The Mercer County Inmate Population
The Mercer County inmate population has two main parts. The local part is the Mercer County Jail, which holds people after local arrests, people awaiting hearings or trial, people serving sentences imposed by a court of record, temporary transfers, and people held for other police, state, federal, or parole-board reasons. The state-prison part is State Correctional Institution Mercer, a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections facility for state-sentenced adult men. Those two populations sit in the same county, but they are reported and searched through different systems.
The jail count moves with bookings, releases, court orders, bond decisions, temporary transfers, and outside-agency holds. The public jail report shows current rows by name, commit date, admission type, and committing authority, while the state prison count comes from Pennsylvania DOC population reporting. That difference matters. A recent arrest is a county jail lookup. A state sentence is a DOC lookup. Federal and immigration custody require separate federal tools.
Mercer County Inmate Population Statistics
The strongest local figures come from the official jail page, the county jail reports, and the DOC monthly population report. Mercer County says the jail has a 310 maximum holding capacity and a 2024 average daily population of 201. The jail records department also reports more than 4,500 admissions and releases each year, which shows why the number of people touched by the jail is much higher than the daily count.
| Measure | Figure | Source / Year |
|---|---|---|
| Mercer County Jail maximum holding capacity | 310 | Official jail page, inspected 2026 |
| Mercer County Jail average daily population | 201 | Official jail page, 2024 |
| Current combined jail report count | 196 | Male and female population reports, inspected June 26, 2026 |
| Annual admissions and releases | More than 4,500 | Jail records department description |
| SCI Mercer DOC population | 1,318 | PA DOC monthly report, May 31, 2026 |
| SCI Mercer DOC capacity | 1,476 | PA DOC monthly report, May 31, 2026 |
| People in Pennsylvania state prison from Mercer County | 213 | Prison Policy Initiative origin data, 2020 Census |
Mercer County Inmate Population Trends
Mercer County does not publish a full multi-year county jail dashboard in the research set, so each trend figure must be read for what it is. A census facility count, an average daily population, and a point-in-time jail report count are not the same metric. Still, the available numbers show that the jail was below its stated maximum capacity in both the 2024 average and the June 2026 roster inspection. SCI Mercer is larger and follows DOC population reporting, not county jail reporting.
| Date / Year | Count | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 Census vintage | 268 | Mercer County Jail facility count from Prison Policy Initiative correctional facility locator |
| 2024 | 201 | Mercer County Jail average daily population from the official jail page |
| June 26, 2026 | 196 | 155 males and 41 females from official jail population reports |
| May 31, 2025 | 1,362 | SCI Mercer one-year-prior DOC population |
| May 31, 2026 | 1,318 | SCI Mercer current DOC monthly population |
The jail records department's annual volume gives the trend data context. A facility can average about two hundred people in custody while processing thousands of admissions and releases over a year. That churn is common in local jail systems because many people stay for short periods, resolve bond, transfer, or move to another custody system.
Who Makes Up the Mercer County Inmate Population
The public Mercer County Jail Report does not publish race, age, housing unit, detailed charge class, or a clean aggregate split between pretrial and sentenced custody. It does publish useful admission categories one row at a time. Those categories include held for trial, hearing, or witness; held for various federal, state, or police reasons; sentenced by a court of record; temporary transfer to another institution; and other local categories. The committing-authority field may show PSP, PBPP, MCSO, LOCAL, OTHER, or a judicial or agency name.
- Sex split: the June 26, 2026 county reports showed 155 males and 41 females.
- Local custody: the jail includes pretrial, court-sentenced, transfer, and other-authority hold categories.
- State prison custody: SCI Mercer holds state-sentenced adult men under DOC jurisdiction.
- Other agency holds: PBPP, state, federal, police, and other entries may appear by admission type or committing authority.
Race, age, offense mix, and length-of-stay details were not located in official county jail reports. Those gaps should not be filled from guesswork. For a specific person, use the roster, the jail records line, court dockets, or a formal records request.
Mercer County Jail Capacity and Current Count
Mercer County's official capacity figure is 310. The 2024 average daily population of 201 equals about 64.8 percent of capacity when calculated from the county's own published numbers. The June 26, 2026 inspected male and female report total of 196 equals about 63.2 percent of capacity. Those percentages are calculations, not separate county-published percentages, and they should be labeled that way.
