Bristol County Jail

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The Bristol County Jail is located at 417 Cumberland Street in Bristol, VA and is a medium security county jail operated by the Bristol Independent City Sheriff’s Department.

This guide tells you all the information about everything you might want to know about the Bristol County Jail, like how to do a jail inmate search, the jail’s phone number and address, intake procedures, court information and records, and more.

Top 10 Searches for Bristol County Jail

1. Bristol County Jail Information
2. Bristol County Jail Inmate Search
3. Bristol Independent City Inmate Search in Bristol, VA
4. Bristol County Jail Visitation Rules
5. Bristol County Jail Visitation Hours
6. Discount Bristol County Jail Inmate Calls
7. How to Send Inmate Care Packages to Bristol County Jail
8. What is Inmate Commissary?
9. How to Send Money to an Inmate at Bristol County Jail
10. How to Search Bristol Independent City Arrest Records

Introduction

This guide is designed to give you all the information and advice that you need to make going to jail a lot easier. If you have specific questions, please feel free to ask it in the comment section below, and please leave any comments or feedback that would help others would be welcome.

Bristol County Jail Inmate Search

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Who’s In Jail

The Bristol County Jail Inmate Search is a roster of individuals who have been arrested and are in jail, which includes status, and visiting hours. Also, you can get information about anybody processed or discharged within the last 24 hours. Jail inmates are listed in alphabetical order by their last name. You will be able to locate the information more quickly if you enter your friend or family member’s full name, date of birth, or inmate ID.

Bristol County Jail Policies and Procedures

Intake Procedures

The intake process at the Bristol County Jail is made up of each of the following steps:

You will get put in a holding cell. If there are a lot of arrests, you will have to wait, sometimes for many hours, before you get processed.

The first step is that you have to answer a bunch of questions, like your legal name, address, birth date and contact person, and you will also be asked about your medical and psychological history. Next, You will be given an inmate number and you will get fingerprinted. Then, all of your personal property will be taken away from you and stored until you get released.

You will then be allowed to make a telephone call to talk to a family member, friend, or loved-on.

If they expect that you will make bail and be released quickly, you might be able to keep wearing street clothes, but if you are not expected to make bail quickly you you will be given a jail jumpsuit.

Discharge Procedures

When you finally post bail, you will be allowed to leave jail. Getting discharged takes anywhere between 10 minutes to many hours. Or, simply, the faster you post bail, the faster you will get discharged. How quickly you get discharged depends on whether you have a bond amount or if a judge has to figure out the amount of bail to be set. For minor charges, you will get booked and then released on your recognizance without having to pay bail. If you have served a sentence in jail and have a date of your release, you should expect to be discharged in the morning.

Bristol County Jail Visitation

In order to have visitors, inmates need to give each visitor’s name to the Bristol County Jail in advance. Your visitor’s information will be entered into the visitors log as an approved visitor. Each visitor will have to provide proof of identification. Anyone that arrives for visitation late or that is not on the visitation list will not be able to attend visitation.

The Bristol County Jail visitation procedures are always changing, so make sure that you call the official Bristol County Jail at (276) 645-7430 before you go to the jail to visit.

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Visitation Rules

Before you can visit an inmate at the Bristol County Jail you have to be on the inmate’s approved visitation list.

Be sure to bring your up to date government issued ID or driver’s license with you to visitation or you will not be allowed to enter.

No cellphones at Bristol County Jail, and you will be searched. Personal belongings are not allowed. Anybody currently on must obtain the permission of both the superintendent and their individual supervising officer before they can visit. Such visitation is not normally approved.

If a visitor is under the age of 18 is related to the inmate, they will have to be accompanied by an adult family member or guardian to include a member of the inmate’s extended family. If the visitor is younger than 18 years of age and is not a family member of the inmate, this visitor must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Sending Mail to Inmates

This is what you need to know in order to send letters, photos, postcards, greeting cards and magazines to an inmate at the Bristol County Jail. Incoming and outgoing inmate mail at the Bristol County Jail is always searched and inspected for contraband that might threaten the security, safety or well-being of the facility, its staff, and inmates. Inmates can only receive metered, unstamped, plain white postcards no larger than 4″ x 6″ as mail. The writing on the postcard has to be in pencil or blue or black ink. If it has a stamp on it, it will get returned. If you write in green ink, then it will get returned. If you send any other kind of mail will be returned to the sender. If there is no return address on it, then the unauthorized mail will be stored in the inmate’s locker until the inmate gets release.

Do not include any of these things in the mail that you send to an inmate: any kind of threat to jail order, any description of the manufacture of weapons, bombs, incendiary devices, or tools for escape; do not encourage or advocate any kind of violence, hate speech, or racial or ethnic supremacy. Inmates are not allowed to write to other inmates.

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Sending Other Things to an Inmate

There are strict procedures that you must follow to send anything to an inmate at the Bristol County Jail. This includes sending money for to spend in the commissary, sending regular mail or photos, sending money for phone calls, and even postcards.

This page covers everthing you need to know about the Bristol County Jail to help you follow these procedures and guidelines. If you have questions, or there is something that you were looking for, but did not find, please contact us using the contact link in the site menu.

