Bristol County Jail Mugshots
Bristol County jail mugshots are held by the sheriff's office, which runs the main jail and House of Correction in North Dartmouth plus the Ash Street Jail in New Bedford. Searching for inmate booking photos in Bristol County can be done online, by phone, or through a written public records request. The county covers Taunton, New Bedford, Fall River, and more than a dozen smaller towns in the southeastern part of the state. You can look up current inmates on the sheriff's website or call the main facility at (508) 995-6400. Each search method gives you access to different levels of detail about arrest records and custody status in Bristol County.
Bristol County Overview
Bristol County Sheriff's Office
The Bristol County Sheriff's Office runs two jail facilities. The main one is the Bristol County Jail and House of Correction at 400 Faunce Corner Road in North Dartmouth. It has a capacity of 1,100 beds and opened in 1990. This is where most inmates in Bristol County are held. The second is the Ash Street Jail at 226 Ash Street in New Bedford. This is one of the oldest jails still in use in the country. It holds pre-trial detainees and those in specialized housing units. Both facilities process booking photos when someone is brought in on new charges.
The sheriff's office also runs an immigration detention unit in North Dartmouth that holds ICE detainees under a federal agreement. Records from that unit may follow different rules than state and county inmate data. If you need jail mugshots from Bristol County, start with the main facility. Staff can point you to the right place for any records not held at the North Dartmouth site.
The Bristol County Sheriff's Office website is the main portal for all inmate and jail information in the county.
This site has links to inmate search tools, visiting hours, and contact info for the records division.
| Main Facility | Bristol County Jail & House of Correction |
|---|---|
| Address | 400 Faunce Corner Road North Dartmouth, MA 02747 |
| Phone | (508) 995-6400 |
| Fax | (508) 995-7835 |
| sheriff@bsco-ma.org | |
| Second Facility | Ash Street Jail 226 Ash Street, New Bedford, MA 02740 (508) 996-6704 |
How to Find Bristol County Jail Mugshots
There are several ways to search for jail mugshots in Bristol County. The fastest is the online inmate locator on the sheriff's office website at www.bcso-ma.us. You can search by name or booking number. The system shows custody status, charges, bail info, and booking photos. It updates daily but is not real-time. Keep that in mind if you are looking for someone who was just brought in. The system may take a day to reflect new bookings.
Phone is the next best option. Call the main jail at (508) 995-6400 or the Ash Street Jail at (508) 996-6704. Staff can confirm if someone is in custody and give you basic booking details. They may not read out a full list of charges over the phone, but they can tell you if the person is there and what the bail amount is. For detailed records, you may need to submit a written request.
You can also visit the Records Division in person at the North Dartmouth facility. Bring a valid ID. Staff can look up inmates, pull case files, and make copies of booking records including mugshots. In-person visits tend to get you the most complete picture of someone's jail record in Bristol County.
The Jail Exchange page for Bristol County has additional details on searching for inmates and mugshots at this facility.
This resource covers the basics of inmate lookups and what you can expect to find.
Note: The Bristol County inmate locator updates once per day, so very recent bookings may not appear right away in the system.
Bristol County Mugshot Records Requests
To get jail mugshots through a formal request in Bristol County, you file under MGL c. 66, § 10. This is the state public records law. It gives you the right to inspect and copy government records, including booking photos. Send your request in writing to the Bristol County Jail and House of Correction at 400 Faunce Corner Road, North Dartmouth, MA 02747. Mark it to the attention of Media Relations for inmate mugshot requests. Include the inmate's full name, date of birth if you have it, and the approximate date of arrest.
The sheriff's office has up to 10 business days to respond. Fees may apply for copies. Standard paper copies cost about $0.25 per page under state law. Whether you get the mugshot depends on the legal status of the booking photo. Under MGL c. 6, § 167, photos taken after criminal proceedings start fall under CORI rules. Photos taken before that point are public. This timing issue is the biggest factor in whether a Bristol County jail mugshot will be released.
What Bristol County Jail Records Include
When someone is booked into a Bristol County jail, the facility creates a detailed record. This includes the person's full legal name and any known aliases. It also includes date of birth, age, gender, and a physical description. The booking photograph is taken at intake. Fingerprints and biometric data are collected too. Each inmate gets an identification number that stays with them through their time in custody.