No official consent decree, closure order, construction emergency, or current overcrowding declaration was found in the research set. The more useful local point is operational rather than dramatic: the jail holds a changing local custody population and processes more than 4,500 admissions and releases each year. A below-capacity daily count does not mean a low workload for records, booking, medical, or court coordination staff.
Laws Governing Mercer County Inmate Records
Pennsylvania records law and criminal-history law shape what the public can see. The county jail roster is public in a limited report format, but it is not a full booking file. Court dockets are separate public court records, and criminal-history checks follow Pennsylvania State Police channels. Mugshots and criminal-history details need special care because Pennsylvania's CHRIA rules can limit who may receive identifiable criminal-history information.
Key rules:
Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law, Act 3 of 2008 sets the state framework for access to agency records, subject to exceptions.
18 Pa.C.S. Section 9121 governs dissemination of criminal history record information by criminal justice agencies.
37 Pa. Code Chapter 95 provides county correctional institution standards for Pennsylvania jails.
61 Pa.C.S. Chapter 17 addresses county correctional institutions and local prison administration.
For Mercer County records not shown in the jail report, the county's Open Records Office lists Roni Shilling as Open Records Officer. Criminal-investigative-record issues may route to the District Attorney Right-to-Know process rather than the jail roster.
Mercer County State Prison Population
SCI Mercer makes the county's correctional footprint much larger than the local jail count alone. The DOC monthly report for May 31, 2026 lists 1,318 institution population and 1,476 capacity for Mercer, or 89.3 percent of capacity. The same report shows a one-year decrease of 44 people, from 1,362 to 1,318. Those figures belong to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, not Mercer County Jail.
A person arrested in Mercer County may start in the county jail and later move to DOC custody if sentenced to state prison. Once that transfer happens, the Pennsylvania DOC inmate and parolee locator is the correct search tool. DOC says its locator is for state-sentenced inmates and parolees and does not include people incarcerated in a county facility.
How to Search Mercer County Inmates
The official local lookup is the Mercer County Jail Report. It is a county-hosted report page with a last-name search and preset report links, not a commercial roster. It is best for a current local jail custody check. It does not show mugshots, charge-level detail, bond amounts, housing unit, booking numbers, or clickable public profiles in the inspected view.
The official jail report search page is shown in the county screenshot source for the Mercer County Jail Report search.
The search page matters because it shows both the last-name field and the report choices a reader can use when a simple name search is not enough.
- Open the county jail report and search by the inmate's last name first.
- Use the Complete Alphabetical Report if the name is unknown or spelling is uncertain.
- Use the Male Population Report or Female Population Report when a manual scan by sex helps.
- Check Transfer / Furloughs when the person may be temporarily moved or on a special status.
- If the person was sentenced to state prison, search the Pennsylvania DOC locator instead.
Current Mercer County Inmate Lookup
The Mercer County Jail Report search fields are simple. No wildcard rules, refresh interval, or minimum character count were published in the research. Try the exact surname first, then common spelling variants. If the person is not listed, the next step depends on the custody stage: jail records for local custody, UJS for court charges, DOC for state prison, BOP for sentenced federal custody, ICE for immigration detention, and VINE for notification.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Name | Text | Unspecified | Labeled "Search By Last Name Of Inmate"; no wildcard guidance posted. |
| Report Options | Links | No | Committing Authority, Complete Alphabetical, Male, Female, and Transfer / Furloughs reports. |
| Search button | Button | N/A | Submits the last-name search on the county report page. |
The public alphabetical report is also captured in the manifest from the Complete Alphabetical Report.
That report format confirms the limited row fields: name, commit date, admission type, and committing authority.
Past Mercer County Inmate Records
The research did not locate a county archive for released inmates or a public drop-off rule for how long a person stays listed after release. That means a past Mercer County inmate record often requires a fallback chain. Start with the jail records department if the question is local custody. For formal county records, use the Mercer County Open Records Officer. For court filings after an arrest, use Pennsylvania UJS Case Search or the Mercer County Clerk of Courts. For a formal statewide criminal-history check, use Pennsylvania State Police ePATCH rather than a jail roster.
