Kent County Jail Roster Overview
Inmate custody in Kent County is managed by the Sheriff's Office under Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young. The office publishes a public jail viewer that lists people currently held at the Kent County Correctional Facility, the county's secure jail complex in Grand Rapids. The lookup page describes the viewer as covering people in custody at that facility, and the tool itself notes that a record may include person-descriptive information, mugshots, and the offenses charged by the arresting agency.
The county jail viewer is available online without a login. It reflects bookings as people are processed, so it changes quickly as arrests, releases, and transfers happen throughout the day. Because it draws directly from the jail management system, it is the most current public source for who is sitting in the county jail at any given moment.
The roster does not cover every kind of custody. It does not show people held in state prison, federal detention, or immigration custody. Someone can drop off the county roster and still be held elsewhere after sentencing or transfer, which is why the county pairs the viewer with state and victim-notification tools described further down.
The public jail viewer opens at the Kent County jail viewer landing page, shown below.
The landing screen is where a jail roster search begins, and it feeds the same booking data that appears on every inmate profile.
How to Use the Kent County Inmate Roster
The booking search is short and public, so most people find a record in under a minute. The one firm requirement is a complete last name. First name and a booking date range are optional and only help when a common last name returns a long list.
- Open the public jail viewer and go to the booking search form.
- Type the inmate's complete last name in the required Last Name field.
- Add a first name or a booking date range if you need to narrow a common name.
- Select Search to run the booking query, or Clear to reset the form.
- Review the results grid, then open a record to read the full booking detail.
If a search returns nothing, try a partial spelling of the last name or drop the extra filters. Recent bookings can take time to post, and the county warns that the data should not be treated as a final legal record.
Roster Search Fields
The jail viewer keeps its form simple on purpose. Last name is the anchor field, and everything else is there to trim the result count. The date fields can only be used together with a name, not on their own, so a booking date will not work as a standalone search.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Name | Text | Yes | Must be a complete last name; the search starts here. |
| First Name | Text | No | Optional narrowing field for common last names. |
| Booking From Date | Date | No | Optional; can only be used together with a name. |
| Booking To Date | Date | No | Optional; sets the end of the booking date range. |
Note: The viewer supports paging, sorting, and filtering on the results grid, so a long list can be reordered by clicking a column header.
County Custody, State Prison, and Victim Alerts
Knowing which system holds a person saves a lot of wasted searching. The county jail viewer covers pretrial and short-term custody at the correctional facility. Once a person is sentenced to a state term, their record moves to the Michigan Department of Corrections, and the county roster no longer tracks them.
Sentenced state prisoners, parolees, and probationers under state supervision appear in the Michigan Offender Tracking Information System, or OTIS. If a name has vanished from the county jail viewer, OTIS is the next place to look. For status changes, victims and family members can register with Michigan VINE, which sends notification when custody status changes.
The Michigan VINE page, pictured here, explains how status notification works statewide.
VINE bridges the gap the county roster leaves open, so a victim is not left guessing after a transfer or release. Charges filed after a booking are tracked separately through the court, and the Kent County arrest records and charges pages explain how those charges move once a case opens.
What a Booking Result Shows
A booking result is more than a name on a list. A sample query on the viewer returned a full grid of booking data drawn from the jail management system. Each record ties a booking number to identifying details and to the dates that track a person through custody.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Booking Number | The unique number assigned to the arrest and intake event. |
| Last Name | The inmate's surname, the field the search is built around. |
| First Name | The inmate's given name as recorded at booking. |
| Middle Name | The middle name when the jail record includes one. |
| DOB | Date of birth, useful for telling apart common names. |
| Race | Person-descriptive race field from the booking record. |
| Sex | Person-descriptive sex field from the booking record. |
| Booking Date | The date the person was booked into the county jail. |
| Release Date | The recorded release date when the person is no longer held. |
| Schedule Date | A scheduling date tied to the booking record. |
| Location | The facility or housing location for the inmate. |
The viewer may also display a mugshot and the offenses charged by the arresting agency. An arrest and a listed charge are not a conviction, and a person named on a Kent County warrant may appear in the jail record only after they are actually booked.
Phone Line and No-Login Fallback
Not everyone can reach the online viewer, and the county plans for that. The inmate information line gives a live, no-login way to confirm custody and ask about a booking. It is the recommended fallback when the website is down, when a name is spelled several ways, or when a caller simply prefers to speak with a person.