The record also tracks the arrest itself. It shows the date and time of admission, which agency made the arrest, and what charges were filed. The classification status tells you the inmate's security level and housing assignment. Warrant information, bond and bail amounts, court of jurisdiction, and scheduled court dates are all part of the file. For sentenced inmates, the record shows sentence length and expected release date. All of this data is tied to the inmate's jail mugshot in the system.
Not everything is public. Medical records, mental health notes, and internal classification documents are kept private. But basic booking data, charges, and custody status are generally available to anyone who asks.
Note: Bristol County inmate records include bail amounts and court dates, which can change as a case moves through the legal system.
Sealing Jail Records in Bristol County
Massachusetts lets people seal certain criminal records, and that includes jail mugshots tied to those cases. Under MGL c. 276, §§ 100A and 100C, misdemeanor records can be sealed after 5 years from the conviction or release date. Felony records need 10 years. Level 1 sex offender records require a 15-year wait. Level 2 and 3 sex offenders cannot seal their records at all.
When a record is sealed, it drops out of standard CORI checks. The jail mugshot connected to that case becomes restricted too. It still exists in the system, but it will not show up in a public search. This matters in Bristol County because some older booking photos may have been sealed since the original arrest. If you are searching for a mugshot and it does not come up, the record may have been sealed by court order. Expungement is a separate process that permanently destroys the record. Both sealing and expungement require court approval.
Bristol County Police Logs and Arrest Data
Even when a jail mugshot is restricted, you can still find arrest information through police logs. MGL c. 41, § 98F requires every municipal police department in Bristol County to keep a daily log. These logs record responses to complaints, crimes reported, names and addresses of arrested persons, and the charges filed. Police logs are public records. They do not fall under CORI rules. You can inspect them at the station during regular business hours at no cost.
New Bedford, Fall River, and Taunton all maintain daily arrest logs. Smaller towns in Bristol County do too. The one exception is that MGL c. 41, § 97D keeps domestic violence incidents, sexual assault cases, and abuse protection order violations out of public logs. So those categories will not appear. There is also no alphabetical index of arrested persons. You need to check logs by date, not by name. This can make it harder to find a specific arrest, but the data is there if you know when it happened.
Note: Police logs in Bristol County do not include mugshots, but they confirm arrest dates, charges, and names that can help you request the booking photo.
Bristol County Jail Mugshots and Archives
Bristol County has a long jail history. Taunton held the first county jail back in 1749. New Bedford got half-shire status in 1829, which meant it could hold its own court sessions and jail inmates. The Court Street jail opened that same year. The Ash Street Jail started construction in 1888 and was built with 287 cells. It still operates today. That makes it one of the oldest continuously running jails in the nation.
In 2023, the Bristol County Sheriff's Office donated more than 6,700 negatives and photographs from the early 1900s to the New Bedford Whaling Museum. These included historic booking photos and jail records from a time long before digital mugshot systems. The Whaling Museum exhibit on Bristol County incarceration covers this archive. It is a rare look at how jail mugshots were taken and stored more than a century ago. For anyone researching old arrest records in Bristol County, this collection is worth knowing about.
Statewide Tools for Bristol County Searches
If you cannot find what you need through the Bristol County Sheriff's Office, there are state-level tools that may help. The Massachusetts DOC inmate locator covers state prison facilities. If someone was transferred from the Bristol County jail to a state prison, their record moves to the DOC system. You can search by name or inmate ID.
The iCORI portal lets you run a criminal record check for $25. It shows convictions, active cases, and incarceration data. It does not include mugshots directly, but it confirms arrest and case information that ties back to the county jail booking record. The state facility page for Bristol County also has useful contact details and links to records request forms.
The VINE system covers state DOC prisons but does not include Bristol County's jail. For county-level searches, you must go through the sheriff's office directly.
Cities in Bristol County
Bristol County includes several cities where arrests are processed through local police departments before inmates are transferred to the county jail. These city pages cover local jail mugshot search options and police department contacts.
Other communities in Bristol County include Attleboro, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, and Freetown. Arrests in these towns go through local police and then to the Bristol County jail system.
Nearby Counties
These counties border Bristol County. If an arrest happened near a county line, the booking may have gone through a neighboring sheriff's office instead.