Mason County Release Meanings
Mason County does not operate the kind of long-term county jail that often appears in a sheriff roster. Adults arrested on Mason County matters commonly enter the state-run Western Regional Jail and Correctional Facility in Barboursville. The West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or WVDCR, controls that jail record. A local arrest record may sit with the Mason County Sheriff or a city police agency while the admission and exit event sit with WVDCR. That split is central to an accurate search.
“Released” describes a custody event, not one universal outcome. A person may leave on bond, recognizance, a dismissal, a court order, time served, sentence completion, parole, or mandatory supervised release. Another person may leave Western only because WVDCR moved them to a prison. A federal, immigration, interstate, or other-county detainer may cause a handoff. In that case the person left one facility but did not enter the community. A missing active jail result never settles which event occurred.
- Discharge
- The recorded endpoint of a sentence or supervision period.
- Time served
- Release after the custodial part of a sentence has been satisfied.
- Detainer
- A request or authority for another agency to take custody.
- Parole
- Physical release from prison while executive supervision continues.
Mason County Release Types
The release type tells the reader which record should come next. Bond keeps the criminal case open. A dismissal or acquittal may remove authority in one case, but it does not cancel another warrant or hold. Probation is a court sentence served in the community, sometimes after jail. Parole and mandatory supervision both allow physical departure from prison while legal controls continue. A transfer changes the custodian and must not be called freedom from custody.
| Recorded event | What it means | Best confirmation |
|---|---|---|
| Bond or recognizance | Jail release while the case continues | Court bond entry and WVDCR exit event |
| Dismissal or court order | The cited matter no longer supports custody, subject to other holds | Signed order plus facility release record |
| Time served or sentence complete | The custodial term ended | Commitment order and DCR discharge entry |
| Parole or mandatory supervision | Physical release with supervision | DCR record, Parole Board action, and parole office |
| Transfer or detainer | Another facility or agency took custody | Receiving system or locator |
The state portal changes quickly and warns that its entries may not show the true location, release date, or status. Treat each displayed label as a lead. Preserve the exact words rather than translating a parole eligibility date, minimum discharge date, transfer, or release date into one generic phrase.
Mason County Release Record Fields
A focused Mason County release request is tied to one admission. It should identify the person and the Western Regional Jail stay closely enough for WVDCR to locate the right event. A portal detail screen may show only a slice of the underlying file. The release record can answer the physical departure question that an inactive roster cannot.
| Field | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Recorded name and identifiers | The identity attached to the admission, including aliases or an OIS number when present |
| Admission facility and time | Where and when WVDCR recorded the custody start |
| Releasing facility and time | The recorded point and time of departure |
| Release authority or type | Bond, court order, time served, parole, discharge, transfer, or another coded event |
| Destination or receiving agency | A public handoff entry, if one is disclosable |
| Booking photograph | A separate record item that must be requested by name |
Medical, juvenile, victim, security, sealed, expunged, or active-investigative details can be withheld or redacted. No booking-release-specific public retention period was verified. Disappearance from the online search is not a retention rule. Ask WVDCR which schedule controls the admission and release record at issue.
Request Mason County Release Records
Regional-jail release records belong with WVDCR, not with an unrelated sheriff roster. WVDCR Policy Directive 142.00 provides a release-of-information form and reports paper copies at $0.15 per page, advance payment, and estimated postal cost. West Virginia FOIA requires a reasonably specific request. Under West Virginia Code §29B-1-3, the custodian must act within five business days, excluding weekends and legal holidays. That is a response deadline, not a promise that all records will arrive in five days.
- Give the full name, aliases, date of birth or OIS number, facility, Mason County connection, and a narrow date range.
- Ask for the admission and release date and time, release type or authority, and public destination or receiving agency.
- Name the booking photograph separately if it is needed. Do not request the entire offender file.
- Ask for electronic copies and reasonably segregable portions. Request the statutory basis for any withholding.
The Mason County Sheriff may hold an arrest, incident, transport, or court-service record created locally. Sheriff Corey Miller’s office is at 200 Sixth Street, Point Pleasant, WV 25550, and the listed telephone is 304-675-3838. That office is not the operator of Western Regional Jail. Direct the physical jail exit record to WVDCR while asking the Sheriff only for records in county custody.
Mason County Release Law
West Virginia public-record law begins with access but contains real limits. Section 29B-1-4 protects specified personal, medical, law-enforcement, security, and otherwise confidential material. A useful request seeks the public and segregable parts of one release event. It does not assume that every internal code, destination, photograph, or full offender file must be produced.
A court order explains legal authority. The WVDCR release entry records the physical jail event. Use both when timing and destination matter.
A court record can also explain why the record changed. Mason belongs to the Fifth Judicial Circuit. The Magistrate Record Search covers lower-court index data, while WVPASS covers available circuit material. Neither court system certifies the minute someone crossed a facility gate. The signed bond, dismissal, sentencing, commitment, modification, or discharge order should be paired with the WVDCR event.
