Jail Roster Goes Online for Ohio’s Second-Largest County
by Chuck Sharman
No more waiting on someone to pick up the phone at Ohio’s Cuyahoga County Jail. As of June 23, 2025, to find out if someone is incarcerated in the Cleveland lockup, you can consult an online jail roster that is refreshed hourly with new booking information.
The move brings the County up to date with technology that has been in use in surrounding jurisdictions for years. But it’s not the first time that the jail roster has been made available online. Former Cuyahoga County Sheriff Clifford Pinkney rolled out a similar program in 2018, only to scrap it a year later under pressure from County officials reluctant to invest in necessary technological improvements to support sharing real-time booking information.
As those upgrades were slowly rolled out over the intervening years, County leaders finally revisited the idea, appropriating $84,000 in March 2025 to develop and maintain the “Sheriff App” for three years. The app, so far available only on mobile devices, provides the name, age, race and gender of jail detainees, along with booking dates and charges. A small photo is also included, sized to deter reuse on commercial mugshot sites.
The app provides a resource for family and friends of detainees to locate them. Links are also provided for other services to crime victims like the sex offender registry.
Source: The Marshall Project
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