To find someone in custody in Louisiana, start with LA VINE, the free statewide notification service that the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement says monitors the custody status of adult inmates in all parish jails and state prisons. For a person serving a state sentence, the Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DPS&C) also runs a phone locator at 225-383-4580, and for someone held in a parish jail, the sheriff of that parish is the office to call. This page explains those official tools. It does not search any records itself.
Who holds custody information in Louisiana
Custody information sits with whichever agency is holding the person, so the first question is what kind of custody you are dealing with.
Parish jails (the sheriff). Louisiana law makes each sheriff "keeper of the public jail of his parish" (R.S. 13:5539(C)). If someone was recently arrested, the sheriff's office of the parish where the arrest happened is the office to ask whether that person is in its jail. Each parish, Orleans included, has one sheriff, and the Louisiana sheriff's offices page explains what else that office does.
State custody (DPS&C). People sentenced to the custody of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections may be housed in a state prison, and the department's own inmate information page refers to people "sentenced to the legal custody of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, including those assigned to parish jails." That is why a person serving a state sentence can turn up in a local jail rather than a state prison. The department's facility locations page lists state prisons alongside a separate group of local jails and offices.
Federal custody (the Bureau of Prisons). Someone convicted in federal court is held by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which runs its own locator. LCLE describes LA VINE as covering parish jails and state prisons, so federal prisons are outside it.
An arrest in another parish. Under Code of Criminal Procedure article 207, when a person is arrested on a warrant in a parish other than the one where the offense is alleged to have happened, the person is booked and held in the parish of arrest until bail is posted or the person is transferred. The article says a person awaiting transfer "shall not be detained in custody in the parish of his arrest for a longer period than ten days." So if a relative was picked up while traveling, check the jail where the arrest happened first, then the parish that wanted them.
Official ways to search
LA VINE, online and by phone
DPS&C tells families they can locate a person in its custody "by searching on the Louisiana Victim Information and Notification Everyday (LA VINE)," which it says is updated every 24 hours and can be searched "by location, name, and ID/case number." The department adds that LA VINE also covers people under probation or parole supervision. The search runs on VINELink.
The Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement (LCLE), which runs the service with the Louisiana Sheriffs' Association, the Louisiana District Attorneys' Association, and DPS&C, says LA VINE is free, that callers may use it anonymously and as often as they wish, and that users can register to be notified when an inmate's custody status changes, such as a release or a transfer. DPS&C lists a 24-hour toll-free number, (866) 528-6748, which LCLE writes as 866-LAVNS-4-U. (LA VINE was previously called LAVNS, and some parish pages still use the old name.)
The DPS&C Imprisoned Person Locator
For a person in state custody, DPS&C says you can call 225-383-4580 to reach the Imprisoned Person Locator. Callers must have the person's DPS&C number, or their name and date of birth. According to the department, the line can give the housing assignment, the address of the facility, a contact phone number, and a projected release date where one applies.
Parish jail rosters
LCLE describes a LA VINE feature called Rosters, which gives each participating jail a "live" roster updated every 30 minutes from the jail's own management system. Each roster lists the people in custody with date of birth, gender, and race, and LCLE's Rosters page links the roster address for parish jails across the state. When checked in October 2026, that page marked at least one parish roster (Grant) as offline, so a missing roster is not proof that nobody is in custody.
Sheriffs also link to these rosters from their own sites. The Avoyelles Parish Sheriff's Office, for example, links an "Inmate Roster" from its home page, and that roster carries a notice that it "shall not be considered, or used as, a public document, or official document," and that copying it without the agency's written consent is not allowed. The Natchitoches Parish Sheriff's Office website has its own Inmate Lookup page. Treat any roster as a starting point and confirm details with the jail.
Federal prisoners
The Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator covers federal inmates "incarcerated from 1982 to the present." The bureau warns that release dates may not be current while sentences are recalculated under the First Step Act, and that a person shown as "Released" or "Not in BOP Custody" may still be held by some other agency or be on supervision.
What the results do and do not tell you
A custody listing shows where a person is held. It does not show that the person was convicted of anything, and many people in a parish jail are waiting on a case that has not been decided.
Some arrest information is public in Louisiana. The Public Records Law does not require law enforcement agencies to disclose certain records, including records of pending criminal litigation and arrest records before conviction, but it says the initial report of the investigating officer, booking records, and summons or citation records "shall be a public record" (R.S. 44:3). To ask a sheriff for booking records, use an ordinary public records request; the Louisiana criminal records page covers court files and criminal history.
Other information is closed. The Louisiana State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification and Information keeps the state's criminal history repository and states that "Louisiana is a closed record state," so it does not release those records to the public. A person can request their own record through the State Police "Right to Review" process.
Juveniles generally will not appear. LCLE describes LA VINE as monitoring adult inmates, and the Children's Code makes records of juvenile court proceedings, other than traffic violations, confidential (Ch.C. art. 412).
Finally, every tool has a lag. LA VINE data for state custody is updated every 24 hours according to DPS&C, and jail rosters every 30 minutes according to LCLE. Call the facility before driving somewhere for a visit or a release.
Contacting, visiting, and sending money
For state facilities, DPS&C publishes the rules on its inmate information page. A visitor must be on the person's approved visiting list, and the department says not to call the facility to ask whether you are on it; ask the person instead. Visitors 18 and older must show photo identification each time. DPS&C says incarcerated people may call only collect, calls are usually limited to 15 minutes, and each person may keep an approved list of up to 20 numbers. The department lists money orders by mail, MoneyGram walk-up locations, and JPay (online, by telephone, or at facility kiosks) as the ways to send money, and the department warns in plain terms that using Cash App to send money to inmates is illegal.
Parish jails set many of their own rules for visits, phones, and commissary accounts. The sheriff's office that runs the jail is the place to ask.
Orleans Parish
Orleans has one sheriff. State law created a single sheriff for the parish and abolished the separate civil sheriff and criminal sheriff offices when that sheriff took office (R.S. 13:5581). LCLE's Rosters page uses the Orleans Parish Jail roster as its example of a live jail roster.
Court records for criminal cases in New Orleans are a separate matter from custody. The Criminal District Court still exists, but Act 15 of the 2026 Regular Session abolished the separate clerk of criminal district court at the end of May 3, 2026 and moved its records to the clerk of court for the parish of Orleans. The Orleans Parish clerk of court page covers that office. Orleans also has its own juvenile court, one of four special juvenile courts named in the Children's Code.
Turning yourself in: general safety information
Families who learn that a relative is wanted sometimes ask how a person can surrender safely. As general information only: arrest warrants in Louisiana are directed to all peace officers in the state, and the sheriff's office of the parish that issued the warrant can explain how voluntary surrender works there, including where to report and what to bring. Some people arrange to turn themselves in at the sheriff's office or the parish jail, either on their own or with a lawyer present, rather than waiting to be stopped. Use the sheriff's published non-emergency number, not a number from an unofficial website. This is not legal advice for any person's situation; a Louisiana lawyer can advise on a specific case. The Louisiana warrant information page explains how warrants work.
Finding the right sheriff or jail
The Louisiana Sheriffs' Association keeps a sheriffs directory that lists the sheriff of each of the 64 parishes with a phone number, and the state's Local Louisiana parish profiles on louisiana.gov link to it. Sheriff and courthouse details for individual parishes appear on this site's parish pages, such as the Rapides Parish Clerk of Court, the Avoyelles Parish Clerk of Court, and the Natchitoches Parish Clerk of Court. To find any parish, start from the Louisiana Clerks of Court directory.