Public Records

Warrant Inquiry

If you believe you have an outstanding warrant for your arrest, you can find out by checking the arrest warrants on the Bristol Independent City jail website or call the court directly. This requires a first and last name. You can also go to the local jail and ask the officer in charge. You should know that if there is an arrest warrant out for you, you should be prepared to get taken into custody immediately.

Arrest Record Search

If you know the person’s name, and their arrest date, contact the Bristol Independent City jail, on the phone, in person, or find out online. Arrest records are in the public record and these records are accessible to anyone.

Court Records

Court Records are public records and available to anyone. They include a case file that contains a court docket and any of the documents filed in the court case. You are able to access the court records via the internet service ‘Public Access to Court Electronic Records’, or at Clerk of Court office where the case was filed.

Criminal Records

Each and every state maintains records of someone’s criminal past. These online databases are linked together so you can track criminal histories from another state. Go to courthouse and check in person, or you can check online. It is helpful to know the county the crime was committed in, and in the event that it was in a totally different state, you may have to pay a fee for a more complete search.

A criminal records search you are able to get a listing of all the arrests, charges, or convictions for these crimes, drug offenses, kidnapping, sexual offenses including rape, assault, violent crimes including assault, battery and murder, or property crimes like theft or larceny.

Money & Commissary

The process for sending money to someone in jail at the Bristol County Jail could change, so check the Bristol County Jail site when you send funds to an inmate.

How To Send Money to an Inmate at Bristol County Jail

You will have your own ‘bank account’ while in jail. This money is used to purchase items from the Commissary. Family and friends can deposit money into this account for you, and any money you earn while in prison will also be deposited into your account. Outside money can be paid in to your account via a money order, cash or check. If someone sends a check or money order, make sure that they write your inmate ID on it. The maximum amount you are allowed in your account is $290 per month.

Guidelines For Sending Money To An Inmate

Before you send any money you should find out what online money transfer companies the jail your inmate is incarcerated in uses. The exact method that the Bristol County Jail uses changes frequently, so it is best to call them at (276) 645-7430 to get the current payment method.

You may be required to be on the inmate’s visitation list in order to send them money, and be aware that they may have a limit on how much you deposit at one time, like $200-300 at a time, or a limit on how much money may be in the inmate’s account at one time.

Some of the money transfer firms being used by various facilities include JPay, MoneyGram, AccessCorrections, OffenderConnect, Touchpayonline, JailATM, WU, smartdeposit, and tigercommissary.

If an inmate has fines or are required to pay restitution then they will be subject to garnishment of their commissary/trust account. If the inmate has a garnishment, then money to pay them will be taken from the inmate’s bank account. In some cases it may be a percentage or the entire amount of the obligation, but the actual percentage depends on the circumstances. We recommend that inmates talk to the counselor at their facility and try to find out. You can also try to make an arrangement so that only a percentage of your commissary funds are taken, instead of all your funds take at one time.

Commissary

The commissary is the Bristol County Jail store. An inmate can buy a number of things here, such as personal items, food, and things for writing. Keep in mind that you will probably want to use the commissary every day, and any infractions will get that privilege taken away from you.

The Commissary will sell an assortment of different products that inmates can buy if they have enough money in their commissary account. These products include clothes, shoes, small snacks and other food items, in addition to hygiene products including soap, shampoo, and disposable razors for shaving. The commissary also sells other things like books and magazines, televisions and radios, playing cards, headphones, MP3 players, and electronic tablets. They also sell everything need to write home to family, friends, and loved ones: paper, envelopes, and stamps. If an inmate is indigent and cannot afford paper and stamps, the jail will provide these things to an inmate who has not had any money in their commissary account for at least 30 days.

Phone Calls & Phone Usage Policy

The only phone calls that Bristol County Jail inmates are allowed to make are made through a jail approved pre-paid phone account or phone card . Jail phone calls are much more costly than phone calls made outside of jail. Inmates are able to make phone calls, with restrictions on when you can make phone calls, how long you can talk, and how often you can make calls, but inmates must keep in mind that there are a limited number of phones, so all the inmates must share phone time. If you break the rules, your ability to use the phone could be reduced or totally denied.

Phone Number: (276) 645-7430

How To Save Money on Inmate Calls

Correctional facility phone service providers have a monopoly at each facility that they are the exclusive phone provider for, which means that they they control how much it costs to make phone calls. The profits these phone service providers make off of all of the inmate phone calls are split with the facility, so there is no incentive for the jail or the counselors at the facility to show inmates or their family how to save money on inmate phone calls at the Bristol County Jail. The prices are posted and there are at least two pricing tiers based on where the inmate is calling. The following three things will determine how much an inmate phone call will cost: Where you are located; Where your inmate is located, What type of phone number you have.

For example, if your inmate is in federal prison, if you get a new local number then this will decrease your inmate’s phone call rate from $.21 per minute to only $.06 per minute.

For the other correctional facilities like state prisons, and local and county jails learning how to decrease your inmates phone charges is more difficult. ArrestedResources.com keeps up to date with all of the changes that affect your inmate’s calling rate and in most cases is able to offer you an inmate calling number that will save you a lot of money on calling your inmate. There are some circumstances where we won’t be able to save you money on your inmate calls, and therefore we will not offer you an inmate calling number. In cases like this, the facility has set their inmate calling prices in a way that nobody will be able to save you money.

For more detailed information on how to save on inmate calls at Bristol County Jail, click the link below.

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