Search the Denver County Inmate Population

Denver County Inmate Population Overview

Denver County is a consolidated city and county, so the local jail system is run by the Denver Sheriff Department instead of a separate county sheriff serving several towns. The department is led by Sheriff Elias Diggins and operates two local jail facilities: the Downtown Detention Center and Denver County Jail. Those jails hold people arrested and booked in Denver, people waiting for first advisement or later court dates, and some people serving local custody time. That local Denver County inmate population is different from people in Colorado Department of Corrections custody, federal custody, or ICE custody.

The Denver County inmate population moves each day. Arrests, booking, bond decisions, court dates, releases, short sentences, medical or classification needs, and transfers to CDOC all change the count. Denver's local roster is built for jail custody, not every person with a Denver case. A person can be arrested in Denver, appear in the jail search for a time, leave on bond, later be sentenced to CDOC, and then appear only in the state locator. That is why the roster, court record, VINE notice, state prison search, BOP locator, and ICE ODLS each answer a different custody question.

Denver County Jail Population Statistics

Denver's best text-captured official figures come from Denver Sheriff annual reporting and the department's data dashboards. The annual-report numbers below describe 2025 jail flow, not a one-day bed count. The official research found current confined population and average daily population dashboards on the Sheriff Data, Policies & Reports page, but the dashboard figures were not exposed as text in the crawler output. For that reason, the table uses only figures captured from official pages and marks dashboard-only measures as online dashboard sources rather than inventing a static count.

The distinction matters. Annual bookings count the number of booking events or people-in-custody records during the year. Current confined population is a point-in-time count. Average daily population is the average number confined per day during a period. Denver publishes data for those concepts, but a page about the Denver County inmate population should not treat annual throughput as if it were the same as today's roster population.

The Denver Sheriff data page is the source to check for current dashboards, annual reports, policies, PREA reports, Denver Health jail data, assaults, staff demographics, and use-of-force summaries. The page's dashboard screenshot in the project image set shows how Denver groups those data resources for public use.

Use those dashboards for live population snapshots and the annual report for stable yearly totals, because each source answers a different population question.

Who Is in Denver County Custody

The 2025 Denver Sheriff annual-report figures show the Denver County inmate population as a high-turnover jail flow. Male entries were reported as 18,185, or 77 percent. Female entries were 5,340, or 22 percent. Unknown gender was 32 entries and non-binary was 1 entry. These are annual flow figures as reported, not a live head count. The same source reports race categories of 16,447 White, 6,311 Black, 317 Asian or Pacific Islander, 190 American Indian or Alaskan Native, and 293 Unknown. The captured report text did not include a Hispanic or Latino ethnicity count in that section.

Classification figures also help explain jail status language. The captured annual report listed Level 1 High at 3, Level 2 Closed Custody at 233, Level 3 Medium High at 2,743, Level 4 Medium Low at 9,014, and Level 5 Minimum at 88. Classification is the jail's risk and housing assignment process. It is not a conviction level. A person can be pretrial and still be classified for housing, medical needs, safety, or security. The public roster may show facility and status, while deeper classification policy details may require a records request or official policy review.

Denver County Inmate Population Reporting

Denver's facility pages and public contacts do not publish a single static rated capacity for the Downtown Detention Center or Denver County Jail in the research file. The safer source is the official dashboard set, which reports current confined population and average daily population. Static bed numbers copied from unofficial jail directories should not be used for Denver. The local jail population is also shaped by court flow, pretrial risk assessment, medical needs, jail classification, state prison transfers, and releases from custody.

Colorado law helps explain why these data categories exist. C.R.S. 17-26-118 requires jail facilities to maintain and report detailed jail data, including operational capacity, confined population, sentenced and unsentenced categories, holds, municipal-only inmates, restrictive housing, competency wait status, average daily population, average length of stay, homelessness indicators, deaths, and bookings. Denver also publishes annual and dashboard material that goes beyond a simple inmate count, including health-service data, staffing, policy reports, and use-of-force data.

Denver County Jail vs State Prison

A search for the Denver County inmate population often fails because the wrong system is being searched. Denver Sheriff custody covers people held in local jail. CDOC custody covers sentenced state prisoners. Federal and immigration custody use federal tools. The two CDOC facilities physically located in Denver, Denver Reception and Diagnostic Center and Denver Women's Correctional Facility, are not county jails and do not use the Denver Sheriff roster.

