Santa Cruz Inmate Population Search

Santa Cruz County inmate population records are managed by the Sheriff's Office, which operates the county jail on Water Street in the city of Santa Cruz. The sheriff provides a public "Jail Viewer" tool that lets anyone search for current inmates online at no cost. Santa Cruz County has a population of around 270,000 and sits along the California coast between San Mateo County and Monterey County. The county jail is a smaller facility compared to the big urban counties, but it still processes a steady flow of bookings. You can search by name to find who is in custody at the Santa Cruz County jail right now. This page covers the search tools and what you can expect to find.

Santa Cruz Sheriff Jail Viewer

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff runs a tool called Jail Viewer on the department website. This is a web-based inmate search system. You type in a name and the tool pulls up anyone with that name currently held at the Santa Cruz County jail. Each result shows the person's booking number, charges, bail amount, booking date, and housing assignment within the facility. Jail Viewer is a dedicated system that several California counties use to give the public direct access to inmate population data.

The tool is free. No registration is needed. It works on desktop and mobile browsers. Santa Cruz County updates the Jail Viewer as new bookings come in and as people get released. The system only shows current inmates. If someone has already left Santa Cruz County custody, they will not appear in the results. For older booking data, you would need to call the sheriff's records unit at (831) 454-7800 during regular business hours. Since Santa Cruz County is a smaller county, the number of results you get from a search tends to be manageable. You usually do not need to filter much to find the person you are looking for.

Note: Jail Viewer covers the Santa Cruz County jail only. It does not show state prison inmates or people held in other counties.

How to Find Santa Cruz Inmates

Jail Viewer is the first tool to try. It gives you the most current Santa Cruz County inmate population data. If you do not find someone there, use VINELink. VINE covers all California counties and lets you search by name across the entire state. It works well when the person may have been moved or when you are not sure which county has them. Register for VINE alerts and you get notified by call, text, or email when an inmate's custody status changes in Santa Cruz County or anywhere else in California. The VINE phone line is 1-877-411-5588.

For people sentenced to state prison from Santa Cruz County, the CIRIS inmate locator is the right tool. CIRIS is the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's public search. It covers all state prisons in California. CIRIS does not include county jail data. The Santa Cruz County jail holds people who are awaiting trial, serving short sentences, or who just got booked. State prison is for people with longer sentences. Once someone transfers out of Santa Cruz County jail into the CDCR system, they appear in CIRIS and no longer show up in Jail Viewer.

Monthly jail population trends for Santa Cruz County are tracked through the BSCC Jail Profile Survey. The survey collects data on average daily population, rated capacity, and booking counts from every California county.

Santa Cruz County Records and Law

Booking records in Santa Cruz County are public under Government Code 6254(f). This California law requires law enforcement to release arrest and booking details to the public. Names, charges, bail, and booking dates are all included. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff can post this data online because the law treats it as public information. Anyone can access it without a special reason or permission.

Full criminal histories are restricted. Penal Code 11105 gives the California DOJ control over criminal background records. You can not get a person's full history through the Santa Cruz County Sheriff. Santa Cruz County inmate population data from Jail Viewer is a snapshot of who is in custody now. It does not include past criminal history. If you need your own record, submit fingerprints to the DOJ through a Live Scan provider. The fee is $25. Several Live Scan locations exist in Santa Cruz and Watsonville.

Santa Cruz Jail Viewer Portal

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Jail Viewer tool is available at jailviewer.co.santa-cruz.ca.us shown below.

The Jail Viewer interface lets you search for inmates by name at the Santa Cruz County jail. Results list current inmates with their charges, booking details, and bail information. The page is simple and loads quickly.

Nearby Counties

Counties near Santa Cruz each run their own jails with separate inmate population search tools. Check these pages for information about neighboring areas.