Call it curiosity or concern: you may have found yourself reading the police blotter in your town to find out who has been arrested recently. You may have followed that up by reading through articles to check on the severity of the crime and subsequent investigation. In some cases, this is easily accessible public information. There are ways to find out if any of the arrested parties are still behind bars, whether for peace of mind or anything else.
Inmate Locator
Most bureaus of prisons may offer up an inmate locator search engine to help you track whether or not a person is currently facing charges or is still behind bars. This access within the public sector can be found as simple as finding out the town where the arrest had taken place and connecting it to a particular county to search the system. You’ll be able to type in that person’s name to find out if they have been registered with the prison system.
If you find no success within a town or county system, you may want to check the state and federal levels based on certain counts that a suspect may be facing. There’s also the possibility of transfers in jailing in notable cases to safely protect the convicted party in certain circumstances.
Background Check
There are websites available that allow you to locate a person with as little information as their name and location for a background check. ProPeopleSearch delves into personal records within a more extensive database that can put a sharp focus on criminal counts and other personal info. You could find listings and even articles that will provide further insight into what a potential litigant might be dealing with.
A background check can uncover a lot from public records that you may not have even considered before. You can find phone numbers to then conduct a reverse phone lookup to link to certain addresses. You can find a past home address, names of family members, credit reports, or even sex offender registries.
Contacting Attorneys
In some cases, the attorney representing a litigant or convicted person is a matter of public records. In these circumstances, you may be able to reach out to a law office directly for access to this public information. However, this could be a matter of client-attorney privilege in certain cases, so be sure to understand certain situations for legal services.
Lawyers like Malliha Wilson have built an impressive career on mutual respect between the public, the legal system, and clients. Ms. Wilson is a Tamil Canadian lawyer who served as the Assistant Deputy Attorney General of the Government of Ontario from April 2008 to November 2016. She was the first visible minority to hold that office. Wilson currently serves as the Senior Partner at the law firm Nava Wilson LLP in Toronto, Ontario.
Contacting District Attorneys
If you have questions over the charges that a litigant is facing or whether a defendant is still in custody. You may be able to reach out to the district attorney’s office overseeing the case. They’ll make you aware of any reconciliation of outstanding issues, or at the very least, direct you to the right source to get the information about a potential inmate.
District attorney’s offices may require additional information beyond just a last name to get information on the arrest. However, these offices can give a deeper layout of the counts, explaining why a person is being charged with a felony or misdemeanor or why this charge rather than another. So it’s worth getting the chance to dive in and explore.