Surry County Jail Roster
The official Surry County inmate records channel for current county custody is the Surry County Sheriff's Office Inmate Confinements page in Southern Software Citizen Connect. It is the county jail roster for the Surry County Detention Center, which is operated by the Surry County Sheriff's Office. The public roster was inspected as a free, no-public-login search tool. It loads current confinement cards through the portal and includes a public header tied to Sheriff Steve C. Hiatt and the Surry County Sheriff's Office.
The roster covers current Surry County Detention Center detainees and recent admit searches shown by the portal. It does not cover every person with a Surry County court case, every past booking, or every person from the county who later moved to state or federal custody. If a person was sentenced and transferred to the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction, the county roster is no longer the right locator. If a federal case, U.S. Marshals movement, BOP sentence, or ICE hold is involved, the lookup path changes again.
The roster is live enough to change between checks. Research inspection on June 23, 2026 found a current-confinement count of 299 in one pass and 300 in another. Treat that as a dated snapshot only, not a fixed jail population number.
Use Citizen Connect Search
Citizen Connect gives several ways to search Surry County jail inmate records. The Current Confinements tab loads the live jail list. The Admits by Date Range tab is useful when the person may have been booked recently but is no longer in the current view. The Charges tab can search by a charge term, and the Arresting Agency tab can narrow results by the agency that made or entered the arrest.
- Open the Inmate Confinements page and confirm the agency header says Surry County Sheriff's Office.
- Let Current Confinements load. The page may show a loading message while current booking cards are retrieved.
- Use the name filter, agency filter, or sort controls in the result view. The portal defaults to a name sort in its source JavaScript.
- Open the View Full Details button on a booking card to see the public details page for that BookingID.
- If the person is missing, try Last 24 Hour Admits, Last 7 Days Admits, or a date range of 31 days or less.
- Search by charge or arresting agency when the name is uncertain. Local agency choices include Surry sheriff variants, Dobson Police Department, Elkin Police Department, Mount Airy Police Department, Pilot Mountain Police Department, NC Highway Patrol, probation/parole, and USMS entries.
The arresting-agency list is broad and can contain legacy names, abbreviations, spelling variants, and outside agencies. If a search by agency fails, return to a name or date search rather than assuming the person was never booked.
Surry Roster Search Fields
The Surry County roster is not a single last-name box. It is a tabbed Citizen Connect interface with current, recent, charge, and agency routes. A blocked or rapid user may encounter reCAPTCHA or a human-verification condition, so repeat searches should be paced.
The official Inmate Confinements portal is shown in the captured roster screenshot from the project manifest.
The screenshot reflects the public Citizen Connect channel that holds current confinements, admit searches, charge searches, and arresting-agency filters for Surry County inmate records.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current Confinements | Tab/button | No | Loads current booking cards through Get Current Confinements. |
| Get Last 24 Hour Admits | Button | No | Shows recent admits from the last day. |
| Get Last 7 Days Admits | Button | No | Shows recent admits from the last week. |
| Admits by Date Range | Tab | No | Uses a start and end date. The page warns to limit the range to 31 days or less. |
| Charge | Text | No | Searches charge text. The inspected placeholder example was DUI. |
| Arresting Agency | Dropdown | No | Large local and outside-agency list with abbreviations and variants. |
| Search/filter current results | Text/filter | No | Result JavaScript references name search, agency filter, sorting, and pagination. |
Surry Inmate Profile Fields
Surry County inmate records appear as card-style booking records, not as one long public spreadsheet. The inspected public cards and booking-detail response displayed a booking photo slot, full name, demographic line, date of birth, booked date, arresting agency, arrest date and time, bond total when present, charge count, charge descriptions, and per-charge bond details when available.
Several fields often expected by readers were not visible in the inspected sample. The public card did not show housing unit, exact cell, pod, projected release date, court date, warrant number, magistrate name, height, weight, eyes, hair, address, Social Security number, phone number, medical flags, attorney, or a public release date. Fields can also vary by booking.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Name | Full name in the booking card or detail header. |
| Booking photo | Mugshot slot when available, with a fallback image if no photo appears. |
| Demographics | Age, race code, and sex code in one public line. |
| Date of Birth | DOB in MM/DD/YYYY format. |
| Booked | Booking date after jail intake. |
| Arresting Agency | Agency name or code tied to the arrest or confinement entry. |
| Arrest Date/Time | Date plus 24-hour time when shown. |
| Bond Total | Total bond amount when entered in the public card. |
| Charges | Charge descriptions with a count badge. |
| Per-charge bond | Bond amount and type, such as secured bond, when shown for a charge. |
| Full details | Booking-details link by BookingID. |
County Roster vs NCDAC
Many lookup errors come from searching the right name in the wrong custody system. The Surry County jail roster is for local detention at the Surry County Detention Center. The North Carolina Department of Adult Correction criminal offender searches page is for state prison offenders, probationers, parolees, and historical state records back to 1972. NCDAC states that its records do not include local county jail data.
