Dorchester County Jail Roster
The Dorchester County Sheriff's Office operates the Dorchester County Detention Center / L.C. Knight Detention Center. The official inmate lookup redirects to the Southern Software Citizen Connect Inmate Confinements portal. The roster is free and does not require a public login. It is the correct first stop for current Dorchester County jail inmates, people booked after a recent arrest, people awaiting bond, local holds, and people still in the county detention system.
The roster does not replace every other custody source. A sentenced state prisoner should be searched through the SCDC incarcerated-inmate search. A federal sentenced prisoner should be searched through the BOP inmate locator. An immigration detainee may require the ICE Online Detainee Locator System. South Carolina VINELink can add custody notifications, but it is best treated as a notice channel rather than the source for all jail or prison records.
Use Dorchester County Inmate Records
Citizen Connect has several ways to search Dorchester County inmate records. Current Confinements is the best first choice for a person believed to be in custody now. Recent admits and releases help when the person was just booked or just released. Name search is useful when identity is known, while charge and arresting-agency searches help when the spelling is uncertain or when the arrest came from a local police department, state agency, federal agency, or probation/parole channel.
- Open the official Citizen Connect Inmate Confinements portal linked from the county inmate-lookup page.
- Select Current Confinements first for active jail custody.
- Use the name tab if first, middle, or last names are known.
- Use charge search for terms such as DUI, domestic violence, shoplifting, parole violation, or another offense phrase.
- Use arresting agency when the booking may involve Summerville, St. George, Ridgeville, Harleyville, SLED, SCHP, ICE, USMS, BOP, or another listed agency.
- If the person has moved to prison, switch to SCDC or the federal locator instead of continuing on the county roster.
Dorchester County Roster Search Fields
The roster fields are part of the record's value. They show how the jail system can be searched and why a single name search is not always enough. Date-range searches should stay narrow because the public warning says to limit the date range to 31 days or less. The research did not find a wildcard rule, so spelling and partial names should be handled by trying likely variants.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current Confinements | Tab/button | Optional | Loads the active custody list. |
| Get Last 24 Hour Admits | Button | Optional | Searches very recent admissions. |
| Get Last 7 Days Admits | Button | Optional | Searches recent weekly admissions. |
| Admits by Date Range | Tab | Optional | Searches admissions during a selected period. |
| Releases by Date Range | Tab | Optional | Searches releases during a selected period. |
| First / Middle / Last Name | Text | Optional | Name tab fields for identity searches. |
| Charge | Text | Optional | Depends on the jail's stored charge wording. |
| Arresting Agency | Dropdown | Optional | Includes local, state, neighboring, federal, and military agency labels. |
Dorchester County Inmate Profiles
Inspected Dorchester County inmate records showed public booking cards with identity, photo, arrest, charge, and bond information. The fields appear when available. They should be read as jail booking data, not as final court outcomes. A roster charge may later be changed, reduced, dismissed, indicted differently, or resolved in court. A missing bond field may mean no public bond is shown, but it should not be treated as proof that release is impossible.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Name | Full name in uppercase on the booking card or detail header. |
| Mugshot | Public booking image when available, with a fallback image when missing or broken. |
| Demographics | Compact age, race code, and sex line, such as age / code / sex. |
| Booked | The date the jail accepted the person into the detention system. |
| Arresting Agency | Agency name and code for the arrest or custody hold. |
| Arrest Date/Time | Date and time attached to the arrest or custody event. |
| Charges | Numbered charge descriptions on the booking record. |
| Bond Total | Total public bond amount when available. |
| Per-Charge Bond | Charge-level amount and type, such as Cash/Surety or PR BOND. |
Dorchester County Booking Process
Dorchester County did not publish a full intake manual in the inspected official detention pages, so the public explanation should stay tied to confirmed roster outputs. After an arrest, the arresting agency brings the person to the Dorchester County Detention Center or another proper custody location. Intake normally creates a booking record, confirms identity, records agency and arrest data, handles property, takes fingerprints and a booking photo, screens for safety and medical issues, and begins classification. The public record confirms several results of that process because Citizen Connect shows booked date, arresting agency, arrest date/time, mugshot, demographics, charges, and bond fields.
