Find Gaston County Inmates

Gaston County Jail Roster Overview

The Gaston County Sheriff's Office, led by Sheriff Chad Hawkins, provides the official path to county jail information. The online inmate database is hosted through the City of Gastonia public-safety portal, and the sheriff's website links to inmate search, visitation, phone-system, and detention information. The roster is for Gaston County jail bookings. It is not the same as a statewide prison record, a court case file, or a criminal background check.

The roster search is time-limited. The inmate inquiry page states that inmate search includes only bookings from the current year and two years prior. Older booking history may require the Sheriff's Office or a records request. If the person has moved to state prison, probation, parole, or another correctional setting, use the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction search instead of the county jail roster.

The roster is also separate from court-charge information. Booking can show that a person entered custody, but charge outcomes, pleas, dismissals, and sentences belong in court records. For filed charges after arrest, see Gaston County arrest records and court charges.

Use the Gaston County Inmate Roster

The official roster path is the Gaston County Sheriff's Office Online Inmate Database. The landing page instructs users to enter a last name and click Inmate Inquiry. The direct Inmate Inquiry search provides more fields, including name, booking number, date range, global subject number, and housing facility.

1. Open the sheriff's Online Inmate Database or the Inmate Inquiry search screen.
2. Enter a last name first. Add a first name only when the result set is too broad.
3. Use booking number or global subject number if those identifiers are already known.
4. Limit by Booking From Date and Booking To Date when checking a known arrest period.
5. Filter by All Facilities, Gaston County Jail -Main, or Gaston County Jail Annex if needed.
6. Review the result carefully, then confirm current custody or release questions with the Sheriff's Office.

The successful manifest image below comes from the official Gaston County Inmate Inquiry screen.

The image reflects why a full name is not the only search path. Date ranges, booking number, and facility filters can narrow Gaston County inmate records when common names create many matches.

Gaston County Inmate Search Fields

The jail roster form has enough fields to support both broad family searches and precise booking searches. The landing page emphasizes last name, but the Inmate Inquiry form also supports identifiers and booking-date ranges. Those fields help when a person has a common surname or when a user knows the arrest date but not the spelling used in the jail system.

Gaston County Inmate Profile Fields

No individual inmate profile was captured in the research. The field inventory below is therefore limited to the official interface and visible result expectations from the sheriff's roster. It should be read as a search and result inventory, not as a promise that every inmate record will display every detail. Current custody, bond, release, and housing details can change quickly.

Note: A jail roster entry is not a conviction record. Use court records for filed charges, pleas, disposition, and sentence.

Gaston County Jail Facilities

Gaston County has a main jail and a jail annex near the courthouse and sheriff complex in Gastonia. The sheriff's detention page states that the main jail opened November 1, 1999, has more than 160,000 square feet, total bed capacity of 488, and operating inmate capacity of 440. The Jail Annex opened May 3, 1996, has 24,740 square feet, total bed capacity of 176, and operating inmate capacity of 159. A 2025 county RFQ describes 182,514 square feet and 664 beds between the main jail and annex, which reconciles with the separate bed totals.

The successful manifest image below comes from Gaston County's jail facility needs RFQ, which provides the newer planning summary for the jail complex.

The RFQ is useful because it confirms the combined facility scale while the sheriff's detention page explains how the main jail and annex function day to day.

Gaston County Booking Process

Booking follows arrest or commitment into sheriff custody. The research does not provide a full minute-by-minute intake workflow, so the page should stay tied to documented jail facts. The sheriff's detention page describes medical staff available around the clock at the jail and annex, food service that provides three meals per day, and menus prepared with a registered dietitian to meet state calorie requirements. Those details show that custody records are tied to a managed detention system, not only a name list.

The detention page also documents jail programs, including high school, GED, domestic violence awareness, substance abuse, AA, HIV awareness, Father's Forever, Making Proud Choices, and health or community partner programs. Work-release rules differ by custody type. State work-release inmates pay a daily rate based on annual income, with a minimum of $18 per day and maximum of $36 per day. Federal work-release inmates pay 25% of gross wages each paycheck.

Gaston County Inmate Visitation

The sheriff's homepage gives general population onsite visitation hours for the Main Jail and Annex. Gaston County also uses The Visitor video visitation system through ICSolutions. Friends, family, and professionals must register at no cost to participate in video visitation, and offsite visits from a personal device may involve fees that vary by facility. Internet problems during offsite visits are not refunded according to the ICSolutions page.

The successful manifest image below comes from ICSolutions' Gaston County Jail video visitation page.

Video visitation is a separate access channel from the jail roster. It helps families and professionals plan contact after confirming that the person is in Gaston County custody.

Contact Gaston County Inmates

The Gaston County Jail inmate phone system is hosted by ICSolutions. When an inmate calls from the facility, the recipient hears a prompt stating that an inmate from the Gaston County Jail is trying to call. The ICSolutions links support account login, product availability, scheduling, funds, and offsite computer application downloads. Use those tools for phone and video services, then confirm jail-specific limits with the Sheriff's Office when needed.

Mail rules were not captured in accessible official text during the research pass. Do not assume postcard-only rules, package rules, book-vendor rules, scan-and-destroy rules, or money-order procedures unless the Sheriff's Office confirms them. For attorney or professional visits, the ICSolutions page says the system is available for friends, family members, and professionals, but it does not list separate attorney hours in the captured text.

State Gaston County Inmate Records

The county jail roster does not cover every correctional status. The NC Department of Adult Correction offender search is the state channel for prison, probation, parole, and historical offender data back to 1972. Use it when a Gaston County case resulted in state custody or when the county jail roster no longer shows a recent booking.

The successful manifest image below comes from the NC DAC criminal offender search page.

State custody search is especially important after sentencing because a person may leave the Gaston County Jail and enter a prison, reentry, probation, or parole status tracked by NC DAC.

Gaston Correctional Center Records

Gaston Correctional Center is a state facility in the county, not the Gaston County Jail. NC DAC lists it at 520 Justice Court, Dallas, NC 28034, phone 704-922-3861, with capacity 242. It is a male minimum-custody reentry facility. People held there are tracked through state correction records, not the sheriff's local jail roster.

The successful manifest image below comes from the NC DAC Gaston Correctional Center page.

This distinction keeps county jail records separate from state inmate records, which prevents a missed lookup when custody moves after sentencing.

Gaston County Sheriff App

The sheriff's website advertises an official Gaston County Sheriff's Office app on Google Play and the App Store. The captured official text describes access to services, updates, and information from a mobile device. Search snippets from the sheriff's announcement list Inmate Search, Staff Directory, Jail Info, and likely alerts or notifications. Because the website also has inmate search, do not treat the app as the only inmate lookup channel.

Use the app as a convenience channel for sheriff information, then rely on the online roster, Sheriff's Office phone line, NC DAC, or court records for formal verification. Victim notification is a separate channel through VINELink, and sex offender registration is searched through the NC SBI registry. Those tools do not replace the jail roster.

Note: The research did not capture app store URLs, so the app is named from the sheriff's official website without store links.