How Washington jails are organized
Each county in Washington runs its own jail, and each has its own page here. Seattle is King County. Tacoma is Pierce. Everett is Snohomish — the three Puget Sound sheriffs. Spokane is Spokane County. Vancouver is Clark County, opposite Portland. Olympia is Thurston. Yakima and Kennewick-Pasco-Richland (Benton/Franklin) are the east-side split. Olympia is the state capital, but arrests are booked in the county where they happen.
Sheriffs run county jails. King County also has the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention (King County Jail, Maleng). WA DOC (Monroe, Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Mission Creek) is prison. SPD holding is not the King County roster. This site currently has live roster pages for 9 of 39 counties (10 jail pages, 12,211 records tracked). The other 30 counties have a jail information page with lookup steps and contacts; until a roster feed is connected, the sheriff or detention center is the official source for who is in custody there.
Finding someone in a Washington jail
King, Pierce, and Snohomish publish inmate searches. Clark County, Washington is not Multnomah, Oregon. No statewide sheriff merge. If you know the county, open its roster above and search by name or charge. If you only know the city of arrest, find which county the city is in first.
Superior Court is the felony court in the county. King County’s Seattle and Kent campuses are a trap of their own. District and municipal courts handle misdemeanors. The courthouse and the jail are often in different buildings. Confirm the facility name on the booking paperwork or with the attorney before you travel.
Bond, visits and money in Washington
Washington’s bail practice is not Oregon’s. A Portland bondsman does not cover Clark County, Washington automatically. King County has its own window culture. Bond amounts shown on a roster can change after the first court appearance. CurrentPrisonList does not post bail or accept payments.
King County Jail in Seattle is not the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. Pierce is Tacoma. Clark is Vancouver, not Portland’s Justice Center. Dress codes, video-visit providers and appointment times are set by each jail. Check the sheriff's website on the day of the visit.
Travel and common mistakes in Washington
SEA for King and Snohomish. GEG for Spokane. PDX is an Oregon airport that serves Clark County families — the roster may still be Washington. I-5 does not merge King with Pierce. Take the jail address from the sheriff's website or from the contact section of the county page, not from a generic map search.
A common mistake: mixing Seattle and Kent facilities, or treating Vancouver, Washington as Portland, Oregon’s jail. Neighboring states have their own state pages on this site.