Berkeley County Inmate Records and Jail Roster Search

Berkeley County Jail Roster Overview

The official Berkeley County Sheriff's inmate lookup is the main public roster for current Hill-Finklea Detention Center inmates. The roster count captured on June 29, 2026 displayed 393 males and 56 females in current custody. The page also exposes a name field, charge search, arresting-agency dropdown, and date range of arrest. No fee or login requirement was located, although the Sheriff's website may require normal browser access with JavaScript and cookies.

The roster is a county jail tool. It does not replace the South Carolina Department of Corrections inmate search for sentenced prisoners, the BOP inmate locator for sentenced federal inmates, the ICE detainee locator for immigration custody, or VINELink South Carolina for custody notifications. If a person was arrested in Berkeley County but later sentenced to state prison, the county roster may no longer be the right system.

The Sheriff's detention center page gives the official Hill-Finklea contact and service information that supports roster follow-up.

Those phone numbers and service notes matter when the online roster is missing a recent booking, when release paperwork has just arrived, or when a family member needs to confirm video visitation or property release rules.

How to Use the Berkeley County Inmate Roster

Use the Sheriff's roster first for a current county jail booking. A broad name search is often better than an exact spelling guess because the official page says partial searches are allowed. The arresting-agency dropdown is especially useful in Berkeley County because Hill-Finklea receives arrestees from sheriff's deputies, municipal police departments, highway patrol agencies, and probation or parole authorities.

1. Open the official Berkeley County Sheriff's inmate lookup page.
2. Enter a last name, or use a partial name when spelling is uncertain.
3. Add charge wording only when the charge is known and the name search returns too many results.
4. Use the arresting-agency dropdown for Goose Creek, Hanahan, Moncks Corner, North Charleston, St. Stephen, Summerville, Highway Patrol, Probation and Parole, or other listed agencies.
5. Use the date range of arrest when the arrest date is known.
6. Open the matching result and compare booking date, current charges, arresting agency, bond amount if shown, and release clues.
7. If the person is not found after a very recent arrest, call Hill-Finklea Booking at 843-719-4876 or the 24-hour main line at 843-719-4546.

Berkeley County Roster Search Fields

The roster search fields should be read literally. The research did not confirm a separate booking-number field on the public web roster, and it did not expose the exact date format for the date range. The safest approach is to start with the name field, then add only the filters that are known.

What a Berkeley County Inmate Profile Shows

A Berkeley County inmate record is a jail custody record. It can help identify a person, the booking event, and the law-enforcement agency attached to the arrest. It should not be treated as a final criminal case record because prosecutor-filed charges, court events, bond orders, and dispositions belong in court records. Medical, mental-health, juvenile-protected, victim, safety, and investigative information may be withheld or redacted.

Finding County, State, Federal, ICE, and VINE Records

A missed roster result often means the wrong system is being searched. Hill-Finklea covers current county jail custody. SCDC covers sentenced state prisoners, including people at MacDougall Correctional Institution. BOP covers federal inmates from 1982 to the present. ICE locates people currently in ICE custody or in CBP custody more than 48 hours. VINELink is for custody status and notifications, not a complete jail or court file.

Berkeley County Jail Facilities

Berkeley County has one primary county jail and one separate SCDC prison in the facility map. The two locations should not be combined in a single search because they answer different custody questions.

Booking Process in Berkeley County

Booking starts when a listed arresting agency brings the person to Hill-Finklea or routes the person through the weekend transport process. The 2022 annual report noted that civilian booking clerks help process inmates, manage filing, and operate front desk controls. Property is inventoried, identity and charge paperwork are entered, a booking photo and identifying data go into the jail management system, and classification evaluates the person for housing and supervision.

South Carolina law generally requires a person charged with a bailable offense to have a bond hearing within 24 hours of arrest under Section 22-5-510. Hill-Finklea uses video bond hearings, which the Sheriff's division page says reduce manpower needs and increase security for victims and witnesses. After bond or release paperwork reaches the facility, the detention page says release can take 1 to 4 hours.

Visitation Schedule and Service Rules

Hill-Finklea's official detention page states that all visitation is conducted strictly through video visitation and directs users to create an account at SmartInmate. The official research did not capture visit length, price, cancellation rules, remote versus lobby distinctions, dress code, visitor ID rules, child-visitor rules, or a full schedule. Those gaps should be confirmed with the facility before a visit is planned.

Phone, In-Person, FOIA, and App Fallbacks

If the online roster does not answer the question, use a sequence that matches the record type. For a very recent arrest, call Hill-Finklea Booking at 843-719-4876 or the 24-hour main line at 843-719-4546. For jail records, call Hill-Finklea Records at 843-719-4557. For incident reports, the Sheriff's Records Management Office at 223 N. Live Oak Drive accepts in-person requests Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except county holidays.

For formal public-record requests, Berkeley County says FOIA requests must be submitted through the online portal and that email and fax FOIA submissions were discontinued on August 1, 2020. South Carolina FOIA supports access to jail-identification records, but exemptions can still protect law-enforcement sensitivity, privacy, safety, juvenile, victim, and other closed records.

How to Contact a Berkeley County Inmate

Communication rules depend on custody location. Hill-Finklea is a county jail with SmartInmate video visitation and county release, property, phone, mail, and commissary processes. MacDougall is an SCDC state prison, so families must use SCDC family guidance for visitation, mail, money, telephone calls, and packages. Do not use county jail money or video-visit assumptions for a state prisoner.

Before sending money, scheduling a visit, or mailing property-related material, confirm that the person is still in the expected facility. A person may be released, transferred to SCDC, held for another jurisdiction, routed into federal custody, or affected by an ICE detainer. The roster can lag behind intake or release paperwork, and Hill-Finklea's own release note allows 1 to 4 hours after documentation is received.

Commissary and Inmate Funds

The official detention page links to commissary and send-money services, and the division material references contract management for food services, inmate phone services, digital mail services, and video visitation. The research did not capture the current commissary vendor, deposit fees, accepted payment methods, or limits. Use Hill-Finklea's official detention page or phone numbers before making a deposit.