Riverside County Jails
& Detention Centers

Los Angeles County spreads custody across dozens of individual city jails and Sheriff's stations, so the first question there is always which of scores of buildings holds the defendant. Riverside County does not work that way. Five county-level facilities handle nearly all custody countywide.

Where a Riverside County city has its own police department at all — and many are policed by the Sheriff's Office under contract — that department generally provides only short-term booking or holding before the defendant is transferred into county custody. The booking record a bond attaches to is usually created at one of the five facilities below.

In practice that means the search is shorter but the drive is longer. The Robert Presley Detention Center in downtown Riverside is the county's central intake point and the default transfer destination referenced across the western county. The Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning is the county's largest and its primary long-term housing, which is why cities as far apart as Corona and Coachella name it.

The three remaining facilities are regional: Benoit for the Coachella Valley, Byrd for the southwest county, and Blythe for the isolated eastern desert. Confirm the current facility before anyone gets in a car — Riverside County is large enough that a wrong guess costs hours.