Dorchester County Jail Roster Overview
The official Dorchester County jail roster channel is the Sheriff's Office link to Citizen Connect Inmate Confinements. The portal is branded for the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office and shows Sheriff Sam Richardson. It can load current confinements and can also search recent admits, releases, names, charges, and arresting agencies. The county's own inmate lookup page points users to this Southern Software tool, which makes Citizen Connect the local starting point for current detainee information.
Dorchester County inmate records in Citizen Connect are booking records. They can identify the person, booking photo, arresting agency, booking time, arrest time, charges, and bond data when the portal displays those fields. They are not the same as a full criminal case file. After charges move into court, the case record, hearings, pleas, dispositions, and sentences are handled through the proper court channel. Court charge context may also appear in Dorchester County arrest records and court charges when a booking leads to a filed case.
The Citizen Connect home page is the source for the county sheriff portal shown below.
Use Dorchester County Inmate Search
The roster has several search paths. A direct current-confinement search is best when the person may be in custody now. Date-range searches help when checking whether a person was booked or released recently. Name, charge, and arresting-agency searches can help when the exact booking date is unknown, but name searches can miss a record if a name is spelled differently from the booking entry.
- Open Dorchester County Inmate Confinements from the Sheriff's Office inmate lookup route.
- Use Get Current Confinements for people who may be held now, or choose admits, releases, name, charge, or agency search tabs.
- Keep date ranges to 31 days or less when using admits or releases, because the portal displays that limit as visible error text.
- Review the result row for name, booking photo, arresting agency, booked date, arrest date, charge count, and bond total.
- Use View Full Details when available to read charge-level bond information and the BookingID-linked detail record.
The Inmate Confinements page is the manifest source for the booking search image below.
Dorchester County Inmate Search Fields
The Dorchester County inmate search is more flexible than a simple name-only roster. Current confinements can be pulled with a button, while historical custody activity can be searched by date range. The arresting-agency dropdown is also useful because a Dorchester County jail booking may list a local police department, South Carolina Highway Patrol, SLED, SCDC, ICE, U.S. Marshals, or another agency tied to the arrest.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Options / Format Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current Confinements | Tab/button | No | Get Current Confinements pulls active jail custody. |
| Get Last 24 Hour Admits | Button | No | Shortcut from the current confinements area. |
| Get Last 7 Days Admits | Button | No | Shortcut for recent jail admissions. |
| Admits by Date Range | Tab | No | Searches admits by custom or shortcut date range. |
| Releases by Date Range | Tab | No | Searches recent releases by date range. |
| Start date / End date | Date/text | No | MM/DD/YYYY datepicker; portal warns to limit ranges to 31 days or less. |
| First, Middle, Last Name | Text | No | Name tab fields for person searches. |
| Charge | Text | No | Charge tab placeholder example uses DUI. |
| Arresting Agency | Dropdown | No | Includes Dorchester County, Summerville PD, St. George PD, Ridgeville PD, Harleyville PD, North Charleston PD, SC Highway Patrol, SLED, SCDC, ICE, and U.S. Marshals. |
Note: Citizen Connect can require verification after repeated requests, so broad searches may need to be narrowed and retried later.
Dorchester County Inmate Profile Fields
A Dorchester County inmate profile should be read as a custody snapshot. It may show the arrest agency and bond figures, but the court record is the better source for later disposition. A charge shown at booking can be amended, dismissed, indicted, or resolved after the jail entry is created. For case outcomes, use the proper Circuit Court, Magistrate Court, or Municipal Court record source.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Total inmates count | The current count displayed by the portal result set. |
| Booking photo | The booking image if available; the portal has a no-mugshot fallback image. |
| Inmate name and demographics | The booked person's name and displayed descriptive data. |
| Booked date/time | When the booking entry was created or the booked label shown by the result. |
| Arresting agency | The law-enforcement agency tied to the booking. |
| Arrest date/time | The arrest timing shown in the booking result or detail view. |
| Bond total | The total bond amount visible for the booking when listed. |
| Charges count | The number of listed charges tied to the booking. |
| Charge description | The text description of each listed offense. |
| Bond per charge | Charge-level bond amount and bond type when available. |
| View Full Details | A BookingID-linked path to more detail for the selected booking. |
Dorchester County Jail Contacts
Dorchester County's accessible official detention text gives the Detention Center phone number and describes the mission as secure, safe, humane detention that complies with statutory mandates and constitutional requirements. It does not publish a detailed local visitation schedule, mail format, commissary vendor, money vendor, or phone-video vendor in the captured official text. For detention-specific rules, the phone line is the confirmed official access channel.
