Reviewed and updated October 9, 2026 by the SearchSystems.net editorial team. The arrest counts are the ones each agency reported to the FBI, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026. The jail figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data. Every office link was opened and checked against the office's own site between September 30, 2026 and October 2, 2026.
St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, has about 47,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Office and five city agencies. An arrest leaves the same records whoever makes it: the arresting agency's report, the record of anyone held at the parish jail, and, if the District Attorney files charges, a case in the District Court for St. Mary Parish. This guide says who keeps each one, what it costs and who may see it, with the arrest counts each agency reported.
This guide covers who makes arrests, how many arrests, booking and the jail, finding an arrest, copies, cities and common questions.
Related guides: St. Mary Parish public records, Louisiana arrest records, Louisiana inmate search and Louisiana criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in St. Mary Parish
The St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for St. Mary Parish. It reported 611 arrests for 2025.
Arrests inside five of the parish's cities are reported to the FBI by an agency of the city's own, listed here with the Census population and what each reported:
- Morgan City, 10,813 residents: 750 arrests reported for 2025.
- Franklin, 6,284 residents: 390 arrests reported for 2020.
- Patterson, 5,614 residents: 71 arrests reported for 2022.
- Berwick, 4,495 residents: 493 arrests reported for 2019.
- Baldwin, 1,665 residents: 1,152 arrests reported for 2025.
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.
How Many Arrests Each Agency Reports in St. Mary Parish
The FBI publishes every agency's monthly arrest counts on the Crime Data Explorer. These are the full-year totals, all offenses, as the FBI held them on October 8, 2026; a year with months missing or not reported is left out.
- Baldwin: 1,152 for 2025, 1,152 for 2024, 1,146 for 2023, 1,132 for 2022, 919 for 2021 and 1,146 for 2020.
- Morgan City: 750 for 2025, 673 for 2024, 746 for 2023, 808 for 2022, 602 for 2021 and 1,207 for 2020.
- St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Office: 611 for 2025, 592 for 2024, 633 for 2023, 569 for 2022, 967 for 2021 and 1,898 for 2020.
- Berwick: 493 for 2019.
- Franklin: 390 for 2020 and 513 for 2019.
- Patterson: 71 for 2022, 88 for 2021 and 341 for 2020.
Together, the three agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 2,513 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 2,513 in 2025 against 2,417 in 2024, up 4 percent.
Through July 2026, the three agencies with every month so far on file reported 1,416 arrests, against 1,482 in the same months of 2025.
Patterson reported only part of 2025 (5 months) and is left out of the totals.
Booking: Where People Arrested in St. Mary Parish Are Held
The parish jail is where a person arrested in St. Mary Parish 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 2023 the jail held about 18 people, down from about 410 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2023 was 100 beds, and it ran at 18 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 St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Office at stmaryso.com/inmate-roster/filters/current/booking_time=desc/1 (page title: Inmate Roster | St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Office, Louisiana | Sort Booking Time | Descending | Page 1), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 30, 2026.
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 Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections lists its inmates at doc.la.gov.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in St. Mary Parish
For St. Mary Parish the place to look is the custody page of the St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Office described above, for anyone booked into the parish jail.
Louisiana does not let the public search another person's statewide criminal history. The record kept by the Louisiana State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification goes to the person it belongs to and to employers and agencies the law authorizes; for everyone else the court's own case index is the public record of an arrest that led to a charge.
Getting a Copy of an Arrest Record in St. Mary Parish
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. Under the Louisiana Public Records Law the agency must answer within 3 business days when the record is not immediately available, and it may charge a reasonable fee for copies.
- An arrest by the St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit.
- An arrest in Morgan City, Franklin, Patterson, Berwick or Baldwin: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city; the city guides linked above name each city's records office.
- Your own statewide record: a fingerprint-based request to the Bureau of Criminal Identification.
Cities in St. Mary Parish: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for every one of the five cities in St. Mary Parish: Morgan City, Franklin, Patterson, Berwick and Baldwin.
Wherever in the parish the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the parish jail and the case goes to the District Court for St. Mary Parish.
SearchSystems has a guide to the offices of these cities in St. Mary Parish, with the 2024 Census Bureau population; a city with its own arrest records guide opens there:
- Patterson (5,614)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in St. Mary Parish each year?
Baldwin reported 1,152 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the three agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 2,513 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in St. Mary Parish?
Look on the custody page of the St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Office at stmaryso.com. It covers people booked into the parish jail.
Where are people arrested in St. Mary Parish booked?
Those kept in custody go to the parish jail, run by the St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in St. Mary Parish?
The court files of criminal cases in the District Court for St. Mary Parish are public and can be looked up through the court. The statewide criminal history kept by the Louisiana State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification is not public; you can get your own. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Louisiana Public Records Law.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in St. Mary Parish?
From the agency that made the arrest: the St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Louisiana Public Records Law the answer is due within 3 business days when the record is not immediately available.
Is this the official St. Mary Parish website?
No. SearchSystems.net is an independent public records guide, online since 1997. It links to the official parish, court and state offices described above and does not hold records, charge for them or take requests.