Lewis County Jail Inmate Lookup

Lewis County Jail Overview

Lewis County Jail is operated by the Lewis County Sheriff's Office Corrections Bureau. The jail is in Chehalis and holds adults booked by the Sheriff's Office, municipal agencies, courts, warrants, Washington State Patrol activity, other-agency holds, and short local sentences. It is the primary adult custody facility for the county, and it is separate from Lewis County Juvenile Detention and Green Hill School. Those facilities serve different youth custody populations and do not use the adult jail roster.

The jail's official public address is 28 SW Chehalis Avenue, Chehalis, WA 98532. County research identifies Sheriff Robert R. Snaza as the current sheriff and Chief Chris Sweet as the Corrections Bureau chief. The bureau includes custody, booking and transport, and administrative functions. Local pages describe a jail remodeled in 2005, approximately 69,000 square feet, and supported by contracts for medical care and mental-health treatment.

The official Lewis County Sheriff's Corrections/Jail page is the source for the jail's local operations overview, contact route, bureau structure, and annual-report context.

That county page is the best starting source for facility identity, while the separate roster application is the best starting source for current custody status.

Lewis County Jail Capacity and Population

The Lewis County Jail 2024 Annual Report gives the most useful capacity and population figures for this facility. It lists a rated capacity of 356 and a funded-FTE operating basis of 250. The 2024 average daily population was 163, with male and female average daily population reported as 131 and 32. The report also lists 3,008 bookings, 3,032 releases, and a 9-day average length of stay for 2024.

Those figures show that the adult jail's 2024 average daily population was below both the rated capacity and the funded staffing basis. That should not be read as a promise that any specific bed, unit, or classification placement is available. Classification, medical status, mental-health needs, gender separation, staffing, and safety restrictions can affect how jail space is actually used.

How to Look Up an Inmate at Lewis County Jail

The official lookup for this facility is the Lewis County Jail roster. The same roster application also has recent bookings and completed releases. For broader record context, the Lewis County inmate records page explains how the roster, court records, state DOC search, federal locators, and public-record requests fit together.

The roster is not a multi-field search form. It is a public table with a filter row labeled "Filter List by Last Name." Current roster rows show name, jail number, booked-at time, and a release-notification link. Expanding a row can show arrest date, arresting agency, court, billing agency, bond type, bond amount, warrant or citation number, and charge description. The roster research did not observe public booking photos.

The current roster screenshot below comes from the official Lewis County Jail roster.

Use the jail number shown in the roster carefully because mail rules require both the inmate name and ID number.

1. Open the current jail roster for people held now, the bookings page for recent intake, or the completed-release page for people released in the last 24 hours.
2. Type the last name into the roster filter. If the name is common, compare the jail number and booked-at time.
3. Open or expand the row and review every charge row, because bond type, warrant number, court, and status can vary by charge.
4. Use the per-person Register link for VINELink custody notification when release notification is the goal.
5. If the person is missing, check completed releases, call the jail at (360) 748-9241, search Washington DOC for state custody, and consider BOP or ICE locators for federal or immigration custody.

Lewis County Jail Address and Contact

The jail phone line is the 24/7 corrections contact route listed for the Corrections Bureau. Jail Administration has a separate weekday phone and email. For public-record requests, use the Sheriff's Office Records Division and Public Records Officer rather than asking jail staff to release protected jail records over the phone.

The basic jail information page publishes lobby hours, release timing rules, medication drop-off notes, and limits on messages, court dates, and release-date questions.

Before traveling, use the jail's current page or phone line to confirm lobby access, medication instructions, and any rule that depends on the inmate's status.

Visiting Someone at Lewis County Jail

Lewis County Jail uses HomeWAV for video visitation. The official visitation page says visitors should register as early as possible because approval can take up to 72 hours, not counting weekends or holidays. A visitor must upload photo ID and a front-facing photo, and the account name must match the ID. Jail lobby visits require ID, and visitors should arrive 5 to 10 minutes early. Minors under 18 are not allowed in the jail lobby, so minor visits must use remote visiting from home or a phone application.

All visits can be recorded or monitored, and all visitors and possessions are subject to search before and after lobby visiting. Disruptive conduct, inappropriate dress, or attempts to introduce contraband can stop a visit and affect future privileges. HomeWAV visitor support is listed in the research as 1-844-394-6639.

The visitation screenshot below comes from the Lewis County Jail visitation information page.

The HomeWAV page controls current account, cost, and approval details, so check it again before scheduling a visit.

