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 on September 23, 2026.
Lafayette County, Missouri, has about 34,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate). A person kept in custody after an arrest in Lafayette County is held at the county jail, run by the Lafayette County Sheriff's Office, and the jail's record of each person held is a public record. This guide says where to look for someone in custody, what the jail holds and who books people into it.
This guide covers the search, the jail, who books people, state prison and common questions.
Related guides: Lafayette County public records, Lafayette County arrest records, Lafayette County warrants, Lafayette County criminal records, Lafayette County court records, Missouri arrest records and Missouri inmate search.
Finding Someone in Custody in Lafayette County
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Lafayette County is held at the county jail, run by the Lafayette County Sheriff's Office, whichever agency made the arrest.
SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the Lafayette County Sheriff's Office at lcsheriff.com/detention (page title: Detention | Lafayette County Sheriff Office), which answered when SearchSystems opened it on September 23, 2026.
That page is the office's jail information page rather than a roster.
The Lafayette County Jail by the Numbers
On an average day in 2019 the jail held about 120 people. Its rated capacity in 2019 was 125 beds, and it ran at 97 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
Lafayette County has about 34,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), so the jail holds about 36 people for every 10,000 residents.
Who Books People Into the Lafayette County Jail
The Lafayette County Sheriff's Office and the agencies that report for Odessa, Higginsville, Lexington, Concordia, Waverly, Wellington and five more cities make the arrests that end in a booking in Lafayette County.
The Emma Police Department and the Oak Grove Police Department are each listed by the FBI across several counties including Lafayette County, so their arrests are not broken out for Lafayette County here.
The largest arrest counts reported to the FBI were Lexington's 226 for 2023, Higginsville's 71 for 2025 and the Lafayette County Sheriff's Office's 53 for 2025.
Together, the nine agencies in Lafayette County with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 157 arrests to the FBI that year. Those kept in custody were booked into the county jail; a person cited and released at the scene was not.
The counts, agency by agency and year by year, are in Lafayette County arrest records.
From the Jail to State Prison
The jail holds people awaiting trial and people serving short sentences. A person sentenced to prison in Lafayette County serves the sentence in a facility of the Missouri Department of Corrections, whose inmate locator is at web.mo.gov/doc/offSearchWeb.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find an inmate in Lafayette County?
Ask the Lafayette County Sheriff's Office; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at lcsheriff.com/detention.
How many people are in the Lafayette County jail?
About 120 on an average day in 2019, the latest year in the Vera Institute's jail data, against a rated capacity of 125 beds.
Where do people sentenced to prison in Lafayette County go?
To a facility of the Missouri Department of Corrections; its inmate locator is at web.mo.gov/doc/offSearchWeb.
Is this the official Lafayette 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.