St. Louis County Jail Overview
The St. Louis County Department of Justice Services manages, operates, and secures the St. Louis County Justice Center. That local fact matters because many jail pages wrongly route inmate questions to the Sheriff. In St. Louis County, the Sheriff is a court-focused office listed by the 21st Judicial Circuit, while Justice Services runs the county jail. The Justice Center, also known in local sources as the St. Louis County Jail and the Buzz Westfall Justice Center, holds adults arrested in St. Louis County, people awaiting first court events, municipal detainees moved into county custody, and people serving county-level sentences.
The Justice Center sits in the Clayton court district near the St. Louis County courts, prosecutor, sheriff, and county offices. Its role is local detention. It is not a Missouri Department of Corrections prison and it is not a federal Bureau of Prisons site. Current county custody is searched through the REJIS-hosted county inmate locator. Formal case outcomes, filed charges, and dispositions must be checked in Missouri Case.net after a court case exists.
The county's official Justice Services page is shown in the successful manifest image from the Department of Justice Services source page.
That source supports the operator distinction used throughout the St. Louis County Justice Center roster and inmate lookup content.
St. Louis County Jail Capacity
Capacity figures for the St. Louis County Justice Center need date labels because the sources use different definitions. The county's 2022 operations review search excerpt cited 1,578 rated beds and a six-month average daily population near 842. A 2026 local news report quoting county officials cited a jail population of 1,266 against a maximum capacity of 1,232, with 1,090 people awaiting trial. Those figures should not be merged into one simple capacity number. The older number appears to be a rated-bed figure, while the 2026 number is the operating maximum cited by officials at that time.
The county also publishes a jail population dashboard with daily population, bookings, releases, and race or gender charts. Use the live dashboard for a current count. The St. Louis County Justice Center inmate roster is a person search, while the dashboard is a population tool. Each answers a different question.
Lookup St. Louis County Jail Inmates
Use the county Justice Services inmate-locator path and the public REJIS-hosted inmate locator for current St. Louis County Justice Center custody. The locator requires JavaScript and Google reCAPTCHA. Its base form uses last name and first name fields, each styled in uppercase and shown as required in the inspected source. Do not rely on the Jefferson County-only released-in-72-hours toggle or bond columns as St. Louis County features unless the county mode shows them during a live search.
- Open the county inmate locator from Justice Services or go to the REJIS public locator.
- Enter the person's last name and first name, using at least two characters in each field.
- Complete the reCAPTCHA prompt and run the search.
- Review the result for name, year of birth, race, sex, facility, and retrieved time.
- Open a linked detail record, then use Missouri Case.net for case disposition and filed court charges.
The successful manifest image from the REJIS inmate locator search page shows the public search form used for St. Louis County custody.
The form is a current-custody search. For a broader explanation of roster fields, see the St. Louis County jail inmate records page.
St. Louis County Jail Contact
The jail information line and facility contact point are Justice Services, not the Sheriff. Call the facility before travel when custody, visit status, bond, or property rules matter. If the person has not yet appeared in the locator, the arresting agency or St. Louis County Police non-emergency line may be the better first call for very recent police custody.
St. Louis County Justice Center
100 South Central Avenue
Clayton, MO 63105
314-615-5245
County jail and Justice Services information line
Bonding Office
Street level of the Justice Center
100 South Central Avenue
Clayton, MO 63105
Confirm payment methods before arrival.
St. Louis County Jail Visits
St. Louis County jail visits follow the county Justice Services schedule, not state prison approved-list rules. The county visitation page says public visiting runs daily, visits are 40 minutes, and the incarcerated person must schedule the visit through the Housing Unit Officer with at least 24 hours advance notice. Visitors should bring government photo identification, arrive early for security, and confirm that the visit was scheduled before going to Clayton.
The successful image from the county visiting information page documents the St. Louis County Justice Center visiting rules and Securus video visit route.
