How to find someone in Berks County Jail

To find out whether someone is held in the Berks County Jail System, call the jail's main line at 610-208-4800 and ask, or look the person up by name on the free VINE service at vinelink.com. Berks County does not post a public online inmate roster, so those two paths are how you confirm someone is in the county jail. If the person was just arrested, you can also search Pennsylvania court records by name to confirm they have a case.

The Berks County Jail System is the county-run jail at 1287 County Welfare Road in Leesport. It holds adults who are waiting for trial and have not posted bail, plus people serving shorter sentences. People sentenced to longer terms go to a state prison run by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, which uses a different locator, covered below.

Call the jail

The most direct way to confirm someone is in the Berks County Jail is to call its main line, 610-208-4800, and ask. Have the person's full name and date of birth ready, since names repeat and staff need to match the right record.

Mailing address for the facility:

• Berks County Jail System, 1287 County Welfare Road, Leesport, PA 19533

Look someone up on VINE

The Berks County Jail page links to VINE for looking up an inmate and signing up for release alerts. VINE, run in Pennsylvania as PA SAVIN, is the state's victim notification service, but anyone can use it to check whether a person is in custody. It is a name lookup and alert sign-up, not a browsable list of everyone in the jail. Searching is free, and the person you look up is not told that you searched.

1. Go to vinelink.com or download the VINELink app from the App Store or Google Play. You can also call 1-866-972-7284 (TTY 1-866-847-1298), which is free and staffed 24 hours a day.
2. Search by the person's first and last name. You can add a date of birth or an age range to narrow the results, but neither is required.
3. Read the result. If the person is in custody, VINE shows their custody status and the facility or system holding them. VINE covers Pennsylvania county jails, state prisons, and state parole, so a match may point to Berks County or to another facility.
4. To learn when their status changes, register for notifications by phone or email. For someone in a county jail, VINE notifies you about release, escape, and transfer.

Newly booked people do not always appear right away. If VINE shows nothing and you believe the person was just taken to the Berks County Jail, call the jail directly.

If they are not in the county jail: state prison

The county jail and the state prison system are separate. If the person was sentenced to more than a couple of years, they are likely in a state prison run by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, not the Berks County Jail.

Use the Department of Corrections Inmate and Parolee Locator. Search by last name or by the person's inmate number. The state locator does not include people held in county jails, so use VINE or call the jail for anyone held in Berks.

Find a newly arrested person through court records

When someone is arrested, their case opens in the courts before jail records catch up. Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System puts most criminal dockets online for free, and a search can confirm a person was charged, show what they are charged with, and show the bail a judge set.

1. Go to the UJS portal case search. Leaving the county field blank searches all 67 counties at once, so you do not need to know where the case was filed.
2. Pick a court type and search by participant name. A brand-new arrest first shows up in the Magisterial District Court records, where the preliminary arraignment happens and bail is first set. Older or more serious cases move up to the Court of Common Pleas.
3. Open the matching docket. A criminal docket lists the charges, the court and judge handling the case, the case status, and case financial information, including the bail amount. A high bail the person cannot pay is usually why someone is sitting in the county jail before trial.

Knowing the bail amount matters, because posting it is how a person awaiting trial gets out. How bail is set and posted in Berks County is its own topic, and we will cover it in a separate guide.

What it costs

Nothing. Searching VINE, the state Department of Corrections locator, and the court docket portal is free. Calling the jail or the VINE phone line is free. You pay only if you later choose to post bail, send money, or accept collect calls, which are separate steps.

What you will need

• The person's full name, spelled as many ways as you know it.
• Their date of birth, if you have it, to sort out common names.
• Their inmate or docket number, if you already have one, which makes any search faster.

What happens next

Once you have confirmed where the person is, the next questions are usually how to visit, how to put money on their account, how to accept their phone calls, and how to post bail. The jail sets rules for each. Its visitation guidelines and inmate services pages spell out the current rules, and we will cover visiting, money, and bail in upcoming guides.

For how the jail fits into the rest of county government, see how Berks County government works. If you hold a protection from abuse order against the person, note that the jail bars contact with anyone protected by a PFA order. For the county's long-running plan to replace the aging jail, see our new jail project status report.

FAQ

Is there a Berks County inmate search or mugshot list?

Berks County does not post a public roster or mugshots. To check whether someone is in custody, call the jail at 610-208-4800 or look the person up by name on the free VINE service at vinelink.com.

How do I find out if someone was just arrested in Berks County?

Search the person's name in the UJS court portal. A new criminal case usually appears there before jail records are updated, and the docket shows the charges and the bail. If they were taken to the county jail, they should also appear in VINE within a day or so.

What is the difference between Berks County Jail and a state prison?

The Berks County Jail System in Leesport holds people awaiting trial and those serving shorter sentences. People serving longer sentences go to a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections state prison. Use VINE or call the jail for county inmates, and the state locator for state inmates.

How do I find out when someone will be released?

Register on VINE for notifications by phone or email at vinelink.com or 1-866-972-7284. For a county-jail inmate, VINE alerts you to release, escape, and transfer. Registration is free and confidential.

Can I search without knowing which county the person is in?

Yes. VINE searches Pennsylvania county jails, state prisons, and parole at once, and the UJS court portal searches all 67 counties at once. A name search in either tool will point you to the right facility or county.

Sources

• Berks County Jail System — facility name, address (1287 County Welfare Road, Leesport, PA 19533), main phone (610-208-4800), and the county's link to VINE for inmate lookup and release notification.
• VINELink / PA SAVIN and Register for Offender Release Notifications (pa.gov) — how to search custody status and register for notifications, the toll-free numbers (1-866-972-7284; TTY 1-866-847-1298), the facilities covered, and that the service is free and confidential.
• PA Department of Corrections Inmate and Parolee Locator — state-prison search; does not include county jails.
• Pennsylvania UJS portal case search — free public criminal docket search by name, showing charges, bail, and the court handling the case.

Berks County Jail System: 1287 County Welfare Road, Leesport, PA 19533; 610-208-4800.