Find San Benito County Booking Records

San Benito County 24 hour booking records track arrests and jail intake at the county jail in Hollister. The San Benito County Sheriff's Office runs the corrections division and handles all booking activity for this small county south of the Bay Area. With a population under 70,000, San Benito County has far fewer bookings than its larger neighbors. But every arrest must still be logged and made public under California law. This page covers how to check San Benito County booking data, what the records contain, and the best ways to get arrest information from the sheriff's office.

San Benito County Jail and Booking

The San Benito County Sheriff's Office operates the county jail through its corrections division. The jail sits at 710 Flynn Road in Hollister. This is the only jail in San Benito County. Every person arrested within the county gets booked at this location. The corrections division page at sanbenitocountyca.gov has general information about the facility, including visiting rules and basic policies.

San Benito County does not currently offer a full online inmate search tool. Unlike larger counties that have web-based booking databases, this smaller county handles most booking inquiries by phone or in person. To find out if someone was recently booked into the San Benito County jail, call the corrections division at (831) 636-4060. Staff can look up current custody status and tell you about recent bookings.

The image above shows the California DOJ public records information page, which explains the rights you have when requesting San Benito County booking records or any other public data in the state.

How San Benito County Handles Arrests

When an arrest happens in San Benito County, the person goes to the county jail on Flynn Road for processing. The booking process captures the person's name, physical description, charges, and the time of arrest. A photo is taken. Fingerprints are recorded. All of this creates the official San Benito County booking record.

Arrests come from several sources. The San Benito County Sheriff's Office handles patrol and law enforcement for the unincorporated areas. The Hollister Police Department covers the city of Hollister. The California Highway Patrol makes arrests on the highways that run through the county. All of these agencies bring their arrests to the same San Benito County jail for booking. That means one phone call to the jail can tell you about any recent arrest in the county, no matter which agency handled it.

Booking volume in San Benito County stays low. On a quiet day there may be no new bookings at all. Weekends and holidays tend to see more activity. The small size of the county means staff can usually answer booking questions quickly when you call.

San Benito County Arrest Record Details

Each San Benito County booking record must contain certain information under state law. Government Code Section 7923.610 requires law enforcement to make this data public. The San Benito County Sheriff follows this mandate.

A San Benito County booking record shows the arrested person's full name and date of birth. Physical details such as height, weight, and eye color are included. The record lists the date and time of the arrest, the location where it happened, and all charges filed at booking. Bail amounts appear if bail has been set. The record also notes whether the person is still in the San Benito County jail or has been released. If there are holds from other jurisdictions, such as warrants from nearby counties, those show up in the booking data too.

Getting San Benito County Booking Records

The quickest way to check San Benito County booking data is a phone call to the jail at (831) 636-4060. For written records, file a public records request with the San Benito County Sheriff's Office. The California Public Records Act gives you the right to do this. The California DOJ public records page explains the state process. Agencies have 10 days to respond. An extension of 14 days can apply in some cases.

Copy fees under state rules are around 10 cents per page. San Benito County may charge differently for certain records. Ask about costs before you submit a request if you expect to need many pages. You can mail your request to the San Benito County Sheriff's Office at 710 Flynn Road, Hollister, CA, or drop it off in person during office hours.

The CPRA FAQ page from POST answers common questions about what counts as a public record and how the process works. This is a helpful starting point if you have never filed a records request with San Benito County before.

Note: San Benito County does not have a web-based inmate lookup, so phone and in-person requests are the main options for checking recent bookings.

Sealed Arrest Records in San Benito County

A person arrested in San Benito County who was never convicted can ask a judge to seal the arrest record. This option falls under Penal Code Section 851.91, the CARE Act. Once a San Benito County Superior Court judge approves the petition, that booking record gets sealed. It will not show up in any public search or records request after that.

The law also restricts access to detailed criminal history summaries. Under Penal Code Section 13300, the master records kept by the San Benito County Sheriff, which include all booking numbers, arrest dates, and case outcomes, are limited to authorized agencies and individuals. The basic 24 hour booking data is different and remains open to anyone who asks for it.

San Benito County and State Records

The California Department of Justice offers tools that go beyond what the San Benito County jail provides directly. The OpenJustice data portal shows arrest trends for San Benito County by year and by type of offense. The data does not name anyone but gives you a sense of how many bookings happen in the county and what kinds of crimes lead to arrests in the area.

For your own criminal record, the DOJ's record review service pulls up your full state history, including any San Benito County entries. The cost is $25 and you need to submit fingerprints. The Record Review Unit phone number is (916) 227-3849. The full California Public Records Act text lives in Government Code Sections 7920.000 through 7931.000. This is the legal foundation that makes San Benito County booking records and all other public records in California available to everyone.

Cities in San Benito County

San Benito County has no cities with a population over 100,000. Hollister is the county seat and largest city, with around 43,000 people. Arrests from Hollister and the rest of San Benito County are all processed at the county jail on Flynn Road.

Nearby California Counties

These counties border San Benito County. Each has its own jail and booking search tools.