Modoc County Jail

The Modoc County Jail is a detention facility that is operated by the Modoc County Sheriff's Office. It is located in Alturas, California, and has a capacity to house a maximum of 48 inmates.

The jail houses adult males and females who have been arrested by county or municipal law enforcement and are awaiting trial, inmates who have been sentenced to the county jail, and inmates being held for transport to the California Department of Corrections.

Inmates can be either sentenced or unsentenced, with charges ranging from misdemeanors to felonies. On average, the Modoc County Jail is about 55 to 65 percent full.

Inmate Search

To find out if your loved one is being held in the Modoc County Jail, call the facility directly or use VINE (see below). You can also check the Modoc County Jail Facebook page for daily booking updates.

VINE (Victim Information and Notification Everyday)

Victim Information and Notification Everyday (VINE) is a free and anonymous telephone service that provides victims of crime both information and notification. VINE monitors the custody status of offenders in the Modoc County Jail and receives updated information every 15 minutes.

The Toll Free Number for California VINE is 1.877.411.5588. Anyone can call the California State VINE line to determine an inmate's custody status. To search for offender information, callers will need one of the following items:

• Offender name or alias
• Secondary search option (if there is more than one offender with the same name), such as:
  • Arrest date
  • Date of birth
  • Middle initial
  • Offender identification number

VINE will let callers know about the offender's current custody status, the location of the inmate, and their offender number.

Prison Insights

Visiting Hours and Rules

In-person visiting hours at the Modoc County Jail have been canceled by the California Board of Community Corrections due to COVID-19. The Modoc County Jail has installed a new video phone system for visitation so that inmates can stay in touch with their loved ones.

There is no limit on the amount of mail an inmate may send or receive, and there are no restrictions to the number of pages. The only things accepted in inmate mail are:

• The paper the correspondence is written on 
• Money orders for the inmate commissary.
• Photographs - No more than three (No Polaroids, No photos larger than 3 1/2" X 5", Photos must not be pornographic in nature)
• Newspapers, magazines, books, etc. are accepted only if mailed directly from the publisher (No hard cover books are accepted).

All incoming and outgoing correspondence is checked for contraband.

How to Call an Inmate

Inmates at the Modoc County Jail cannot receive incoming phone calls. However, they have access to phones and can make outgoing collect calls from the inmate housing area. Please do not call the jail staff and ask them to deliver messages to an inmate who is in custody. 

The telephone system at the jail does not connect to caller ID blocked numbers or cell phones. Phone/calling cards do not work with the phone system. All phone calls will be billed collect, or funds can be placed on a prepaid account.

California law has established the right of an arrested person to make at least three free local telephone calls upon being booked: one call to an attorney, one to a bail bond agent, and one to a relative or other personal contact. Phone calls are recorded and may be monitored at any time.

How to Send Money

You can add money to an inmate's account at the Modoc County Jail by either dropping off a money order at the facility or mailing it directly to the inmate. 

Stop by or mail the money order to:

Modoc County Jail
Inmate's Name
102 South Court Street
Alturas, CA 96101

Programs For Inmates

This information is not publicly available.

Pictures of Modoc County Jail

Careers at Modoc County Jail

If you are interested in a career with the Modoc County Sheriff's Department and would like more information about the job openings at the Modoc County Jail, click here.