Your First Visit to Mercer County Detention Center: What to Bring and What to Expect

Who Can Visit ID

• ✓ Bring valid, unexpired identification. You will not be processed for a visit without proper ID.
• ✓ Acceptable IDs include a Driver’s License, Welfare Card, Employment ID card, College/School ID, any State ID card, or a valid passport.

Bringing a teenager? Plan ahead. Anyone 17 or younger (except a spouse) must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. There's also a restriction for people who were recently released from this facility. Former inmates cannot visit anyone at the Mercer County Correction Center for one year from their release date. Need a special visit outside the normal process? Those can be arranged, but they require approval from the Warden or the Warden's designee.

Prohibited Items

• ✓ Do not bring handbags into the visiting area.
• ✓ Do not bring paper bags or plastic bags into the visiting area.
• ✓ Do not bring baby chairs into the visiting area.
• ✓ Do not bring children’s toys into the visiting area.
• ✓ Do not smoke in the lobby or visiting areas.

Expect a temperature screening when you arrive. Staff use an infrared thermometer, and you'll be allowed in if your temperature is less than 100.0°F. If your reading is 100.0°F or higher, you won't be able to proceed. Staff will escort you to your vehicle and direct you to leave the grounds of the Mercer County Correction Center.

After check-in, you'll go through a pat-frisk search before entering the visit area. Wear something simple that's easy to clear quickly.

1. Get the Visitor Pass form. The Outside Security Officer will provide it and tell you to complete it before you enter the lobby.
2. Fill it out with your own pen. No writing utensils are provided for visitors, so bring one with you.

You'll be given disinfectant wipes before entering the window (screened) visiting area. This applies to both visitors and inmates. Staff also clean the visit area between groups. You may see them wiping down stations before the next cohort comes in.

Visits at the Mercer County Correction Center are screened, non-contact visits. You'll sit in a screened visit area; contact visits are not permitted. Once staff assigns you a seat, stay there. Switching seats isn't allowed, and moving around can end your visit early.

Common Denial Next Steps

• ✓ Your temperature is 100.0°F or higher (you will be escorted to your vehicle and directed to leave the grounds).
• ✓ You do not have valid, unexpired ID (lack of proper identification is enough to refuse a visit).
• ✓ You are a former inmate and you are still within one year of your release date.

If you're turned away for a high temperature (100.0°F or higher), it happens immediately. Staff will escort you to your vehicle and direct you to leave the grounds. If you arrive without proper identification, the visit can be refused on the spot. The fix is simple: bring a valid, unexpired ID from the facility's accepted list on your next attempt.