Search Potter County Jail Inmates

Potter County Jail Overview

Potter County Jail is the primary adult jail for Potter County and is operated under county government with Jail Board oversight. The county describes the jail as responsible for safe and secure detention, inmate housing, security operations, and access to necessary services. It also says the jail works with courts, law enforcement, and county administration, which fits the local custody path in Coudersport: arrest or court commitment first, jail custody when ordered, and court dockets for filed charges.

The jail is not a state prison, federal prison, or immigration detention center. It holds adults committed to local custody, including pretrial detainees, sentenced county inmates, and approved work-release inmates. Pretrial means the case has not reached final disposition. A sentenced county inmate is serving a local sentence rather than a state prison sentence. Work release is narrower still, because the jail page says it is a privilege, must be court ordered at sentencing, and is approved case by case by jail leadership.

The official Potter County Jail page is the best source for local rules on visits, mail, phones, commissary, and work-release property. Current custody, however, is not available through a county roster page. For a broader explanation of county custody channels, the Potter County inmate population hub also distinguishes local jail custody from state, federal, and immigration systems.

The county source image for the jail page shows the same contact and rule context used here. The screenshot comes from the official Potter County Jail page.

That source is important because it gives the local visit names, phone hours, mail limits, and commissary directions instead of a generic county jail script.

Potter County Jail Capacity

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections 2025 county-prison inspection schedule lists Potter County Jail at 102 East Second Street in Coudersport and gives the facility a rated capacity of 73 beds. Vera's county jail data also reports recent Potter County jail capacity as 73 in the 2015 through 2023 rows. Those figures describe rated bed capacity, not a live headcount on the day of a search.

The Vera 2023 row reports a Potter County jail population of 36, all shown in the pretrial custody field for that row, with 133 admissions and 145 discharges. Treat those as historical research figures. Potter County did not publish a live daily inmate population dashboard in the official sources reviewed, so a current custody check should still go through the jail phone, VINELink where available, or the relevant locator for another custody system.

Potter County Jail Inmate Lookup

No official Potter County public jail roster, recent-bookings feed, mugshot gallery, or released-inmate list was located on the county site. That means a Potter County Jail inmate lookup should not be treated as an online roster search. Start with the jail for current custody. Then use court, state, federal, or immigration systems only when the facts point there.

1. Call Potter County Jail at 814-274-9730 and ask what identifying information is needed to confirm current custody.
2. Search Pennsylvania UJS Case Search for filed charges, bail entries, docket events, warrants, and future court dates.
3. Use Pennsylvania VINELink for custody status and notification where the person is covered by the service.
4. Search the Pennsylvania DOC locator if the person may have been sentenced to state prison or placed under DOC supervision.
5. Use the BOP inmate locator for federal custody and the ICE detainee locator for civil immigration detention.

These systems answer different questions. The jail phone is for current local custody. UJS is for court records after charges are filed and is not a live jail count. DOC covers state-sentenced inmates and parolees, not county-facility inmates. BOP and ICE do not cover routine Potter County Jail bookings. If a caller only has an old arrest date or a common name, the court docket or a written records request may be needed to separate people with similar names.

Potter County Jail Contact

The jail's published contact block is the right starting point for current custody and facility procedure questions. The sheriff's office is nearby in the county government area, but the sheriff page focuses on civil process, court services, courthouse security, inmate transport, and firearm permits. For a person who may be housed at Potter County Jail, use the jail line first rather than treating the sheriff page as a roster.

Use the open-records process when a copy of a nonpublished jail-administration record is needed. Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know process preserves appeal rights, but criminal-history records and mugshots can be limited by other law. A written request should be narrow, dated, and clear about the record sought.

Potter County Jail Visits

Potter County uses three local visit categories: Face to Face Visitation, Remote CIDNET Visitation, and In-House CIDNET Visitation. Face-to-face visits occur in the administration/front-door access area, with the inmate and visitor separated by Plexiglas and using phone communication. Remote CIDNET uses a visitor's smartphone, computer, or capable device while the inmate uses a jail CIDNET unit. In-house CIDNET uses jail units in the visitation room and is listed by the county as free of charge.

Each visit is limited to 15 minutes per visitor. The jail permits 10 approved face-to-face visitors and 10 approved in-house CIDNET visitors on the inmate's visiting list. Remote CIDNET visitors are also limited to 10. Visiting lists may be changed only at the beginning of a new month, so a visitor who is not listed should not assume a same-day change is available.

Before traveling, confirm that the inmate is still housed at Potter County Jail and that the visit type has not been limited by discipline, classification, illness, transport, court, or facility needs. The county jail page did not publish a full dress code, visitor parking map, or ADA entry instruction in the source reviewed.

Note: Call the jail before any in-person visit because custody status and visit eligibility can change before the next posted time block.

Potter County Jail Mail

Mail, money, phone, and commissary rules are separate from custody confirmation. Potter County says incoming inmate mail is checked and that money, contraband, and unauthorized materials are not accepted through mail. Money for commissary must be a check or money order payable to Potter County Jail. The county also has a facility-specific JailCanteen Potter County Prison page for commissary shopping.

The manifest image below comes from the Potter County Prison JailCanteen page, which is relevant only to commissary ordering and resident selection, not a public custody roster.

Because JailCanteen is a store and payment workflow, custody should still be confirmed with Potter County Jail before relying on any resident-selection result.

CIDNET messages are checked. The county page says inappropriate material can suspend communication access. For newly incarcerated people, the jail accepts only new packaged whites, limited to four sets each of underwear, socks, and T-shirts, and only upon commitment. Work-release property is also limited and must be marked with the inmate's name.

Potter County Jail Records

Potter County Jail records do not all live in one public system. Custody status starts with the jail. Filed charges, bail, court events, and disposition are searched through UJS. State prison custody moves to the DOC locator after transfer. A federal sentence moves to BOP, and civil immigration custody moves to ICE. That separation matters because a person can leave Potter County Jail while the court case remains active in Potter County.

Booking photos require extra caution in Pennsylvania. Potter County did not publish a mugshot roster in the official sources reviewed. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's 2025 Mezzacappa decision treated mugshots as criminal history record information under CHRIA, so county jail mugshots should not be promised through an ordinary public-records request.

Potter County Jail Work Release

Work release at Potter County Jail is not automatic. The jail page says work release is a privilege, not a right. It must be court ordered by the judge at sentencing, and the Warden and Deputy Warden approve or disapprove it case by case. That means a sentence alone does not prove the inmate is eligible to leave for work.

Work-release items are limited to three sets of clothing and one pair of boots or shoes, and they must be marked with the inmate's name in permanent marker. Those limits are local jail rules, so family members should not send extra items through mail or bring property without confirming the current process first.

Pretrial detainee

A person held before conviction or final case disposition.

Sentenced county inmate

A person serving a local sentence at the county jail.

Work release

A court-ordered and jail-approved privilege for limited outside work.

Detainer

A hold or request from another agency that may affect release.

Potter County Jail Oversight

The Potter County Jail Board is part of local jail governance. Its page lists public meeting dates and members, including county court, prosecutor, sheriff, commissioner, and public representation. The Pennsylvania DOC Office of County Inspections and Services also inspects county correctional institutions under Chapter 95 standards. Those oversight channels are different from inmate lookup tools, but they explain why capacity, population, and occurrence reporting exist outside the jail's public web page.

The jail contact page lists Ricky Hurler as Deputy Warden, while county news reported his appointment as warden effective May 1 after Sheriff Kevin Siska served as interim warden. Because the live jail page and news language differ, leadership references should be confirmed on the current county page before being used for a formal letter or records request.