Mason County Bond Release
Bond-out is a physical release while the case continues. West Virginia Code §62-1C-1a favors the least restrictive adequate pretrial conditions and provides a hearing within five days for certain misdemeanor detainees who cannot meet secured terms. A judge’s order setting bond does not prove that the bond was posted or that all conditions were met.
Check the Mason magistrate or circuit docket for the durable bond entry, then ask WVDCR for the actual Western release time. Other holds can still block a community exit. Bond is not a dismissal, acquittal, or finding about the charge. It is one legal route out of pretrial custody.
Mason County Release Fees
WVDCR Policy 111.07 describes a $30 jail processing fee assessed at initial booking. Unpaid amounts may remain collectible, and the policy provides a refund rule after acquittal or dismissal of all charges. This is a booking assessment. It does not buy release, and an unpaid balance is not proof that the person remains confined.
Personal-recognizance bond processing carries no fee under §50-3-2. That statute separately describes a $25 bail-piece processing charge paid by the surety. Keep those items apart from records-copy costs and from the court’s bond amount. Each answers a different question.
Find Mason County Released Inmates
A reliable Mason County released inmate search moves across systems in a set order. Begin with WVDCR’s Jail Offender Search for Western Regional custody. Try the legal name and known variants. A live result is evidence of reported active regional-jail supervision. No result is only a clue because spelling, timing, transfer, or another jurisdiction can explain the absence.
- Check the WVDCR jail search and note the facility, booking date, court details, and exact status.
- Check the prison search in case a sentenced person entered state-prison custody.
- Search West Virginia VINE for the same name and reporting agency, then verify any alert.
- Read the Mason magistrate or circuit docket for bond, dismissal, sentencing, or other authority.
- Use BOP or ICE only when the facts point to federal or immigration custody.
- Request the WVDCR release event when online tools do not affirmatively resolve the departure.
A released person usually leaves an active jail search. Absence can also mean transfer or lag, so confirm the release event before drawing a conclusion.
Mason County WVDCR Search
The WVDCR search gateway separates jails from prisons. Use the jail path for Western Regional detention and the prison path for a state sentence, including a woman held at Lakin Correctional Center and Jail. Daily Incarcerations is an admissions and current-incarceration view. It is not a recent-release feed.
| Search | Useful inputs | Release limit |
|---|---|---|
| Jail Offender Search | Last name, first name, and available identifiers | Absence does not disclose release time or reason |
| Prison Offender Search | Name and offender-number fields offered by the form | PED, MDD, parole, and release labels are not interchangeable |
| Daily Incarcerations | Date, institution, or sentencing-county navigation | Shows incarceration or admission data, not who left |
For a prison record, PED means parole eligibility date. It is not a release promise. MDD means minimum discharge date as calculated under the governing sentence and credits. Lost or restored good time, court changes, added sentences, and other events can move the calculation. Copy the live label exactly and seek a DCR time sheet when the public result is unclear.
Mason County Recent Release Limits
No official Mason County or Western Regional feed lists releases from the last 24 or 72 hours. The Mason County Sheriff also has no verified jail-release roster or official jail app. For a same-day question, use the active jail search, VINE, the court docket, Western’s 304-733-6821 line, and a focused release-record request. The Released Last 24 Hours page explains that fallback without turning current admissions into an inferred release list.
Never subtract yesterday’s roster from today’s to manufacture names. A person can disappear because of a state-prison commitment, another jail, a federal or immigration detainer, a spelling issue, or data lag. Western’s official data is dynamic and carries its own accuracy warning.
Mason County Court Release Proof
Mason has two local criminal-record doors. The free Magistrate Record Search indexes lower-court matters by name or case number, with documents obtained from the clerk. WVPASS handles available circuit records. The official Mason County court page identifies the proper clerks for filed orders.
The Magistrate Record Search interface shows the local starting point:
The index can point to a bond or disposition, but the signed order must come from the filing clerk and the gate event from WVDCR. An order granting bond does not prove the surety was completed.
Western Release Scale
Western Regional Jail’s annual churn gives context, but not a Mason-only count. The WVDCR FY2022 report lists 4,451 admissions and 4,120 releases for the whole facility in fiscal year 2022. It reports 4,525 admissions and 4,116 releases in 2021, followed by 4,863 admissions and 4,860 releases in 2020.
Western serves Cabell, Lincoln, Mason, Putnam, and Wayne, along with other covered populations. Those figures cannot be described as Mason County releases. They show why a facility-wide current search changes often and why a durable release event matters.
