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Buchanan County Jail Roster & Inmate Search

This page lists custody and booking records for Buchanan County Jail in St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri: legal name, booking number, booking date, listed charges and custody status. Records are synced from the county's official booking source. Below the roster you will find practical information on bond, inmate money, communication, visitation and Buchanan County court records.

Current Buchanan County jail roster

137 records in the latest sync — newest booking first

Show more records (87 remaining)

A jail roster is a custody record, not a court docket. Charges listed at booking are allegations, not convictions. Custody status, bond and release details change constantly, so confirm anything time-sensitive with Buchanan County Jail or the court. Official source: Buchanan County Sheriff's Office. If a record on this page is inaccurate, use our corrections and removal page.

Buchanan County Jail: address, phone and visiting

Call before you travel. Visitation at Buchanan County Jail is normally scheduled in advance and may be video-only, bonding hours can be shorter than the lobby's opening hours, and both change without much notice. The desk can also confirm whether someone booked in the last few hours is in custody, which a roster sync cannot do.

The federal facility dataset lists Buchanan County Jail with 224 beds as recorded in 2018, while 137 people appear on the roster published today. Read those two numbers side by side rather than as an occupancy rate: rated capacity is not a live figure, jails open and close housing units, and a roster counts everyone booked into the facility including people being held for other agencies.

Facility details from the DHS HIFLD Prison Boundaries dataset, last recorded 2018-03-26. We publish them as-is and do not independently verify them; if something here is wrong, tell us and we will correct it.

What this roster shows right now

Of the 137 people currently listed in Buchanan County, the most common reason recorded is drug offence at 20% of records, followed by assault or violence (16%) and theft or property (12%). A bond amount is published for 60% of these records, with a median of $5,000. The most recent booking on file is dated 2026-10-23.

Recent bookings in Buchanan County

Counting from the latest sync on 2026-10-23, 7 people were booked into Buchanan County Jail within a day, and 26 within the past week — that is 19% of everyone currently listed. Among the last day's bookings the most common recorded reason is traffic offence.

A high share of recent bookings means the roster turns over quickly and a name can appear and disappear within days. If you are looking for someone booked in the last few hours, they may not be in this sync yet — the booking desk is the only real-time source.

Figures are recomputed from Buchanan County's own roster at every sync and describe allegations recorded at booking, not convictions. Categories are derived from published charge text, and a record can fall into more than one. See the national data report for method and comparison.

What to do with this information

Posting bond in Buchanan County

Bond is set by a judge, usually at a first appearance within about 24 to 72 hours of booking. Until a bond amount is set, no one can be released. Once it is set you generally have two options: pay the full amount in cash directly to the detention center, which is refundable at the end of the case, or pay a licensed Missouri bail bondsman a non-refundable fee, typically around ten percent, to post the bond for you. Ask the jail which payment methods it accepts and whether bonding hours are limited.

Sending money to someone in custody

Most county jails use a third-party commissary vendor rather than accepting cash at the desk. You will normally need the person's full legal name and booking number, both shown on the roster above. Funds usually appear on the account within a few hours and are used for commissary, phone credit and messaging. Vendor fees vary, so check the amount charged before confirming a deposit.

Phone calls, mail and visitation

Calls are placed by the person in custody, not by you, and are recorded. Visitation is often scheduled in advance and may be video-only. Physical mail is inspected, and many facilities reject anything other than plain letters on white paper. These rules differ from county to county and change often, so verify them with Buchanan County Jail before making arrangements.

Finding the related Buchanan County court case

The roster shows custody, not court proceedings. To follow the case itself, including hearing dates, filings and final disposition, you need the Missouri court record system for Buchanan County. Search using the person's full legal name and, where possible, date of birth or case number.

If the person is not on the roster

They may have been released, transferred to another facility, held by a different agency, or booked too recently to appear in the latest sync. People serving longer sentences are usually held by the state department of corrections rather than a county jail, and appear in a separate state system.

Guides for what comes next

Each of these explains one step of the process in detail, written for people dealing with it for the first time rather than for lawyers.

Common questions

Other Missouri county jail rosters

Booking often happens in the county where the incident occurred rather than where the person lives, so neighbouring counties are worth checking when a search comes up empty.

All Missouri counties · Every published county · Guides