Berkeley Public Safety Center Inmate Lookup

Berkeley Public Safety Center / Berkeley City Jail Overview

The official City of Berkeley page identifies Berkeley City Jail at 2100 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley, CA 94704, with phone (510) 981-5766. The page states that the jail is open 24/7 and can hold up to 40 detainees. The RAJ/BSCC July 2024 adult facility table lists Berkeley Public Safety Center as a Type I local detention facility with 38 rated capacity. Those two capacity statements are close, but they come from different sources, so both should be read as official context rather than forced into one number.

Berkeley City Jail is a municipal facility for short-term detention between arrest and arraignment. It is useful for very recent Berkeley-area arrests, initial booking questions, and local custody before transfer. It is not the main Alameda County jail population system. After a person is moved to Santa Rita Jail, the public lookup path changes to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office Inmate Locator and the Santa Rita Jail phone line.

The RAJ initial-booking table shows Berkeley Public Safety Center may be used by Berkeley PD and several other agencies in some circumstances, including Alameda PD, Albany PD, BART, CHP, DA court-ordered bookings, Emeryville PD, Piedmont PD, San Leandro PD, UC Berkeley PD, and others. That does not mean every arrest by those agencies stays in Berkeley. It means local booking routes can be more complex than a single countywide destination.

Berkeley City Jail Capacity and Population

The available research supports capacity, not a current daily population count. Berkeley's city page says the jail can hold up to 40 detainees. The 2024 RAJ/BSCC table lists 38 rated capacity. No official current point-in-time population count for Berkeley City Jail was captured in the research file. Because this is a short-term city jail, daily occupancy can change quickly as people are released, transported to court, or transferred to Santa Rita Jail.

How to Look Up Someone Connected to Berkeley City Jail

For a very recent Berkeley arrest, contact Berkeley City Jail directly at the official jail phone number or check with the arresting agency. For public county jail custody after transfer, use the Alameda County Sheriff's Office Inmate Locator. The county locator uses PFN, first and last name, sex, DOB, phonetic search, and a last-24-hours bookings filter. If the arrest has resulted in a formal criminal case, use the Alameda Superior Court criminal Odyssey portal or the relevant criminal records office.

1. Start with Berkeley City Jail if the arrest happened recently and transfer status is unknown.
2. Search the ACSO inmate locator if the person may have been moved to Santa Rita Jail.
3. Use first and last name, PFN if known, and the phonetic checkbox when spelling is uncertain.
4. Check Alameda Superior Court records for filed charges, court dates, and warrants after the jail stage.

Do not assume Berkeley maintains a full public online roster comparable to Santa Rita Jail. The official city source provides a facility listing, phone, hours, capacity, and visiting hours, but the research did not capture a separate Berkeley online inmate search portal.

Berkeley City Jail Address and Contact

The official city page provides the clearest public contact details for Berkeley City Jail. Use this line for short-term local custody questions, visiting schedule confirmation, and whether a person has been released or transferred. Once a transfer to Santa Rita occurs, custody verification should move to the sheriff locator or Santa Rita Jail at (925) 551-6500.

Visiting Someone at Berkeley City Jail

Berkeley is the rare municipal jail in the Alameda facility map with public visiting hours captured from an official city page. The city page lists weekday visiting from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and weekend/holiday visiting from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Because short-term custody can change quickly, call before traveling and confirm that the person is still at Berkeley City Jail and eligible for a visit.

Mail, Phone, and Money at Berkeley City Jail

The research did not capture a Berkeley-specific commissary, deposit, long-term mail, or video-visiting program. That is consistent with the facility's short-term role. For people who remain in custody after initial processing, long-term mail, phone, video, and money questions usually become Santa Rita Jail questions after transfer. Santa Rita's non-privileged mail routing, legal mail rules, and ViaPath/GettingOut video systems should not be copied onto Berkeley City Jail unless Berkeley publishes matching instructions.

Booking and Transfer at Berkeley City Jail

Berkeley City Jail can function as a booking and short-term detention point before arraignment. The RAJ report shows multiple agencies may use Berkeley Public Safety Center in some circumstances, but Santa Rita remains the primary county jail and long-term local custody facility. A person arrested in Berkeley may therefore move through several records systems: city jail contact for immediate custody, ACSO locator after county jail transfer, and Alameda Superior Court after the prosecutor files charges or a court appearance is scheduled.

About Berkeley Public Safety Center / Berkeley City Jail

Berkeley has one of the strongest municipal facility sources in the research. The official city material supplies an address, phone number, 24/7 hours, capacity language, and a public visiting schedule. The key limitation remains facility type: Berkeley City Jail is for short-term detention and arraignment-related custody, not a countywide public roster or a long-term sentenced jail population.

The countywide context matters here. Alameda County Health inspects local detention settings, including police jails and holding rooms, while the RAJ report separates city jails, temporary holding sites, and the Type II county jail. Berkeley sits in that short-term municipal layer. Santa Rita Jail remains the main public roster system once a person is moved into county custody.