Mason County Release Geography
Mason’s custody map has an unusual split. Western Regional Jail is outside Mason County in Cabell County, yet it is the named regional jail for Mason cases. Lakin Correctional Center and Jail is physically inside Mason County and is West Virginia’s only all-female prison, but it holds a statewide population. Arresting county, physical institution, and records custodian can therefore be three different facts.
Brief law-enforcement holding adds a third route. Someone may be released by the arresting agency before admission to Western, in which case the local incident and court records lead. A person formally admitted to Western needs the WVDCR route. A sentenced state prisoner needs the prison search and DCR time sheet. That custody-based choice prevents false claims about where a person went.
Getting Home After Western Release
Western’s facility page gives driving directions but does not publish a release exit, family waiting area, transport plan, or current bus service. An old claim about a bus stop at the jail is unsafe. A West Virginia Department of Transportation notice says TTA discontinued that stop and moved a Barboursville park-and-ride point to Barboursville Mall Road in 2010.
Confirm pickup details with Western before anyone travels. The historical WV DOT Barboursville notice is a warning against stale directions, not a current transit schedule. No verified official release hour or weekend pickup procedure was found.
Mason County Release Resources
WVDCR’s official resource-guide directory includes a Western Regional Jail Community Resource Guide. It offers a local navigation layer for identification, health, transport, legal, and personal support contacts after release. Service rules and availability can change, so each contact should be checked in the live guide.
The directory is a navigation source, not a promise that a program will accept a particular person or have space. Use the current Western guide to identify a relevant contact, then confirm the program’s own terms and hours directly.
Mason County Release Identification
West Virginia law authorizes a no-cost temporary DCR identification card for eligible people no earlier than seven days before release. Under §17B-2-1c, the card remains valid for 180 days and is not REAL ID. Statutory exclusions still apply.
During the six months before release, DCR must help with a certified birth certificate, Social Security card, and state identification or license. That release-specific process can help a person correct identity confusion and recover personal documents after custody.
Mason County Parole After Release
Parole and probation follow different authority. WVDCR Parole Services handles parole after a state sentence. Mason is in Western District Region 1 through the Huntington Parole Office. Circuit probation follows a court order through the Mason County probation office. No public name-by-name index of every ordinary parolee was verified.
An absconder list is not a general parole list. “Absconder” reports lost contact or noncompliance and may be tied to a warrant. To verify ordinary supervision, start with the sentence, exact DCR status, Parole Board material, and the proper office. The Mason County Parole / Probation page separates those routes.
Mason County Release Notifications
West Virginia VINE provides WVDCR custody status and automated change notices by phone, text, email, or app when the feed offers those channels. Search one person, compare the agency and identifiers, and copy the exact event wording. VINE does not call during a facility-to-facility movement; notice follows arrival. A later status event can therefore reflect transfer instead of community release.
The West Virginia State Police Sex Offender Registry applies only to people with a legal duty to register. It is not a general released-inmate list and does not establish current custody. Registry presence and release status answer different questions. A VINE alert or registry entry should be checked against DCR, the court, or a receiving agency.
Federal Releases Affecting Mason County
Use the Bureau of Prisons locator only for a federal prisoner. Its records cover federal incarceration from 1982 forward and may show “Released” with a date or “Not in BOP Custody.” Neither phrase rules out federal supervision, state custody, or an immigration hold. The BOP Inmate Locator accepts a register number or name with demographic filters.
The official BOP search interface shows the separate federal route:
ICE’s locator is a different system for qualifying immigration detention. It may cover adults currently held and some people released within its stated recent window. No public nationwide U.S. Marshals former-detainee search was verified. A Western release to a federal or immigration detainer is a handoff, not a street release.
Mason County Release Expungement
Expungement changes record access. It does not change the historical release event itself. Under West Virginia §61-11-25, a qualifying acquittal or dismissal petition can expressly reach arrest records, fingerprints, and photographs. Under §61-11-26, a qualifying conviction petition uses a waiting period measured from the latest of conviction, completion of incarceration, or completion of supervision.
That timing makes the actual Mason County release and final supervision-discharge dates important. Many offenses and circumstances are excluded, so eligibility must never be promised. A granted order reaches public electronic and agency records as the statutes direct. No separate official West Virginia statute specifically banning payment for commercial mugshot removal was verified.
Mason County Release Locations
Choose the facility page by custody type. Western is the regional-jail route for most adult Mason matters. Lakin is a state prison and jail with a statewide women’s population. Local holding covers brief sheriff or police custody before a Western admission. The statewide WVDCR, BOP, and federal or immigration pages handle the systems that do not fit one local building.
- Western Regional Jail and Correctional Facility
- Lakin Correctional Center and Jail
- Mason County law-enforcement holding
- West Virginia state-prison system
- Federal Bureau of Prisons system
- ICE detention / U.S. Marshals custody
Each route uses its own release record and status language. A live roster is for reported current custody. A historical release event, court disposition, parole record, or receiving-agency result is needed after the person leaves that roster.