A released person may also have moved to another custody system. DOC covers Pennsylvania state-sentenced inmates and parolees. BOP covers federal inmates from 1982 to present. ICE covers certain adult immigration detainees. Pennsylvania VINE is a custody-status and notification channel, not a replacement for the county report.
What a Mercer County Inmate Record Shows
A Mercer County public inmate record is best described as a jail report row. It is not a full booking card. The row does not show a booking photo, charge statutes, bond amount, detailed arresting agency, date of birth, physical descriptors, housing unit, court date, or release date in the inspected public view. This is a key local limit and should guide any records search.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Name | Last name and first name in all caps. |
| Commit Date | Date and time of commitment to jail custody. |
| Admission Type | Custody category, such as held for trial or sentenced by a court of record. |
| Com. Auth. | Committing authority abbreviation or judicial/agency reference. |
| Mugshot | Not shown on the inspected public jail report. |
| Charges and Bond | Not shown by offense, statute, count, or amount. |
For formal charges after booking, use court records rather than the jail row. For booking photos, the Mercer County jail mugshots page explains the local no-photo roster and Pennsylvania CHRIA limits.
Mercer County Jail vs State Prison
Many search failures come from using the wrong locator. The county jail report and the Pennsylvania DOC locator do not cover the same people. The jail report is for current local custody. The DOC locator is for state-sentenced inmates and parolees. BOP and ICE are separate federal systems. A state prison located in Mercer County does not make its inmates part of the county jail roster.
| Question | Mercer County Jail | State Prison / DOC |
|---|---|---|
| Who is held | Recent arrests, pretrial custody, local sentences, transfers, and holds | State-sentenced inmates and parolees |
| Agency | Mercer County Jail / Mercer County Government | Pennsylvania Department of Corrections |
| Lookup | Mercer County Jail Report | PA DOC Inmate and Parolee Locator |
| Mercer facility | Mercer County Jail | State Correctional Institution Mercer |
State and Federal Inmate Search
The Pennsylvania DOC locator can be searched by last name or inmate number, and first name helps with common surnames. DOC says the locator is updated daily and does not include county-facility inmates. The direct locator interface is shown in the manifest from the PA DOC locator.
Federal and immigration custody need different searches. The Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator covers federal inmates from 1982 to present. The ICE Online Detainee Locator System is for certain immigration detainees and uses either A-number information or name, country of birth, and date of birth. The Pennsylvania VINE portal is useful for custody status and notification.
Mercer County Detention Facilities
Mercer County has one primary local jail and one state prison facility in the facility map. No official source in the research identified a separate county work-release building, city jail, regional jail, BOP prison, ICE detention center, or U.S. Marshals contract facility physically in the county. Municipal police may temporarily hold a person during processing, but long-term lookup should move to the jail, court, DOC, BOP, ICE, or VINE channel that fits the case.
- Mercer County Jail - local jail for pretrial custody, court-sentenced local custody, transfers, and other agency holds shown in the jail report.
- State Correctional Institution Mercer - Pennsylvania DOC state prison for state-sentenced adult men, searched through the DOC locator.
Mercer County Inmate Population FAQ
How big is the Mercer County inmate population?
The county jail's official 2024 average daily population was 201, and the inspected June 26, 2026 male and female jail reports totaled 196. SCI Mercer is separate and much larger, with 1,318 DOC inmates reported on May 31, 2026.
How do I search the Mercer County inmate population?
Use the Mercer County Jail Report for current local jail custody. Use the Pennsylvania DOC locator for state-sentenced inmates and parolees, BOP for sentenced federal custody, ICE for immigration detention, and VINE for status notifications.
Does the Mercer County jail roster show mugshots?
No booking photos were found in the inspected public jail report. The public rows showed name, commit date, admission type, and committing authority only.
Who should I call when the roster is not enough?
For jail records, call the Mercer County Jail Records Department at 724-662-2700 ext. 2335. For formal county records, use the Open Records Officer. For court filings, use UJS Case Search or the Clerk of Courts.