Santa Cruz County Main Jail

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department operates the Santa Cruz Main Jail in Santa Cruz, California. The other jails in the county are the Blaine St. Women's Facility and the Men's Rountree Facility.

Inmate Search

To find out if your loved one is being held in the Santa Cruz Main Jail, call the facility directly or use VINE (see below). 

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 Santa Cruz Main 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. 

Property Release

Excess personal property in the inmate's possession in their housing unit may be released upon request of an inmate or officer. A property release form must be signed by the inmate. Property releases occur Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Prison Insights

Visiting Hours and Rules

The Main Jail’s visiting hours take place on Saturdays and Sundays, between the hours of 8:00 A.M. and 7:00 P.M.

The letters in the chart, below, correspond to the specific housing unit. Jail Reception can advise you in which housing unit the inmate you wish to visit is located. 

Day/Time                  8am      9am   10am   11am      12pm  1pm    2pm   3pm    4pm    5pm    6pm
Saturday                    N           L         K           H/G         P/E      D         N         M/A    B/F     Q/J     O/C
Sunday                       O/J       D        M/A       B/F         P/E      N         L          K         H/G    Q/C     N

Visiting is by appointment only and visitors must be approved in advance. Inmates must be in custody for at least 72 hours prior to having any visits. 

Inmates at the Santa Cruz County Main Jail are responsible for submitting a clearance form for each potential visitor. They will need each visitor's full name, address, phone number, date of birth, and the number from a government-issued ID.

The inmate must submit the completed form to the Jail Staff for visiting clearance before a visit is allowed. Anyone who has been in custody within the past 60 days, is on parole or formal probation, has a warrant or restraining order prohibiting contact, may not visit.

Visiting appointments are scheduled Monday – Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Visiting slots are available every Saturday, Sunday, and are scheduled according to the inmate housing assignments. 

You may call (831) 454-7800 to schedule an appointment. Visits may be scheduled up to one week in advance.

Appointments are required and must be made at least 24 hours in advance. 24 hour notice must also be given to cancel an appointment, so that the appointment may be offered to another visitor. Failure to provide 24 hour notice will be counted as a missed appointment.

Inmates are allowed two visits per week (only one visit per day).

Visiting Rules

Visitors must arrive 30 minutes before for check-in. Visitors arriving after the 45 minute mark will have their visit automatically canceled. No exceptions.

Each visit may include up to two adults and three children. Adult visitors must present a valid photo ID (i.e. Drivers License, Passport, Matricula). A parent or legal guardian must accompany visitors under the age of 18. 

Visitors are not allowed to bring any property into the visiting room (i.e. cell phones, purses, pagers). Only one key is allowed. Lockers are available for 25 cents. 

Dress Code

All visitors must be appropriately dressed. Clothing that is revealing, offensive, gang related or distracting to others is not allowed. Shoes and shirts are required. Your visit will be canceled and you will be denied entry into the facility if these rules are not followed. 

THE FOLLOWING ARE NOT ALLOWED:

• Dresses, skirts, skirts with slits that are more than 2 inches above the knee
• Clothing that exposes any part of the back, shoulders, chest or midriff
• Visible undergarments
• Transparent clothing, strapless, halter, spaghetti straps, bare midriff clothing, tank tops
• Unfastened buttons and zippers (they must remain fastened)
• Clothing that resembles jail / inmate clothing
• Law Enforcement or military patterned clothing
• Clothing or footwear containing metal
• Hats
• Medical attire (scrubs)
• Attire displaying obscene or offensive language or drawings
• Visitors with tattoos of an offensive nature, or visible gang-associated tattoos or clothing, will not be allowed to visit

All visitors entering the secure area of the jail are subject to being searched. Any person refusing to be searched will be denied the visit and escorted from the facility.

All inmate mail is opened and checked for contraband. You may send a maximum of five photos (4"x 6" or smaller). All mail is scanned and available for viewing by the inmate on their tablet or at the kiosk in their housing unit.

All mail sent to the facility is destroyed 30 days after it is scanned into the system. Do not send postage stamps for inmate use. Do not mail originals of important documents like marriage certificates, birth certificates, and social security cards. 

Greeting cards must be single layer (no plastic coating).

Books/Magazines/Newspapers

You may send soft cover books to your inmate via the publisher or an internet distributor like Amazon. Publications that are obscene, pornographic, intended to incite murder, arson, riot, racism, violence or material concerning gangs or gambling will not be allowed.

Newspaper and magazine subscriptions are allowed, but must be prepaid and mailed directly from the publisher.

How to Call an Inmate

Inmates at the Santa Cruz Main Jail cannot receive incoming phone calls. However, they have access to phones and can make outgoing calls from the inmate housing area. Phone calls are recorded and may be monitored at any time.

California law has established the right of an arrested person to make at least three free local telephone calls when they are booked: one call to an attorney, one to a bail bond agent, and one to a relative or other personal contact.

How to Send Money

Friends and family can add money to an inmate's account via the kiosks located in the Main Jail Lobby or at the Rountree–Medium Facility Lobby. Reception staff cannot accept inmate deposits. Lobby kiosks accept cash and credit cards. 

Credit card and debit card deposits can also be made online at www.inmatedeposits.com or by phone at (866) 345-1884. 

Money orders (payable to the inmate) can be sent via US mail and must be addressed as follows:

Inmate Name, Inmate S#
Santa Cruz County Jail
259 Water Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Care Packages

Programs For Inmates

This information is not publicly available.

Pictures of Santa Cruz County Main Jail

Careers at Santa Cruz County Main Jail

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