Federal and immigration records are separate from both county and state systems. The BOP Inmate Locator covers federal inmates from 1982 forward. The ICE Online Detainee Locator searches adult immigration detainees by A-number or biographical data. Surry County is also in the U.S. Marshals Service Middle District of North Carolina, so federal pretrial movement may not remain visible through the Surry jail roster after transfer.
| Custody Type | Where to Look | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Pretrial or local jail custody | Surry County Citizen Connect Inmate Confinements | Current detainees and recent admits at the county detention center. |
| Sentenced state prison, probation, or parole | NCDAC Offender Public Information Search | North Carolina state prison and community supervision records, not county jail records. |
| Federal sentence | BOP Inmate Locator | Federal inmates from 1982 to present. |
| Immigration detention | ICE Online Detainee Locator | Adult ICE detainees; no search for people under 18. |
| Custody notifications | VINELink / NC SAVAN | Notification service for custody changes across several North Carolina custody categories. |
Custody check: A missing roster entry can mean release, transfer, state prison movement, federal custody, ICE detention, or a record outside the current public date window.
Surry Inmate Access Channels
The online roster is the first stop, but it is not the only way to resolve Surry County inmate records. For a live custody question, call the Surry County Detention Center at 336-401-8975. For general sheriff non-emergency contact, use 336-401-8900. For court case status after booking, the jail roster is not enough. The Surry County Clerk of Superior Court and the North Carolina Judicial Branch portal handle court files, dates, and dispositions.
North Carolina public-records law also matters. N.C. G.S. 132-1 defines public records broadly, and N.C. G.S. 132-6 covers inspection and copies. But N.C. G.S. 132-1.4 gives criminal investigation and criminal intelligence records special treatment. That is why a jail booking card, a court file, an incident report, and a booking photo do not always have the same access rule.
- Roster: use Citizen Connect Inmate Confinements for current custody and recent admit searches.
- Phone: call detention at 336-401-8975 or sheriff non-emergency at 336-401-8900.
- In person: use Dobson jail or county offices only after confirming hours and entry rules.
- Records request: contact sheriff or detention staff for jail records. Use NCDAC records only for NCDAC offenders.
- State DOC: use NCDAC when a sentenced person leaves county jail for state custody.
- BOP and ICE: use federal locators when federal or immigration custody is involved.
- VINELink and app: use NC SAVAN/VINELink for notifications and the Surry County Sheriffs Office app for official mobile access to recent arrests, incidents, anonymous tips, and contacts.
Surry Jail Contact Card
The Surry County Detention Center is the direct local contact for jail custody and detention records questions. The sheriff's general non-emergency line is better for non-urgent law-enforcement contact outside a jail-specific question.
Surry County Detention Center
219 Snow Street
Dobson, NC 27017
336-401-8975
Detention administration, jail records, transport and custody questions.
Surry County Sheriff's Office
218 N Main St
Dobson, NC
336-401-8900
Non-emergency sheriff contact and Citizen Connect agency fallback.
Surry Visitation Schedule
Surry County Detention Center visitation is video-based through the official county visitation rules and PayTel Connect. All visits must be scheduled 24 hours in advance. Remote social visits cost $0.30 per minute, while on-site lobby monitor visits are free but still require scheduling. Visitors are told to log in 5 minutes before the visit starts, and the county warns that cell phone connections do not work very well for remote visits.
The official visitation page also separates professional visitors from ordinary social visits. Law enforcement officers, detectives, probation officers, attorneys, paralegals, and interpreters may visit daily from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Religious leaders are not treated as professional visitors under the county's note.
| Visitor Type | Schedule / Rule | Cost | Channel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Remote family or social video | Schedule 24 hours in advance; log in 5 minutes early. | $0.30 per minute | PayTel Connect |
| On-site lobby video | Schedule 24 hours in advance; use jail lobby monitors. | Free | PayTel Connect scheduling |
| Professional visitor | Monday through Sunday, 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. | Not stated | Professional visit process |
| Religious leader | Not treated as a professional visit. | Not stated | Follow non-professional rules unless approved. |
Mail, Phone, and Money
Surry County uses scanned non-legal mail. Non-legal mail goes to the Greensboro processing address with Facility ID Number 5188, not directly to the Snow Street jail. The envelope must include the facility name, inmate name, inmate ID number, and Facility ID Number 5188 or it will not be scanned. Legal mail, privileged mail, and money orders go to the Dobson P.O. Box, and legal mail must be marked Legal Mail.
Phone service is through PayTel Communications. Each housing area has two phones. Inmates may place collect calls or use a PayTel account to call other numbers, but the county warns that most cell phone providers do not accept collect calls because of billing issues. Commissary services are provided by McDaniel Supply Company, and online deposits or packages use JailPackStore.
| Service | Surry County Rule |
|---|---|
| Non-legal mail | Surry County Detention Center, inmate name and ID, Facility ID Number 5188, P.O. Box 18247, Greensboro, NC 27419. |
| Legal mail / money orders | Surry County Detention Center, inmate name and ID, P.O. Box 827, Dobson, NC 27017. Mark legal mail Legal Mail. |
| Phone account | PayTel Communications, with account support through PayTel. |
| Commissary | McDaniel Supply Company provides commissary services. |
| Deposits | Money order by mail or delivery, lobby kiosk, or JailPackStore online deposit. |
| Account limit | Maximum inmate account amount is $200 under the official property page. |
Note: Confirm custody before sending money. Surry says mistaken deposits are not refunded to outside senders.