Search Union County Jail Inmates

Union County Jail Roster Overview

The Union County Sheriff's Office keeps the jail and posts the inmate roster online. Sheriff Eddie Cathey leads the office. He was sworn in on December 1, 2002, and was named the county's first six-term elected sheriff in 2024. The office is one of the largest full-service law enforcement agencies in the state. The detention center sits on Presson Road, well away from the downtown courthouse. The roster runs on a system called P2C, and it shows a live table of people in custody. The data shifts all day as new people are booked and others bond out or move on.

The roster is a current-custody tool. It does not list everyone ever booked. Once a person leaves county custody, they usually drop off the list. The roster also does not cover state prison inmates, federal inmates, or immigration detainees. Those people show up in other systems. For state custody, the search tool is the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. Federal inmates appear in the Bureau of Prisons locator.

Public roster data is limited by design. You will see the basics. You will not see investigative notes, juvenile records, medical flags, or security classifications. Those are not public.

The screenshot below comes from the Union County Sheriff's Office inmate inquiry page, the official roster portal for the county jail.

That P2C page is the same tool used for every Union County inmate search, so the layout stays steady from one visit to the next.

How to Use the Union County Inmate Roster

The roster is easy once you know the flow. Start with a last name. A first name narrows a common surname. Then read the result rows and open a record for more. The steps below walk through a standard Union County inmate search from start to finish.

1. Open the Sheriff's inmate inquiry page, which loads the P2C roster.
2. Type a last name in the search box. Add a first name if the last name is common.
3. Run the search and review the result table for the name, primary charge, arrest date, and booking agency.
4. Click the Details link on a row to open the fuller inmate view where available.
5. Note the booking date and leading charge if you plan to call the jail or post bond.
6. If no row appears, the person may have been released, moved to state or federal custody, or never held in this jail.

A blank result does not prove a release on its own. Confirm by phone if it matters.

Union County Inmate Search Fields

The P2C inmate inquiry keeps the search simple. It takes a name and returns the current roster rows that match. There is no required field in the strict sense, but a last name gives the cleanest result. The table lists what the portal accepts.

Each result row carries a short set of columns. The list below shows what you can expect to read at a glance.

• Name - last, first, and middle, with a short demographic note such as race, sex, and age in parentheses.
• Primary Charge - a text label for the leading charge.
• Arrest Date - the date in month, day, year form.
• Booking Agency - the agency that booked the person, such as the Union County Sheriff's Office.
• Details - a link to a fuller view of the record.

What a Union County Inmate Profile Shows

The roster row is the summary. The Details link opens more where the system has it. Not every field is public, and some only appear in the detail view, not the main table. The two-column table maps each field to what it tells you. Treat anything not listed here as not confirmed public.

Bond, court dates, and housing pods are not part of the public roster table. The roster also does not flag medical or protective-custody status, and you should not assume it. To track the court side of a charge, use the Union County arrest records page or the full Union County court records portal.

Union County Jail Facility

The county runs one detention center. It has a rated capacity of 264 beds. The jail and the Sheriff's main office sit on the same Presson Road campus, though the mailing addresses differ by one street number. The jail mail address is 3344 Presson Road. The Sheriff's main address is 3370 Presson Road. The contact cards below break out each one so you send mail and calls to the right place.

The detention center medical line is 704-283-3530. Use that line for medication questions, not for general inmate status checks.

Booking Process in Union County

Booking starts after an arrest. Officers bring the person to the detention center for intake. Staff confirm who the person is, search them, take a photo, and take fingerprints. The intake also screens for medical and mental health concerns. When the law calls for it, the person goes before a magistrate or judicial official who sets the first conditions of release.

Bond is set by the court or magistrate, not the jail. It can take several forms. A secured bond needs cash or a surety. An unsecured bond is a promise to pay if the person fails to appear. A written promise to appear carries no money. A judge may also order custody release or no bond, depending on the charge and the law. Once bond is met, the jail processes the release.

Roster timing lags real life. A new booking has to be entered before it shows online, and that takes time. So a person can be in custody before the public roster lists them.

Union County Jail Visitation Hours

Visits run through the detention center and are scheduled in advance. The jail allows up to two 25-minute visits per day. The visiting window runs Thursday through Sunday, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Onsite visits happen only on Saturdays and Sundays. Offsite video visits run on other days through the provider. The schedule table lays out the week.

Only one adult age 16 or older may attend a scheduled visit. One youth age 15 or younger may come along with that adult. Visitors must bring a valid U.S.-issued ID. Visits are scheduled through ICSolutions, and offsite video can run on the ICS mobile app or a PC.

How to Contact a Union County Inmate

Mail, calls, and video are the main ways to reach someone in the jail. Each has its own rules, and the jail returns mail that breaks them. Get the address format right the first time so your letter does not bounce back.

Mail goes to the inmate at the detention center address. Put the inmate name and ID number on the envelope, then 3344 Presson Road, Monroe, NC 28112. Your full return name and address must sit in the top left corner. If the required information is missing, the jail returns the envelope to the sender. The detention center does not allow cash, checks, money orders, books, food, or explicit material through the mail.

The screenshot below is the Sheriff's P2C daily bulletin page, which logs recent arrests, citations, and incidents by date.

The daily bulletin is not a release log, but it can show a recent arrest before the full roster updates.

Calls and video run through ICSolutions. You can set up a phone account or a video account through the vendor. Phone account support is 888-506-8407. Video visit support is toll free at 888-646-9437. Both use the email customer@ICSolutions.com. There is also TextBehind, a mobile app that lets family and friends send text messages, photos, and letters to inmates housed in the Union County Detention Center.

Commissary and Inmate Money

Money for an inmate goes into a trust account, not through the mail. You can add funds two ways. Use the Jail ATM kiosk at the jail, or deposit online at JailATM.com. The detention center does not accept cash, checks, or money orders sent by mail for this.

The kiosk and the website both let approved senders move money to a specific inmate. The inmate then uses the account for commissary and phone time. Official pages did not publish the JailATM fee schedule, the commissary item list, or any spending limit, so check the kiosk or JailATM.com for current terms.

Recent Arrests and Records Not Shown Publicly

The Sheriff also posts a recent arrests page. It lets you filter by race, sex, and age and shows people booked in a recent window. The page carries a clear disclaimer that the people shown have been arrested but not convicted at the time of posting. An arrest is a charge, not a finding of guilt.

The image below is the Sheriff's P2C recent arrests page.

Use the recent arrests page as a snapshot, then move to the roster or the court portal for the current status of a charge.

Plenty of detention records never reach the public roster. Investigative files, juvenile information, medical details, and security classifications stay private by law. The roster is a thin public slice, not the full jail file. For sentenced state custody, search the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. For federal custody, use the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator. To follow someone after they leave county custody, the released inmates page maps the state and federal tools.

Related Union County Inmate Searches

For people recently let go, see released inmates. For jail capacity and population data, see inmate population. For active warrants and most-wanted notes, see warrant records. For the court case behind a booking, see arrest records.