Berkeley County Jail Inmate Search & Roster, SC

Berkeley County, South Carolina · Hill-Finklea Detention Center · Information reviewed October 27, 2026

Find a Berkeley County Inmate and Verify Current Custody

If you are trying to find someone arrested in Moncks Corner, Goose Creek, Hanahan or elsewhere in Berkeley County, start with the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office Inmate Lookup. The county uses a Citizen Connect booking-search system for people currently held through the Hill-Finklea Detention Center.

How to Search the Berkeley County Jail Roster

You do not need a private people-search website to confirm current Berkeley County jail custody. Use the Sheriff’s live lookup first.

1. Open the official lookup page. Go to the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office Inmate Lookup.
2. Select “Inmate Search.” The Sheriff’s page sends you to the county’s Citizen Connect booking-search service.
3. Start with the person’s legal name. Use the spelling most likely used during booking. If you get too many matches, add more information rather than assuming the first result is correct.
4. Use another filter when needed. The Sheriff’s Office says the system can search by name, charge, arresting agency or arrest-date range.
5. Open the matching record. Review the available custody and booking information carefully. Compare names and other available identifiers before relying on the result.
6. Write down useful identifiers. Save the person’s exact booked name and any booking, inmate, charge or case information displayed. You may need it for court records, mail, visitation or deposits.

What the Inmate Search Is Best Used For

The Berkeley County lookup is primarily a current-custody and booking search. It is the right first place to check whether someone is being held at the county detention center.

If the Person Does Not Appear in the Search

A missing result does not automatically mean the person was never arrested. Work through these possibilities before searching unrelated websites.

1. Check the spelling. Search the legal surname first and remove unnecessary filters.
2. Try the arresting agency or arrest date. These are supported search options in the Berkeley County system.
3. Consider how recent the arrest is. If an arrest happened very recently, booking and database processing may still be underway. For an urgent recent-arrest question, call Booking at 843-719-4876.
4. Check whether the person was released. A released person may no longer appear as a current detainee.
5. Check the court case. Court records can remain available after jail custody changes.
6. Check for a transfer. If the person was sentenced and transferred to state custody, use the South Carolina Department of Corrections search.
7. Make sure you have the correct Berkeley County. This guide covers Berkeley County, South Carolina, not Berkeley County, West Virginia.

Charges, Bond and Court-Date Information

The jail lookup and the court system serve different purposes. Use the inmate record to establish custody, then use the court record when you need the criminal case, hearing information or later case disposition.

Berkeley County is part of South Carolina’s 9th Judicial Circuit. The Berkeley County Courthouse is at 300-B California Avenue, Moncks Corner, SC 29461, next to the detention-center area.

How to check a Berkeley County court case

1. Find the correct person in the Sheriff’s inmate lookup and copy the legal name plus any available case information.
2. Open the South Carolina Judicial Branch Berkeley County page.
3. Select the official Case Records Search.
4. Choose Berkeley County if the statewide interface asks for a county.
5. Search by case number when you have it. Otherwise begin with a simple name search.
6. Open the matching case number and review the available case details, filings, actions and financial information.

The South Carolina Judicial Branch’s Public Index instructions recommend starting with only one or two search filters when you do not know the case number, then narrowing the results as needed.

Hill-Finklea Detention Center Visitation

The Sheriff’s Office states that all visitation is conducted through a video visitation system. Visitors are directed to SmartInmate to create an account and arrange access.

1. First confirm that the person is still housed at Hill-Finklea.
2. Go to SmartInmate.
3. Create or sign in to your visitor account.
4. Locate Berkeley County/Hill-Finklea Detention Center in the system.
5. Add the inmate using the identifying information requested by the service.
6. Review the available appointment times and current rules before scheduling.

The county’s public detention page does not publish a fixed general visitation timetable, so use the scheduling system for the currently available sessions rather than relying on an old third-party schedule.

How to Send Mail to a Berkeley County Inmate

Berkeley County uses a separate mailing address for ordinary personal correspondence. Do not automatically send a personal letter to the detention center’s street address.

Personal mail address

The Sheriff’s current rules require the sender’s name and return address and the inmate’s full name as booked. Incoming and outgoing mail is inspected for contraband.

Books, publications and packages

• Books must be shipped directly from a publisher or bookstore and be soft cover.
• Religious materials and publications may be mailed under the Sheriff’s published rules; soft-cover format is requested.
• Magazines and newspapers must come directly from a publisher or bookstore through a subscription.
• Packages that are permitted under the jail rules are sent to the physical detention-center address rather than the Smart Communication personal-mail address.

Before mailing books, a package or anything unusual, check the current detention-center rules because rejected mail can be returned or held.

How to Send Money for Commissary

Hill-Finklea currently publishes three ways to add funds to an inmate’s canteen account.

The published lobby-kiosk hours are Monday through Sunday, 8 a.m.-10 a.m. and 6 p.m.-8 p.m., plus inmate-visitation hours. The county says funds deposited through the kiosk are available to the inmate after the transaction is completed.

For an online deposit, the Sheriff’s Office says you will need the inmate’s name, location and ID number. It also specifically notes that the detention center will not provide the inmate ID for this purpose; you must obtain it from the inmate.

Release Time and Inmate Property

After the detention center receives all required release documentation, the Sheriff’s Office says the release process can take approximately 1 to 4 hours. This means a court order, bond payment or other release event does not necessarily result in immediate departure from the facility.

Delays can occur while staff complete legal and administrative checks. If you are arranging transportation, do not rely on an estimated release time without checking the current status.

Property release

Personal or valuable property can be released only with the inmate’s approval. The published property-release period is Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m..

If the Inmate Was Transferred to South Carolina State Prison

The Berkeley County jail search and the South Carolina state-prison search are different systems.

If a person disappears from the Berkeley County roster after sentencing or transfer, check the court case and then use the South Carolina Department of Corrections Inmate Search.

SCDC explains that its search covers people currently sentenced to and incarcerated in the South Carolina Department of Corrections. It does not cover people who are only being held in county detention facilities, people already released from SCDC, or people under ordinary parole/probation supervision.

Older Records, Arrest History and Public Records

If your goal is not current jail custody, choose the record source that matches the question.

SLED CATCH is a name-based South Carolina criminal-history service and is not the same thing as the free jail roster. SLED currently charges for standard criminal-history reports, so use it only when you actually need a state criminal-history check rather than current custody information.

Berkeley County also provides an online Freedom of Information Act request process for qualifying county records. A formal records request is usually unnecessary if the live inmate or court systems already answer the question.

Hill-Finklea Detention Center: Current Facility Context

The Hill-Finklea Detention Center is operated by the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office at 300 California Avenue in Moncks Corner. In June 2026, Berkeley County announced completion of a major detention-center expansion that added an approximately 80,000-square-foot wing and increased total rated capacity to 564 beds. The project also added a medical infirmary, more than 100 additional single-occupancy cells, a new public lobby and updated staff facilities.

That expansion does not change the basic public search process: use the Sheriff’s Inmate Lookup to confirm current custody rather than estimating custody from facility capacity or older jail-population statistics.

Useful Internal Guides

Berkeley County Jail Inmate Search FAQs

Before You Rely on the Record

For a Berkeley County jail inmate search, start with the Sheriff’s live lookup, not a third-party roster. Once you identify the correct person, use the jail record for current custody, the South Carolina Judicial Branch for the criminal case, and the Sheriff’s detention-center page for visitation, mail, commissary and release procedures.

Custody status, charges, bond conditions, court dates, vendor services and jail procedures can change. Recheck the official source before sending money, mailing property, scheduling a visit or making travel plans.