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 23, 2026 and October 4, 2026.
Lewis County, Tennessee, has about 13,000 residents (2024 Census Bureau estimate), and arrests there are reported to the FBI by the Lewis County Sheriff's Office and one city agency. 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 District Attorney General files charges, a case in the Lewis County Circuit and Chancery Courts. 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: Lewis County public records, Tennessee arrest records, Tennessee inmate search and Tennessee criminal records.
Who Makes Arrests in Lewis County
The Lewis County Sheriff's Office is the county agency that reports arrests to the FBI for Lewis County. It reported 95 arrests for 2025.
One city in Lewis County reports its arrests to the FBI separately:
- Hohenwald, 4,136 residents: 170 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 Lewis County
Each agency reports its arrests to the FBI by month, and the FBI publishes them 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.
- Hohenwald: 170 for 2025, 150 for 2024, 158 for 2023, 258 for 2022, 264 for 2021 and 380 for 2020.
- Lewis County Sheriff's Office: 95 for 2025, 121 for 2024, 191 for 2023, 213 for 2022, 183 for 2021 and 322 for 2020.
Together, the two agencies with all twelve months of 2025 on file reported 265 arrests that year. The same agencies with both 2025 and 2024 complete reported 265 in 2025 against 271 in 2024, down 2.2 percent.
Through September 2026, the two agencies with every month so far on file reported 243 arrests, against 196 in the same months of 2025.
Booking: Where People Arrested in Lewis County Are Held
A person kept in custody after an arrest in Lewis County is held at the county jail, whichever agency made the arrest, apart from the short stay some city departments' own holding cells allow; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked at all. The jail's record of each person held, with the charges, is a public record of the arrest, and the court file takes over from there.
On an average day in 2024 the jail held about 90 people, up from about 52 in 2019. Its rated capacity in 2024 was 47 beds, and it ran at 191 percent of it that year. The figures are from the Vera Institute of Justice's Incarceration Trends data.
SearchSystems opened and checked the jail page of the Lewis County Sheriff's Office at lewiscountytn.com/sheriff (page title: Sheriff | Lewiscountytn), phone (931) 796-5096, 437 Swan Avenue Hohenwald, TN 38462, which answered when SearchSystems opened it on October 4, 2026.
A person sentenced to prison serves the sentence in a facility of the Tennessee Department of Correction, whose inmate locator is at foil.app.tn.gov/foil/search.jsp.
How to Find Out About an Arrest in Lewis County
An arrest in Lewis County can be traced in two places, depending on where the case stands: the case index of the Lewis County Circuit and Chancery Courts, which shows whether charges were filed and the next court date (the court records page SearchSystems verified is at tncourts.gov/node/9782362); the District Attorney General, which decides whether an arrest becomes a charge (its page is at tennesseeda.gov/district-32).
Tennessee is one of the states that lets anyone look up another person's statewide criminal history: TORIS lets anyone run a name-based criminal history search online, for $29 a search, through the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. 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 Lewis County
An arrest report belongs to the agency whose officer wrote it, and that agency releases it, not the court or the jail. Under the Tennessee Public Records Act the agency must answer within 7 business days, and it may charge copying, and labor after the first hour.
- An arrest by the Lewis County Sheriff's Office: ask its records unit, reached through the office at (931) 796-5096.
- An arrest in Hohenwald: the records unit of the agency that reports for that city.
- A defendant who has been charged gets the report through the case: the District Attorney General handles discovery for pending cases.
- The court file of a case that was filed: the Lewis County Circuit and Chancery Courts, through the court records page at tncourts.gov/node/9782362.
- Your own statewide record: the same request described above, for your own name.
Cities in Lewis County: Who Reports the Arrests
The FBI lists a separate arrest reporting agency for Hohenwald, the one city in Lewis County.
Wherever in the county the arrest happens, a person kept in custody goes to the county jail and the case goes to the Lewis County Circuit and Chancery Courts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many arrests are made in Lewis County each year?
Hohenwald reported 170 arrests to the FBI for 2025, and the two agencies with every month of 2025 on file reported 265 between them.
How do I find out if someone is in jail in Lewis County?
Ask the Lewis County Sheriff's Office at (931) 796-5096; its jail page SearchSystems verified is at lewiscountytn.com/sheriff.
Where are people arrested in Lewis County booked?
Those kept in custody go to the county jail, run by the Lewis County Sheriff's Office; a person cited and released at the scene is not booked.
Are arrest records public in Lewis County?
The court files of criminal cases are public, and so is the statewide criminal history kept by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation: TORIS lets anyone run a name-based criminal history search online, for $29. The arrest report itself is released by the agency that made the arrest, under the Tennessee Public Records Act.
How do I get a copy of an arrest report in Lewis County?
From the agency that made the arrest: the Lewis County Sheriff's Office for its own arrests, or the agency that reports for the city where it happened. Under the Tennessee Public Records Act the answer is due within 7 business days.
Is this the official Lewis 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.