El Centro Federal Releases
El Centro Detention Facility is a federal/USMS contract detention facility in Imperial County. GEO Group's facility page identifies the client as the U.S. Marshals Service and states that GEO provides security, transportation, medical, food, and other support services on behalf of USMS. A person held there may be in pretrial federal custody, presentence custody, awaiting transport, or under another federal detention status. That makes the release route different from the sheriff jail facilities and from CDCR prisons.
A federal detainee at El Centro Detention Facility does not appear as an Imperial County jail release unless there is also a separate county booking. The federal court docket may explain bond, detention, sentence, dismissal, transfer, or release orders. USMS or the facility can address current detention routing where permitted. The BOP inmate locator becomes useful if the person is committed to BOP custody or has been released from BOP custody since 1982. It should not be treated as a complete USMS pretrial detention roster.
| Federal custody question | Best source |
|---|---|
| Held at El Centro under USMS | Facility contact, USMS channel, and federal court docket. |
| Released by federal court order | Federal court docket and order, then facility or USMS confirmation. |
| Transferred to BOP sentence | BOP locator after BOP commitment, plus federal judgment and facility transfer records. |
| Also booked in county jail | Imperial County sheriff booking record for the county event, then federal records for federal custody. |
Note: A BOP "not in BOP custody" result does not always answer a USMS pretrial detention question.
Confirm Federal Release
The correct release-search route for El Centro Detention Facility starts with the federal case and the custody agency. If the person is in USMS custody, the federal court docket often gives the clearest public timeline for detention, bond, plea, sentence, dismissal, or transfer. If the person was committed to BOP, the BOP locator can show federal prison custody and release information for people in BOP custody or released from BOP custody since 1982. If the person left Imperial County jail first, the sheriff record documents the county transfer, not the final federal release.
- Identify whether the person was held for a federal case, county case, immigration case, or state-prison case.
- Use the federal court docket for detention, bond, sentencing, dismissal, or release orders.
- Call El Centro Detention Facility at the listed number when current facility routing is needed and permitted.
- Search the BOP inmate locator if the person may have entered BOP custody or was released from BOP custody.
- Use Imperial County sheriff, CDCR, or ICE records only for separate county, state, or immigration custody events.
El Centro Records Contact
GEO Group lists El Centro Detention Facility at 1115 North Imperial Avenue, El Centro, CA 92243, with phone 760-259-2500 and fax 760-337-3931. The facility page gives capacity as 512 and identifies the client as the U.S. Marshals Service. For release verification, the facility contact is one piece of the route. The federal court case and USMS or BOP status may be needed to confirm why custody ended or where the person went next.
El Centro Detention Facility
1115 N. Imperial Avenue
El Centro, CA 92243
Phone: 760-259-2500
Fax: 760-337-3931
Federal custody tools
BOP Find an Inmate
Use for BOP custody or BOP release history
Use federal court records for USMS case orders
When making a release inquiry, use the person's full name, date context, federal case number if known, and the agency believed to hold the person. Do not ask the county sheriff to prove a federal release unless there was a separate Imperial County booking. If the person moved from a federal detention hold into BOP custody, the federal judgment and BOP locator may be more useful than the contract facility contact after transfer.
About El Centro
The GEO Group El Centro Detention Facility page is the official facility source in the research. It lists the address, phone, fax, capacity, client, and support services provided on behalf of USMS. The facility's presence in Imperial County can confuse release searches because the county also has sheriff jail facilities, CDCR prisons, and an ICE detention facility. The federal label should control the search route.
The matched screenshot below comes from the GEO facility page listed in the manifest.
The image supports the USMS contract facility classification and separates El Centro Detention Facility from sheriff and CDCR release records.
BOP Locator Limits
The BOP locator is the main public federal locator when a person is in BOP custody or has been released from BOP custody since 1982. It is not always the right answer for a person held only pretrial by USMS at a contract detention facility. A person can be at El Centro Detention Facility before a federal sentence, before transport, or while awaiting another federal case step. The federal court docket and USMS route may answer those questions before BOP has any record to show.
The BOP locator screenshot below is matched to the El Centro federal fallback route in the manifest. Its source is BOP Find an Inmate.
The locator can confirm BOP custody or BOP release history, but it should be read with the federal case and USMS custody facts.
Federal Court Records
Federal court records are often the durable source for a release from federal detention. A docket can show detention orders, bond or release orders, plea and sentencing events, dismissal, judgment, commitment to BOP, and transport-related entries. Those records explain why a person left El Centro Detention Facility or why the facility no longer has the person. The facility may know current routing, but the court record explains the legal action.
If the person also had an Imperial County case, keep the court systems separate. The Imperial Superior Court ROA explains the county case. The federal docket explains the federal case. A transfer from the county jail to USMS may appear in the sheriff booking record, but the later federal release has its own record trail.
Federal Custody Split
Imperial County's facility map includes sheriff jail facilities, two CDCR prisons, an ICE detention facility, and this federal/USMS contract facility. The practical release question is always the same: which agency had custody at the time of release? If the answer is the sheriff, use sheriff records and the Superior Court. If the answer is CDCR, use CIRIS, CDCR records, BPH, DAPO, and PRCS. If the answer is ICE, use the ICE locator. If the answer is USMS or BOP, use federal records.
The narrow record path is federal. El Centro Detention Facility should not be used to infer a county jail release or a state-prison discharge. The best release record is the one kept by the agency that actually held the person at the end of custody.
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