Bond and first appearance connect the jail record to the court system. South Carolina law requires a bond hearing within 24 hours for a bailable offense. Dorchester County Magistrate Court identifies Central Bond Court at Summerville Magistrates Court in the Troy Knight Judicial Complex, with hearings at 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM daily, including weekends and holidays. Formal case records after that point are searched through the Public Index and court channels, not only the jail roster.
Dorchester County Custody Channels
A missing result on Citizen Connect does not always mean the person is not in custody. The person may be released, booked under a different spelling, held in another county, transferred to SCDC, in federal custody, in immigration custody, or not yet visible after intake. Use the custody type to choose the next search channel.
| Custody | Where to Look | What It Covers |
|---|---|---|
| County pretrial or local sentence | Citizen Connect roster | Current confinements, admits, releases, booking cards, bonds, charges. |
| State prison sentence | SCDC locator | Sentenced state prisoners, SCDC ID, location, sentence, release fields. |
| Victim notification | VINELink | Custody status and notification functions. |
| Federal sentenced custody | BOP locator | BOP register, FBI, DCDC, INS number, or name search. |
| Immigration detention | ICE ODLS | A-number/country or biographical detainee search. |
| Federal pretrial holdover | USMS or federal court channels | USMS does not operate a general public locator. |
Dorchester County Jail Facilities
Dorchester County has one primary local jail for roster work. Lieber Correctional Institution and Reentry Center is a separate SCDC state prison in the county. The local jail and state prison should not be merged into one search path.
Dorchester County Detention Center / L.C. Knight Detention Center
220 Hodge Road
Summerville, SC 29483
843-832-0215
County jail roster, booking records, current confinements, local custody.
Lieber Correctional Institution and Reentry Center
136 Wilborn Avenue
Ridgeville, SC 29472
843-875-3332 or 803-896-3700
SCDC state prison for sentenced male prisoners.
Dorchester County Visitation Rules
The research did not find an official Dorchester County public visitation schedule, visitor rule sheet, inmate mail format, commissary vendor, money-deposit vendor, video-visit vendor, phone vendor, or fee table on the inspected county pages. That is a meaningful local gap. Do not borrow rules from a private jail directory or from another South Carolina county. Call the detention center before travel, and confirm whether a visit is allowed, how it must be scheduled, what identification is required, and what can be brought into the facility.
| Topic | Official Dorchester Finding |
|---|---|
| In-person visitation | Schedule not published in inspected official sources. |
| Video visitation | No official county vendor or schedule found. |
| No official county inmate mail rule or address format found. | |
| Money deposits | No official commissary/deposit vendor or fee table found. |
| Phone calls | No official inmate phone vendor or pricing found. |
| Visitor ID and dress code | Not published in inspected official sources. |
Dorchester County Records Requests
For jail inmate records that are not available online, the sheriff's records-request page says all public records requests for the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office, including the Detention Center, must be submitted to the county's NextRequest public-records portal. Requesters should identify the person, booking date, approximate arrest date, arresting agency, and BookingID if known. Ask for the booking record, jail roster entry, or booking photo as needed, but expect redactions, exemptions, costs, and timing rules under South Carolina FOIA.
The NextRequest form exposes request-format options such as web, email, phone, mail, fax, and in person, and it asks how the information will be used. Account login may be needed for full tracking or message history. South Carolina Code 30-4-30(C) gives the public body at least 10 business days to respond for records two years old or less and at least 20 business days for older records, excluding weekends and observed holidays. That response is not always the same day the record is produced. The sheriff page also states requesters or requesting organizations are responsible for costs if applicable, although no DCSO-specific detention-record fee table was found in the research.
If a person is missing from the county roster, work through a simple fallback chain before assuming there is no custody record. Check spelling and date ranges in Citizen Connect. Call the Detention Center at 843-832-0215 for current custody questions. Search the SCDC locator for sentenced state custody, BOP for federal sentenced custody, ICE ODLS for immigration detention, and VINELink for notification support. For formal charges after booking, search the Dorchester County Public Index.
Note: Confirm current custody with the jail before sending money, scheduling travel, or relying on a stale roster entry.