What to Expect During Booking at Cumberland County Jail: Timeline, Property, and When You Can Contact Them

Before someone is officially "committed" to Cumberland County Jail, there's usually a pre-booking period lasting four hours or more. They may still be at a local police station while officers conduct interviews and complete paperwork. This delay is routine - and it's the main reason families don't get answers right after an arrest.

Once the person arrives at the jail, they go through intake and booking before they’re housed. At Cumberland County Jail, that intake/booking process typically takes four to eight hours. It includes medical and mental health screening, identification steps, warrant checks, photographs, fingerprinting, clerical entry into the jail system, and bail determination. Medical screening is part of the early flow. A private screening by jail medical staff usually happens at booking to check for injuries or urgent medical needs, and a second screening is used to make sure any conditions are documented and that the facility can meet the person’s medical needs. Not everyone stays after intake. Depending on what happens during the booking process and bail determination, some people may be released at intake rather than being assigned to a housing unit.

Checking the jail's records and seeing nothing? The timing is usually why. At Cumberland County Jail, pre-booking alone can take four hours or more before the person is even committed to the facility. Then intake and booking add another four to eight hours, with clerical entry into the jail system happening somewhere in that window. All told, it's normal for several hours to pass before an arrest shows up in jail data. That gap doesn't mean the person isn't there - it often just means the process is still underway.

Phone access often starts earlier than people expect, though it depends on where the person is in the process. During booking, the jail has telephones available for "free" local calls. After booking wraps up, anyone who remains in custody gets assigned to a housing unit, where phones are available in the common areas (dayrooms) for several hours each day.

During booking, personal property is collected, inventoried, and secured. At Cumberland County Jail, items go into self-seal, tamper-resistant plastic bags for storage. This keeps things organized and reduces how often staff need to handle belongings. Clothing follows the same process. Before leaving the booking room, inmates exchange their personal clothes for jail-issued clothing. Their own clothes get bagged and stored until release.

Cash accepted at booking doesn't stay as loose cash - it goes into the inmate's account. From there, it can be used to buy commissary items and cover other costs while they're in custody. When the person is discharged or released, any unused money in that account is returned to them.

Practical Tips Families

• ✓ Check back later if you can’t find them right away - pre-booking can take four hours or more, and intake/booking typically takes another four to eight hours before the jail system entry is completed.
• ✓ When you call, have basic identifying details ready (the name they were arrested under and the approximate arrest time) so staff can help once the person has reached the point where they’re in the jail’s system.
• ✓ Watch for calls in stages - the booking area phones allow “free” local calls, and broader access usually comes after they’re assigned to a housing unit, when phones are available in common areas for several hours each day.