Official Thurston County Inmate Roster
The Thurston County Sheriff's Office posts an in-custody roster that shows current inmates only. It is the first stop for any Thurston County inmate search. The roster does not list released inmates, and it drops a name once that person leaves the jail. The data updates hourly, so a fresh booking can take a short while to appear. The search box asks for a last name, in full or in part. Type "jo" and the roster can return Johnson, Johnston, and Jones in one set of results.
The tool is narrow on purpose. It answers one question well: is this person in the Thurston County jail today, and what is the charge. Staff at the Reception Desk can help by phone at 360-709-5900 if a search seems off or a name will not match. Keep in mind that a missing name does not always mean release. The person could be in state prison, federal custody, juvenile custody, or simply booked under a spelling you did not try.
The official tool sits on the Sheriff's Corrections Bureau site, shown below.
The Corrections Facility roster search page is the current home of the county's in-custody inmate list.
That page is the same roster used by the public, jail staff, and families checking on a recent arrest in Thurston County.
How to Search the Roster by Last Name
The roster is built around the last name. You do not need a booking number, a date of birth, or a case number to start. A partial last name works fine, which helps when a spelling is in doubt. Once you find the person, the real value is the court cause number on the profile, since that opens the door to full case detail.
Here is the order that works for most searches.
- Open the roster search page on the Sheriff's site.
- Type the inmate's last name, in full or just the first few letters.
- Press Search, or use the link to display all current inmates.
- Pick the matching name to open the charge information profile.
- Read the court, charge, bail, and arrest date shown on the profile.
- Copy the cause number from the profile, then search that court for more detail.
An older county page kept a similar in-custody form, shown here.
The legacy in-custody roster search form shows the same last-name field used by the current tool.
Whether you land on the old form or the new one, the steps are the same: last name in, profile out, then take the cause number to the court.
Note: A roster match is a snapshot of current custody only, so always copy the cause number before the name drops off the list.
Roster Search Fields
The roster keeps its form short. There is one text field, a search button, a reset, and a link to see everyone in custody. That is the whole interface. The table below lays out each field and what it does.
| Field | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enter Last Name | Text | Yes | All or part of the last name; "jo" can return Johnson, Johnston, Jones. |
| Search | Button | Yes | Runs the last-name search. |
| Clear Name | Reset button | No | Clears the field to start over. |
| Display all current inmates | Link | No | Shows the full list of people in custody now. |
Because the field is just a last name, common names return long lists. Use a longer fragment to narrow the set, or click through to read each charge profile.
What an Inmate Profile Shows
Click a name and the roster opens a charge information profile. The header reads "Charge Information for Inmate." It is a charge-first view, not a full booking sheet. Each charge appears in its own block, so a person facing several counts can have several blocks stacked on one profile. The inventory below maps what a Thurston County inmate profile showed on the page inspected May 27, 2026.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Inmate name | Full first, middle, and last name. |
| VINELink profile link | Button that opens the VINE custody profile. |
| Court | The court handling the charge, such as District Court. |
| Cause Number | The court case number to search for case detail. |
| Charge | Plain-English description of the charge. |
| Bail | Dollar amount plus bondability, such as $1000 BONDABLE. |
| Arrest Date | Date of arrest in MM/DD/YYYY form. |
What the profile leaves out matters just as much. The inspected profile showed no mugshot, no date of birth, and no race, sex, height, or weight. It listed no housing pod, no booking time, and no next court date. For a face, physical data, or a hearing date, the roster is not the place to look. Take the cause number to the court of record instead.
The Thurston County Corrections Facility
The county jail is the Thurston County Corrections Facility in Tumwater. It is run by the Sheriff's Corrections Bureau. The facility serves about 425 inmates daily and processes more than 20 bookings and releases each day. People come from county and local arrests, and the jail holds both pretrial and sentenced inmates. The two contact cards below cover the main facility and the separate visitation building on the same campus.
Tumwater, WA
Reception Desk: 360-709-5900
Reception lobby: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mon-Fri (closed 12:00-12:30)
Tumwater, WA
Same campus as the main facility
Houses the ACCA Program
The Reception Desk is the main point of contact for the public. Staff there field roster questions, deposit and bail questions, and general jail calls. The lobby closes for a half-hour lunch each weekday, so plan a visit around that gap.
The Corrections Bureau page describes jail services and programs, shown below.
The Corrections Bureau page covers the jail's services, contact details, and inmate programs.
That page also links the roster and the visitation, mail, and money rules covered further down.
