Reviewed and updated October 7, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The jail figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
Colleton County, South Carolina, has about 39,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Colleton County Sheriff's Office, one other county agency, three city agencies and five campus, state or other agencies. An arrest leaves the same records whoever makes it: the arresting agency's report, the record of anyone held at the county jail, and, if the Solicitor files charges, a case in the Colleton County Circuit Court. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it.
This guide covers who makes arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies, cities and common questions.
Related guides: Colleton County public records, South Carolina arrest records, South Carolina inmate search and South Carolina criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Colleton County
The Colleton County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Colleton County.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division's Colleton County Sheriff's Office also reports arrests to the FBI as another county agency of Colleton County.
The FBI lists three cities in Colleton County with a reporting agency of their own, with the Census population:
- Walterboro, 5,488 residents.
- Edisto Beach, 1,060 residents.
- Cottageville, 720 residents.
A city on that list is reported separately whether the officers are the city's own or the sheriff's under contract; the FBI's list does not say which.
The FBI's agency list also places these agencies in Colleton County: the Highway Patrol in Colleton County (state police); the Department of Natural Resources in Colleton County, the Colleton County Forestry Commission, the Department of Health and Environmental Control Drug Control in Colleton County and the Colleton County State Transport Police (state agency).
Booking: Where People Arrested in Colleton County Are Held
The county jail is where a person arrested in Colleton County and kept in custody ends up, whichever agency made the arrest, though a city department may hold someone in its own cells first and a person cited and released at the scene is never booked. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and once the person is released or sentenced the record continues in the court file.
On an average day in 2019 the jail held about 80 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 110 beds, and it ran at 73 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the custody page of the Colleton County Sheriff's Office at colletoncountysheriff.com (page title: Colleton County Jail Roster Lookup, SC, Inmate Search), a site that blocks automated checks (HTTP 403), so open it in a browser.
That page is the place to look for someone who was booked recently; a person cited and released at the scene, or held only a few hours by a city department, will not be on it.
A sentence of more than a year is served in state prison; the South Carolina Department of Corrections lists its inmates at doc.sc.gov/inmate-search-disclaimer.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Colleton County
For Colleton County the place to look is the custody page of the Colleton County Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the county jail.
South Carolina is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: the CATCH service lets anyone run a name-based criminal record search online, for $25 a search, through the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. That record shows what agencies reported to the state, which is wider than one county's court index but can lag it.
Getting a Copy of an Arrest Record in Colleton County
The report of an arrest is released by the agency that made it; the jail and the court hold their own records of the same event, but not the report. Under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act the agency must answer within 10 business days, or 20 for records more than two years old, and it may charge search, retrieval and copying at the agency's actual cost.
- An arrest by the Colleton County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Walterboro, Edisto Beach or Cottageville: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- An arrest by the Highway Patrol in Colleton County, the Department of Natural Resources in Colleton County or the Colleton County Forestry Commission: the records office of the agency involved.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Colleton County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for three of the six cities in Colleton County: Walterboro, Edisto Beach and Cottageville. Smoaks, Williams and Lodge have no separate reporting agency in the FBI's list.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Colleton County Circuit Court.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in Colleton County, with the 2024 Census Bureau population:
- Walterboro (5,488)
Frequently Asked Questions
Where are people arrested in Colleton County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Colleton County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Colleton County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division: the CATCH service lets anyone run a name-based criminal record search online, for $25. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Colleton County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Colleton County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act the answer is due within 10 business days, or 20 for records more than two years old.
Is this the official Colleton County website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official county, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.