Dorchester County Sheriff's Office, Summerville
212 Deming Way
Summerville, SC 29483
(843) 832-0300
Administrative office hours: 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday, excluding holidays
Dorchester County Sheriff's Office, St. George
101 Ridge St. Suite 1
St. George, SC 29477
(843) 563-0259
Administrative office hours: 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday, excluding holidays
Dorchester County Detention Center
Detention-specific address details were not published in the accessible official source text.
(843) 832-0215
Call for current custody, visitation, mail, money, and facility-rule confirmation.
Dorchester County Booking Records
Booking starts after an arresting agency brings a person into county custody. Citizen Connect may then show the booked date, arrest date, agency, charge description, bond total, and charge-level bond. Central Bond Court is tied to the Summerville Magistrates Court at the Troy Knight Judicial Complex, and bond hearings are listed in the research at 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM daily, including weekends and holidays.
Release information can be searched through the same confinement portal by release date range. A release from the jail does not mean a criminal case has ended. It usually means the custody part changed while the court matter continues, unless the court record later shows dismissal, nolle prosequi, acquittal, guilty plea, conviction, or another final disposition.
Dorchester County Visitation and Mail
Official Dorchester County detention pages did not publish current local visitation, mail, commissary, money deposit, video visit, phone vendor, tablet, dress code, child visitor, or attorney visit rules in accessible text. The right build choice is to state the gap and point to the official confirmation channel, not to assume a private jail vendor or copy state-prison rules into a county jail context.
| Topic | Official Dorchester Source Result | Practical Access Channel |
|---|---|---|
| In-person visitation schedule | Not located in accessible official text | Call Detention Center at (843) 832-0215 |
| Video visitation | Not located in accessible official text | Call Detention Center |
| Visitor ID and dress code | Not located in accessible official text | Call Detention Center |
| Inmate mail format | Not located in accessible official text | Call Detention Center |
| Money deposits and commissary | Not located in accessible official text | Call Detention Center |
| Attorney visits | Not located in accessible official text | Call Detention Center |
| Detention public records | Sheriff records request page | Submit through the sheriff records request portal |
Note: State-prison mail and money rules apply after SCDC custody, not to a Dorchester County jail detainee unless an official source says so.
Dorchester County Jail vs SCDC
County jail custody and state prison custody are different systems. Dorchester County Citizen Connect is for county jail/current detainee searches. The SCDC public inmate search is for people currently sentenced to and incarcerated in the South Carolina Department of Corrections as of midnight the previous day. SCDC says the search does not provide information for offenders released from SCDC, sentenced to county detention facilities, or under parole, probation, or community supervision.
SCDC lists an inmate information line at 1-866-727-2846 and a data error email at Ombudsman@doc.sc.gov. SCDC family and support rules include state-prison mail format, inspection of mail, ViaPath/GTL ConnectNetwork deposits, TouchPay money orders, and package rules. Those details matter only after transfer to state custody. For Dorchester County jail mail or money rules, use the Detention Center phone line until an official local rule source is available.
The SCDC public inmate search is the source for the state-prison image below.
Dorchester County Custody Notifications
South Carolina VINELink provides free and confidential custody-status notification. VINELink is useful when a person needs alerts about custody changes rather than a one-time booking search. It should be treated as a notification service, not as the county's official jail roster or a court disposition source.
The Dorchester County and SLED sex offender registry is another separate system. It supports geographic search, name search, community notifications, FAQs, resources, contact, and sex-offender-registry removal information. Registry status is not the same as current jail custody. A person can appear in one system and not the other because each database serves a different legal purpose.
Dorchester County Detention Records Requests
Non-routine sheriff and detention records do not come from the public roster alone. The research notes that all public records requests intended for the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office, including the Detention Center, must be submitted to the online records request portal. For a public-records request outside the jail roster, prepare the person's full name, approximate date, record type, and the agency involved.
South Carolina public access is still limited by privacy and confidentiality rules. Jail booking information may be public, but juvenile matters, sealed court files, certain personal identifiers, and confidential law-enforcement records may be withheld or redacted. The roster is therefore a starting point. The originating agency and court record should be checked before relying on any booking entry as the final status of a case.