Search Denver County Inmates Online

The official Denver Sheriff Inmate Search is the first place to look for a person in local Denver custody. The app is titled "Find the location of an inmate in Denver County" and accepts a name, booking number, or CD number. It can search full or partial keywords across last name, middle name, first name, booking number, race, facility, status, and CD number. A facility filter can narrow the result to a specific Denver Sheriff jail facility.

The official roster search uses a desktop table and smaller-screen card layout. Results can show last name, first name, middle name, age, sex, race, facility abbreviation, active or inactive booking status, CD or inmate number, and booking number. If no result appears but the person should be in a Denver facility, the app publishes a phone fallback at 720-913-3600. The app also points users to Colorado DOC and neighboring county searches when a person may not be in Denver Sheriff custody.

1. Open the Denver Sheriff Inmate Search.
2. Enter a full or partial name, booking number, or CD number.
3. Use the facility filter only if you know the person is at DDC or Denver County Jail.
4. Review the result table or card for facility, booking status, CD number, and booking number.
5. Open the detail route when available, then move to court records if the question is about filed charges.
6. Use CDOC, BOP, ICE, VINE, or a records request when the roster does not match the custody type.

Denver County Roster Search Fields

The Denver roster has one broad keyword search and a facility selector. That design is useful when a person has a common last name or when spelling is uncertain. Partial searches are supported, so a shorter name fragment can be enough. A booking number is stronger when available because it points to one booking event. A CD or inmate number can also help, but it should not be confused with a CDOC DOCNO after transfer to state prison.

The official Denver inmate search screenshot captured for this project shows the keyword field, facility selector, search button, and fallback notice in one place.

That field layout supports broad searches first, then narrower checks by facility or booking number when too many names are returned.

Denver County Inmate Records Access

The roster is not the only access channel. Denver Sheriff custody information can also be checked through the jail information phone fallback, facility phones, Colorado VINE, and formal public-records requests. The Denver Sheriff Civil Liabilities Unit handles sheriff records through an electronic form only. The records page says telephone or social-media requests will be denied, and that criminal justice records are governed by CCJRA. Fees captured in the research include no charge for the first hour to research or retrieve records, paper copies at $0.25 per page, and staff time up to $41.37 per hour when applicable.

Booking photos require special care. The Denver Sheriff visitation/media page says booking-photo requests should be directed to the Denver Police Department. The jail roster result template captured for this project did not show a public mugshot gallery in search results. For booking-photo details, use the Denver County jail mugshots page, and for filed charges after a jail arrest use court records rather than treating arrest charges as final charges.

Denver County Detention Facilities

The Denver County inmate population is not held in one building. Denver Sheriff runs two local jail facilities. CDOC runs two prison facilities in Denver that use the state locator. ICE's regional Aurora facility is outside Denver County, but it is the official immigration detention facility serving the Denver metro region. Facility names matter because the wrong office may not be able to confirm a person in another custody system.

• Downtown Detention Center holds Denver Sheriff custody downtown and is tied to arrest, booking, first advisement, and video-only visitation.
• Denver County Jail is the Smith Road local jail facility and offers both video and in-person visits under Denver Sheriff rules.
• Denver Reception and Diagnostic Center is a CDOC reception, assessment, classification, medical, and special-needs prison facility.
• Denver Women's Correctional Facility is a CDOC all-custody-level women's facility with intake, medical, mental-health, and Mom Baby Unit functions.
• Aurora Contract Detention Facility is an ICE contract facility outside Denver County that serves the regional immigration custody system.

Denver County Custody Terms

Roster and court words can sound alike, but they do not mean the same thing. A booking is a jail intake event. A charge can be an arrest charge, a prosecutor-filed charge, or an amended count in court. A hold or detainer can block release even when another bond is paid. These definitions help keep the Denver County inmate population search tied to the right record source.

Booking number

A number tied to one Denver jail intake event.

CD number

A Denver search result field used with booking details; it is not always the same as a CDOC DOCNO.

DOCNO

The Colorado Department of Corrections number used in CDOC Offender Search.

Pretrial

Custody or supervision before conviction or final case disposition.

Detainer

A request or notice from another agency that may affect release.

Denver County Inmate Population FAQ