The inmate information line is 616-632-6300, option 1. The main Sheriff's Office number is 616-632-6100 for broader questions about jail operations and records. A mental-health hotline for concerns about an inmate's well-being is 616-632-6222.
Note: The Sheriff does not guarantee that roster data is current, accurate, or complete, so verify custody by phone before relying on it for any legal or urgent decision.
Kent County Correctional Facility
The county's jail is the Kent County Correctional Facility, a secure complex built to hold up to roughly 1,500 inmates across security levels. It is the single facility the public jail viewer covers, and it is where booking, classification, and custody take place before a case resolves. The Sheriff's corrections division runs the building, its intake, and its visitation program.
Kent County Correctional Facility
703 Ball Avenue NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Inmate information: 616-632-6300, option 1
Sheriff's Office: 616-632-6100
Capacity: about 1,500 inmates
The county's corrections landing page, shown here, is the starting point for the jail address, facility overview, and links to the visitation and mail policies.
That page connects the roster to the practical side of custody, from how visits work to how money and messages reach an inmate. You can read the Kent County Corrections page for the current facility overview.
Visiting an Inmate in Kent County
Kent County runs a detailed visitation program with onsite, offsite video, and professional options. Visits can be scheduled no more than 14 days ahead and no less than 24 hours before the visit date. Scheduling runs through the SmartInmate system online, by phone at 727-349-1561, or at a kiosk in the visitation lobby.
Every personal visitor must register online first, upload a government ID and a recent face photo, and present valid photo identification in person. Visitors must be 18 or older, children under 18 need an adult with them, and there is a two-visitor limit per visit. General-population inmates receive one free onsite visit per week, while working trustees receive three. Standard visits can be scheduled starting at midnight the day before, and on-demand visits last up to 15 minutes.
The county visitation rules page, pictured below, lays out registration, scheduling windows, and the professional-visit rules.
Attorneys and other professional visitors follow a separate track. Attorneys can schedule the same day with at least two hours' notice, and other professional visits need 24 hours' notice, with each type carrying its own time limit and approval requirements.
Visitation Hours
Onsite visits run seven days a week in two blocks, with lockdown closures in between when the jail counts and moves inmates. Offsite video visits run a longer daily window whenever the facility is not locked down. The schedule below reflects the county's published visitation hours.
| Day | Onsite Visitation | Offsite Video |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. | 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. |
| Tuesday | 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. | 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. |
| Wednesday | 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. | 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. |
| Thursday | 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. | 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. |
| Friday | 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. | 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. |
| Saturday | 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. | 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. |
| Sunday | 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. | 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. |
Lockdown closures fall from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and again from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., when no visits take place. Professional visitation runs Monday through Sunday from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The county's visitation hours page displays the same windows.
Because video visits cover a much wider window than onsite blocks, they are often the easiest way to reach an inmate on a work schedule.
Mail, Tablets, and Phone Calls
Contact with an inmate now runs through Smart Communications, and the mail rules changed sharply in 2025. As of April 1, 2025, the jail no longer accepts personal mail, books, or magazines sent directly to inmates. Personal mail instead goes to Smart Communications with the inmate's name and booking or ID number, and it is usually available on the inmate's tablet within 24 to 72 hours. Inmates may send outgoing mail but cannot mail one another.
Tablets operate from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Messages cost 50 cents, pictures cost $1.00, and some content runs at $0.05 per minute. Tablet images cannot be sent or taken, and nude, violent, or collage images are banned. The mail, telephone, and tablet privileges page collects these rules in one place.
Phone calls are outgoing only, running from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. at 9 cents per minute through Smart Communications. There are no incoming calls for inmates, so families set up accounts and wait for the inmate to call out. Full rates and setup steps appear on the county's mail, telephone, and tablet page.
Sheriff App and Booking Records Requests
The Kent County Sheriff's Office publishes a mobile app, but it is a reporting and tip tool, not an inmate lookup. The app-store listing lets users report issues from iOS or Android and reach community resources, crime-prevention content, and online reporting. There is no app-only inmate search or warrant search inside it, so the public jail viewer and the phone line remain the way to check custody.
When a booking record needs to be confirmed in writing, the Sheriff's records division handles formal requests. Booking and jail records that are public can be requested through the county's public-records process, and the same division answers questions the roster does not cover. For charges, court dates, and case outcomes tied to a booking, the county court file is the authoritative source rather than the jail roster.
Note: An arrest and a jail booking do not equal a conviction, and jail information can change fast, so treat the roster as a snapshot and confirm anything important with the originating office.