Mail, Phone, and Money at Lewis County Jail

Lewis County Jail separates ordinary scanned mail from legal mail, money orders, court documents, bank statements, books, and publications. Regular postal mail is sent to the SmartJailMail processing address, scanned, made available on inmate kiosks, and then destroyed after electronic processing. Mail without both the inmate name and ID number is returned to sender. Legal mail and money orders go directly to the jail facility address in Chehalis.

The mail rules screenshot below comes from the Lewis County Jail contacting an inmate page.

Because regular mail is scanned and destroyed after processing, send legal mail, money orders, court documents, approved publications, and similar excluded materials to the facility address instead of the scanning address.

Commissary and account deposits use JailATM. The official Lewis County Jail commissary page explains the online deposit flow and account-debt rule.

The debt-recovery rule is important for families because incoming funds may not all remain available for commissary purchases.

Booking and Intake at Lewis County Jail

Booking begins when an arresting agency transports a person to Lewis County Jail or a court remands the person into custody. The Booking/Transport Division handles booking and release during normal business hours, while custody staff can also perform transport, booking, and release duties outside that division's regular functions. Once the person is entered into jail records, the roster or bookings page may show the name, jail number, booked-at time, charge rows, court and billing agency codes, bond type, bond amount, warrant or citation number, and VINELink registration link.

The official bookings screenshot below comes from the Lewis County Jail bookings list.

Recent booking data should be read as jail intake information, not as the final court record. Charges can be amended, dismissed, referred, transferred, or filed differently by the court of record.

The Administrative Division's Classification Deputy reviews risk scores and criminal history to decide appropriate housing. That role also handles inmate infraction hearings and monitors visitation, phone calls, and mail for possible violations. NaphCare provides inmate medical services, and Cascade Mental Health provides mental-health counseling and treatment. The basic jail page says medication drop-off must be arranged with jail medical and that most medication is not accepted without jail medical authorization.

Release timing has several official limits. Staff will not answer questions about release times or additional release-date information. The roster landing page says general release times can range from 0530 to 2000 hours. If a person is released by court, bail, or bond after 7:00 AM, release is usually at 11:00 AM or between 3:00 PM and 5:00 PM. If bond or bail release happens after 4:30 PM, processing and release occur after 8:00 PM. After the person leaves, the completed-release tab is the source to confirm the release.

Jail Records, Confidentiality, and Public Access

Washington public-record law and local jail-record law both matter for Lewis County Jail records. RCW 42.56.070 generally requires agencies to make public records available unless an exemption applies. RCW 42.56.520 governs prompt agency responses to public-record requests. Lewis County's Sheriff's request form treats the form as the five-day response and says staff will contact the requester if processing takes longer.

Jail records have a narrower rule. RCW 70.48.100 makes the jail register open to the public but protects other records of a confined person. The Sheriff's records page specifically says jail records including booking photos are protected. That is why the public roster can show names, booking numbers, booked-at times, charge rows, bond information, and release notification links without making every jail record or booking photo public.

Use the Sheriff's Records Division for booking records or older jail information that is not visible online. The official request path includes publicrecords@lewiscountywa.gov, the county public-records portal, the Records Division counter at 345 W. Main Street, and the public-record request form. A basic arrestee information section can include name, date of birth, booked and released dates and times, manner of release, and cause of confinement, but redactions may apply for active investigations, juvenile information, medical information, criminal-record privacy, broader jail records, and privacy-protected material.

About Lewis County Jail

The Sheriff's history gives the jail strong local context. Lewis County's first elected sheriff served in 1847-1848, when the first census counted a county population of 275. The county seat moved from Claquato to Chehalis in 1872. The Lewis County Jail was established in 1900, had 210 prisoners booked in 1909, saw a Chehalis jail built in 1926, and had a new jail constructed in 1985 with a staff of 24 and about 4,000 prisoners housed per year. The current jail was later remodeled in 2005.

The facility also serves a broader local agency map. Centralia does not operate its own jail, and official Centralia material says offenders are housed at Lewis County Jail. Napavine Municipal Court says the city contracts with the Lewis County Sheriff's Office for jail services. That is why Chehalis, Centralia, Napavine, state patrol, county sheriff, district court, municipal court, Superior Court, DOC, and U.S. Marshals indicators can all appear in local custody research.

For a county-wide view of the adult jail, youth detention, Green Hill School, state DOC transfers, and federal or immigration lookup routes, start at the Lewis County inmate population hub. It separates the adult jail roster from state juvenile rehabilitation and sentenced state-prison custody, which prevents a common lookup mistake.