Booking, Bail, and Bond
The jail accepts bail on behalf of the court that set it. The court sets the amount and the type; the jail just takes the payment. Cash bail is accepted 24 hours a day. Where you pay it depends on the time. During business hours, bail should be posted at the District or Superior Court clerk's office at 2000 Lakeridge Drive SW. After hours and on weekends, you can pay at the Corrections Facility Bail Window at 3491 Ferguson St SW in Tumwater.
The jail keeps its payment rules tight. It does not take credit cards. It does not take personal checks. Cash works, and bonds must be posted by authorized bond companies. The jail does not refer or recommend bond agencies. Bail bonds let a person pay a fraction of the full amount to a licensed company, which then guarantees the rest to the court.
One useful point: cash a person had at the time of arrest can be applied to bail on request. So a defendant booked with money in pocket may not need outside funds to post a smaller bail. The Bail Window can have long waits when the jail is busy, so allow extra time for an after-hours payment.
Visitation Hours
All social visits at the Thurston County jail are by video only. There are no in-person window visits for family and friends, and the on-site stations are closed to the public, so visits run from home. The county uses GettingOut by ViaPath for remote video. A visit must be scheduled and accepted by the inmate, and it is not instant; it can take a few hours to connect. The schedule below lists the windows that apply.
| Type | Hours | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Remote video visitation | 9:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m., 7 days, holidays included | Unavailable noon-1:00 p.m. and 5:00-6:00 p.m. |
| Options Program Building | Same general video rules | Unavailable 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. and 4:30-6:00 p.m. |
| Attorney / professional visits | Mon-Fri 8:30-11:45 and 1:00-4:15 | Outside hours handled case by case. |
Each inmate gets 60 free remote visitation minutes per week. Paid time may be added if no other visits are scheduled and both sides accept the cost. A visitor needs a ViaPath account, a photo ID, and an email or phone number. For help with the system, call ViaPath at 866-516-0115.
Note: Since every social visit is by video through GettingOut, set up the ViaPath account and schedule the visit before you expect to connect.
Inmate Mail and Money
Mail to a Thurston County inmate is handled in a new way. All inmate mail is scanned and delivered electronically, and the original paper is returned to the inmate at release. So a letter sent today reaches the inmate as a scan, not as the page you mailed. Address mail with the inmate's name and number, then Thurston County Corrections Facility, 2000 Lakeridge Dr SW, Olympia, WA 98502.
The jail limits what mail can contain. Stick to the allowed items to avoid a rejected piece.
- Letters without stickers.
- Greeting cards without musical or audio features.
- U.S. Postal money orders.
- U.S. Treasury checks.
- Up to eight 4x6 photographs.
Money works under its own rules. Deposits can be made with cash, U.S. Treasury checks, or U.S. Postal money orders only. Payroll, personal, business, and two-party checks are not accepted. The depositor must be at least 18 and present a photo ID. Funds become inmate property once deposited and may be used to clear a negative balance the inmate owes the county.
VINE Notifications
VINELink is a free, anonymous service that tracks custody and case status. It is the simplest way to learn when a Thurston County inmate is moved or released without calling the jail over and over. A person can register for phone, email, text, or TTY alerts tied to a specific inmate. The Sheriff's roster profiles link straight to a VINE button for each inmate.
VINE works in several languages. Washington VINE offers text alerts in English and Spanish, and phone or email alerts in English, Spanish, Russian, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Korean. To register by phone, call 1-877-846-3492.
The VINELink site is shown here.
The VINELink notification site lets families and victims register for free custody alerts on a named inmate.
VINE is anonymous, so the inmate is not told who signed up for alerts.
State and Federal Inmate Searches
The county roster only covers the Thurston County jail. It does not reach state prisons or federal facilities. If a person was sentenced to prison or never appeared in the local jail, the search moves to other tools. Washington runs its own inmate locator, and the federal system runs another. Each takes a name or a number and returns custody and location data.
For state prison custody, use the Washington Department of Corrections search. It accepts a DOC number or a name and returns the DOC number, name, age, and location.
The Washington DOC incarcerated search covers people held in state prisons after sentencing.
State custody and county custody are separate systems, so a name found on the DOC search will not be on the Thurston County jail roster.
For federal custody, use the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator. It covers people held in federal prisons from 1982 to the present and searches by number or by name with age, race, and sex filters.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator finds people in federal custody back to 1982.
For people no longer in the local jail, check the Thurston County released inmates page, or read up on local jail numbers on the Thurston County inmate population page.