Sort the list newest to oldest or oldest to newest if you are not sure of the exact spelling.
5. Click View Profile on the right person to open the full booking record.

Use Show All to clear a search and return to the whole list. If a recently arrested person is not there yet, the booking may still be in process. Wait and check again, or call the jail to confirm.

Lauderdale County Roster Search Fields

The roster keeps its search simple. There is one name box plus a set of filter and sort links. You do not need a booking number to find someone. The table below lists every control the current inmate roster offers.

Partial names work well. If a name is common, sort by date and match the booking against the day of the arrest.

What a Lauderdale Inmate Profile Shows

Click a name and the full booking record opens. A real profile inspected on the roster, for an inmate named Ziaire Drane, carried booking number 1078178. It listed the basics a family member or bond agent needs and linked out to the VINE victim notification service. The table maps each field to what it tells you.

Several details are left off the public profile. The sample record did not show height, weight, date of birth, housing pod, warrant number, court date, judge, or release date. Those facts stay inside the jail's internal system.

Note: A booking listed on the roster does not name the court that will hear the case, so use the county criminal docket to follow what happens next.

Confirming Lauderdale Jail Bond

The roster comes with a clear warning. Charges and bail amounts can change after a court appearance and may not match what the screen shows. A first-appearance judge may raise a bond, lower it, or release a person on their own recognizance. The roster does not always catch those changes right away.

That gap matters most for bail. Bond companies and anyone planning to post bail should call the Detention Center before paying. Jail staff give the correct bail amount, the current charges, and the case numbers over the phone. Paying off a stale roster figure can mean paying the wrong sum or chasing a case that has already moved.

The same rule applies when you simply want to know whether someone is in jail. A phone call to the detention line gives a faster, surer answer than a roster that may lag a booking by minutes or hours. The Sheriff's office handles arrest detail through the case, and the court charges that follow are tracked in the county arrest records and court charges.

Lauderdale County Detention Center

The county jail sits beside the Sheriff's Office at 2500 Courthouse Blvd. in Meridian. The Lauderdale County Detention Center carries a state-authorized capacity of 290 inmates. Its detention facility page describes a secure building with 12 pods and 144 holding cells. Four cells are set aside for special needs, one serves as a medical area, and one is a suicide-prevention cell. All booking, processing, and testing happen inside the locked facility.

The jail runs around the clock on three shifts. Fifteen detention officers staff A shift, fifteen staff B shift, and thirteen staff C shift. Major Melissa McCarter serves as Jail Commander. She started at the facility in 2003 and rose through corporal, sergeant, and captain before taking command in 2016. Officers must complete a state Board on Jail Officer Standards and Training course, 96 hours of basic training, and yearly in-service training.

Lauderdale Booking and Jail Roles

Booking begins the moment an arrested person reaches the jail. Intake staff record the name, photo, and charge that later show up on the roster. Officers take fingerprints, search for property, and run record checks. The new inmate is then classified, which decides housing and supervision level based on the charge and history. All of this happens inside the secured detention center.

A jail this size leans on specialized staff to keep records straight. The Sheriff's office names several support roles that run behind the roster.

• Classification, which assigns housing and custody level.
• Inmate Records, which maintains booking files and release paperwork.
• NCIC, which runs state and national database checks.
• Transport, which moves inmates to court and other facilities.
• Legal Claims Adjudicator and administrative staff, who handle filings and day-to-day operations.

After booking, most people get a first appearance before a judge. That hearing sets or reviews bond and reads the charges. It is the point where roster figures most often fall out of date, which is why the jail asks families to call and confirm.

MDOC State Inmate Search

The county roster only covers people in the local jail. Once a person is sentenced to prison, they move into the state system and drop off the county list. The Mississippi Department of Corrections runs a separate statewide search for sentenced inmates. Use it when someone has left the Detention Center or may be serving a state term.

The MDOC tool searches by name or by MDOC number. You pick a search type, then enter a last name, first name, or the offender's ID number. Questions about sentence length, jail credit, and eligibility dates go to the MDOC Records Department. The agency lists those contacts on its official site, shown below.

The MDOC contact page gives the address, phone, and email for records questions about state inmates.

That page points families to the Records Department for offender time, jail credit, and release eligibility, which the county jail roster does not provide. For state inmates, the MDOC search replaces the county roster entirely.

Visitation and Inmate Messaging

Visitation and inmate messaging at the Lauderdale County jail run through an outside vendor. The Sheriff's FAQ names VendEngine as the provider and links to its CorrectPay portal. Families set up an account there to schedule visits and send messages to an inmate. The provider also handles the money side, including deposits to an inmate's account.

The vendor's CorrectPay jail services portal is where visits and messaging accounts are created.

Specific Lauderdale visiting hours are not published on the county's official pages. The schedule below shows what the official source does and does not state, so plan to confirm details by phone before you travel.

Note: Because the county does not post on-site versus remote visit rules, call the Detention Center at 601-482-9801 before scheduling so you do not waste a trip.

Limits on Public Jail Data

The roster is a convenience tool, not a certified record. Its own disclaimer says the Detention Center collects and shares the data for ease of access and cannot certify its accuracy or authenticity. Readers are told not to rely on it for decisions or actions. Treat a roster entry as a starting point, then confirm anything important with staff.

Some information never reaches the public roster at all. Medical flags, protective-custody status, exact housing location, and pending warrant details stay internal for safety and privacy. Juvenile detainees are confidential under state law and do not appear on the public list. Mississippi's Public Records Act governs what the Sheriff must release and lets the agency withhold sensitive law enforcement and personnel data.

For records the roster will not give you, other channels exist. The Sheriff confirms custody and bond by phone, the court file tracks the charges, and a person with a hold may also have an open matter on the county warrant records page. Use the roster to locate someone fast, then turn to the jail and the courts for anything you plan to act on.