Official agencies • Source hierarchy • Conflict resolution • Freshness
How We Select, Verify, and Recheck Sources
Our credibility depends on connecting readers to the agency that actually controls the information. This policy explains how we decide which sources deserve the most weight and how we handle conflicting or changing data.
Source Hierarchy
| Priority | Source | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Official county sheriff, jail, detention center, corrections division | Current roster, booking, custody, release, facility, visitation, mail, phone, and jail instructions. |
| 2 | Official county/local government | Agency structure, records requests, addresses, contacts, and public-service links. |
| 3 | Official court or clerk | Case number, docket, hearing, disposition, judgment, or court status not available from the jail. |
| 4 | Official state corrections or justice agency | State prison custody, transfer, statewide offender systems, or state-level corrections information. |
| 5 | Federal official source | Federal custody or federal court matters. |
| 6 | Secondary sources | Context only when needed; never preferred over the authority that maintains the record. |
Examples of Official National Fallbacks
For federal custody, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons provides an official inmate locator. For finding state and local government agencies, USAGov provides state/local government resources. Federal court matters may require the U.S. Courts/PACER system rather than a county jail roster.
These are examples of authoritative national resources. Local county jail questions should normally start with the responsible local sheriff/jail source.
How We Resolve Conflicts
- Ask which agency owns the data. We give more weight to the source responsible for the specific fact at issue.
- Check timestamps and update cycles. A current-custody page and a court docket may update at different times.
- Separate different questions. Jail custody, court disposition, state-prison custody, and criminal-history records are different datasets.
- Prefer current official material over archived summaries.
- If the conflict remains unresolved, disclose uncertainty. We do not fill gaps by guessing.
Verification Checklist Before Publication
- Does the link belong to the correct government or agency domain?
- Does the agency actually serve the county/location named in our guide?
- Does the search tool still load and expose the described fields?
- Is the information current-custody, historical, statewide, local, or another scope?
- Are there agency warnings about update delays, release dates, data accuracy, or permitted use?
- Is a court or corrections fallback needed to answer a different part of the user’s question?
- Have we added context that prevents a booking from being misrepresented as a conviction?
Freshness and Change
Custody information is unusually time-sensitive. People may be released, transferred, booked again, moved between facilities, or have their legal status changed by a court. A jail may also replace its software vendor or public portal without notice. We therefore treat source freshness as part of accuracy.
Report a broken or changed official source at info@countyjailrosters.org.
Independent educational and informational resource. Not a government, law-enforcement, court, corrections, legal, or consumer-reporting agency.
Public editorial contact: info@countyjailrosters.org
Last reviewed: October 10, 2026