The visiting source supports the schedule below and shows why county jail visits differ from MECC state prison visits.
| Visit Type | Schedule or Length | Setup |
|---|---|---|
| In-person public visiting | Monday-Sunday, 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.; 40-minute periods | Inmate schedules through the Housing Unit Officer at least 24 hours ahead. |
| Video visitation | Through Securus Technologies | Use Securus online or call 1-800-844-6591. |
| Attorney visits | Not fully located in public snippets reviewed | Contact the facility or court channel before arrival. |
St. Louis County Jail Mail
Personal mail for the St. Louis County Justice Center is routed through a digital mail center. The resident handbook excerpt gives the format as the resident name and resident master number, St. Louis County Jail, P.O. Box 21227, Tampa, FL 33622. The county mail page also says Securus can be used to send email, photos, and short videos. Do not send packages, books, or photo mail unless the current handbook or facility staff confirms the item is allowed.
Money and phone access also use vendor systems. County source snippets identify Access Corrections and Access Secure Deposits for commissary cash accounts, while Securus is used for phone, tablet, video visit, and electronic messaging services. Phones are available in housing units and infirmary day rooms. Video phones are available for inmates who are deaf or hard of hearing.
| Service | Provider or Detail | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Personal mail | Digital mail center, P.O. Box 21227, Tampa, FL 33622 | Include resident name and resident master number. |
| Commissary deposits | Access Corrections | County page says to visit Access Corrections to send money. |
| Phone deposit | Access Secure Deposits, 866-345-1884 | Confirm current rules and fees before paying. |
| Phone, video, messages | Securus Technologies, 1-800-844-6591 | Used for calls, video visits, emails, photos, and short videos. |
St. Louis County Jail Booking
Booking starts after arrest and transfer into county custody. Staff confirm identity, create or update the jail record, take property, complete health and classification steps, and assign housing. The public locator can later show the name, year of birth, race, sex, facility, arrest date and time, release date and time if available, charges, case number, next court date, status, and a photo when the system returns one. A missing locator result does not prove release. It may mean the booking record has not posted, the person is still with the arresting agency, the search data is wrong, or the person moved to another custody system.
Formal charges are not the same thing as booking charges. The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney reviews police referrals and warrant applications. Once a case is filed, the court record in Case.net becomes the place to check charges, docket entries, bond orders, warrants, and disposition. If the person is sentenced to state prison, the county roster may stop being useful after transfer, and the Missouri DOC Offender Web Search becomes the right lookup route.
St. Louis County Jail Records
When the roster does not show the record needed, use the St. Louis County public records portal. The county uses a CivicPlus/NextRequest intake at recordsrequest.stlouiscountymo.gov, and the county also publishes custodians of record for Sunshine request routing. A clear jail-record request should include full name, date or approximate date of arrest, year of birth or date of birth if known, arresting agency, case number if one exists, and the specific record requested, such as a booking record, photo, release date, or historical custody detail.
- Booking charge
- The allegation or warrant information entered during jail intake. It may change after prosecutor review.
- Filed charge
- The charge opened in court after the prosecutor files a complaint, information, or indictment.
- Detainer
- A hold from another court, agency, DOC, federal authority, or immigration authority that can affect release.
- Classification
- The jail review used to assign housing and manage safety, medical, and custody needs.
About St. Louis County Jail
The Justice Center is tied closely to downtown Clayton because the county courts, prosecutor, sheriff, public defender, police functions, and county government offices sit nearby. Local history in the research notes prior jail space in Clayton and a separate Adult Correctional Institution in Chesterfield/Gumbo before detention functions were consolidated near the courts. The Justice Center is described as a direct-supervision jail, which means officers work close to housing areas rather than only from a remote corridor.
Recent St. Louis County reporting has focused on population pressure, staffing, and leadership changes. April 2026 reporting quoted county officials saying the jail had reached or exceeded the cited operating capacity, with most people in custody awaiting trial. Safety and Justice Challenge material also describes pretrial supervision work, reentry support, and connections to substance-use and mental-health services. The county Community Corrections page states that the division provides reentry services for incarcerated people.
Note: Confirm custody, visit approval, and mail rules with Justice Services before traveling or sending funds.