Madison Parish, Louisiana Arrest Records Search

Criminal case records for Madison Parish are split between two systems: the Madison Parish Clerk of Court, which holds District Court docket entries for felony and misdemeanor cases filed in Tallulah, and the Madison Parish Sheriff’s Office, which maintains booking records from the parish jail. The Louisiana Secretary of State’s statewide Clerk of Court case search portal covers Madison Parish and is the fastest online path to court filings. The Clerk’s office at the Madison Parish Courthouse is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Payments to the Sheriff’s Office must be by cashier’s check or money order.

If someone you know was just booked tonight, our Madison Parish inmate-search page has phone-first contact info.

If your person has a history in other states

A Madison Parish court search only surfaces cases filed in this parish’s District Court. Records from other states, federal cases, or arrests under a prior name in a different jurisdiction may not appear in any Louisiana portal. A nationwide third-party database search may help fill gaps that local portals often leave, particularly if the person has lived in multiple states or you need to verify the completeness of your own record across every place you’ve resided.

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This tool is not a consumer reporting agency under the FCRA and may not be used to screen anyone for employment, housing, credit, or any other purpose covered by that law.

How to look up arrest records in Madison Parish

What’s the fastest way to find a Madison Parish criminal case record online? The Louisiana Secretary of State’s statewide Clerk of Court case search portal covers all 64 parishes, including Madison, and lets you search by name or case number without visiting the courthouse. It is the primary online tool for District Court docket entries — felony charges, misdemeanor cases, and civil matters filed in Tallulah. Keep in mind that a new case can take time to appear after filing; if a recent arrest isn’t showing yet, the Clerk’s office is the next call.

For in-person or written records requests, go directly to the Madison Parish Clerk of Court at the Madison Parish Courthouse in Tallulah. The office is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Bring the subject’s full legal name and approximate date of birth. Call ahead to confirm the current records-request fee before visiting, as copy fees are set by the Clerk and can change. Parking around the courthouse is limited, so plan extra time.

Booking records — the Sheriff-side arrest entry created when someone is processed into the parish jail — are held by the Madison Parish Sheriff’s Office. The main contact number is 318-574-1831. Payments for records requests to the Sheriff’s Office must be made by cashier’s check or money order payable to the Madison Parish Sheriff’s Office. Parking is easy at the facility entrance. Note that phone lines can be busy; wait times have been reported to exceed one hour during peak periods.

For state prison records, the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections inmate lookup covers individuals housed in state facilities. Madison Parish’s Louisiana Transitional Center for Women is a state-operated facility in the parish; its general contact number is (318) 574-0584 (verify before calling). State DOC records and parish jail booking records are separate systems — a name that appears in one may not appear in the other.

The Louisiana State Police maintains crash reports and certain law-enforcement records at the state level. For records that predate the online portal’s window or involve cases from multiple jurisdictions, the statewide Clerk portal remains the most reliable single search. Confirm numbers and hours before visiting or calling any office.

Are Madison Parish arrest records public?

Criminal records in Louisiana carry a default-public status under state law — sealed cases, juvenile records, and victim-protection redactions are the narrow exceptions.

The controlling statute is La. R.S. 44:1, Louisiana’s Public Records Law, which establishes that government records are open to inspection by any person unless a specific exemption applies. Arrest records, booking entries, and court dockets filed in Madison Parish’s District Court fall within that default-open framework. You do not need to demonstrate a legal interest or explain why you want the record.

The exceptions matter in practice. A record that has been expunged under La. Code Crim. Proc. art. 971 is no longer accessible to the public — the Clerk of Court is required to seal it, and the Sheriff’s Office must treat the booking entry as confidential. Law enforcement agencies retain access to sealed records, but a routine public-counter request will not surface them. Juvenile records are separately protected and are not part of the public court docket for Madison Parish District Court cases.

Victim-identifying information — addresses, contact details, and certain case specifics in domestic-violence and sexual-assault matters — may be redacted from copies provided to the public even when the underlying case is open. The Clerk of Court applies these redactions at the time of copying; you will receive the case record with those fields removed rather than a denial of the entire file.

Mugshot release policy for Madison Parish is not posted online — call the Sheriff’s Office at 318-574-1831 to ask whether booking photos are released on request and under what conditions.

What’s in a Madison Parish arrest record?

At the moment of booking, the Madison Parish Sheriff’s Office creates an entry that captures the arrest itself. That booking record typically includes the subject’s full name, date of birth, booking date and time, the charge or charges as written by the arresting officer, the arresting agency, and a case or booking number. A mugshot may be taken at booking; whether it is released publicly is a Sheriff’s Office policy question — call 318-574-1831 to confirm.

The booking entry and the court docket are different documents living in different systems. The booking record is Sheriff-side. The docket entry is created when the District Attorney files charges with the Madison Parish District Court and is maintained by the Madison Parish Clerk of Court at the Madison County Courthouse. The docket shows the formal charge language, case number, attorney of record (once one appears), hearing dates, and — critically — disposition. An arrest record alone does not show whether the case ended in conviction, dismissal, acquittal, or a plea. That outcome lives in the docket.

This distinction matters for records-checkers. A background search that pulls only the Sheriff-side booking entry will show charges filed but no resolution. A search through the statewide Clerk of Court case search portal will show the docket, including any disposition entered by the court. For a complete picture of a Madison Parish case, you need both: the booking entry confirms the arrest occurred, and the docket entry confirms what happened afterward.

Docket entries in Madison Parish may also show bond amounts set at first appearance, continuances, and any motions filed by the defense or prosecution. The attorney of record appears on the docket once counsel enters an appearance. If a case was resolved through a diversion program rather than a formal plea, the docket may reflect a dismissal without a conviction entry — that distinction is important for expungement eligibility, covered in the next section.

How to expunge an arrest record in Madison Parish

Petitioning to seal an arrest record in Madison Parish is a routine legal procedure governed by La. Code Crim. Proc. art. 971, and the eligibility rules turn almost entirely on how the underlying case resolved.

An arrest that ended without a conviction — dismissed by the court, refused by the District Attorney, or resolved in an acquittal — carries no elapsed-time waiting period. You can file a Petition to Expunge as soon as the non-conviction disposition is entered, with one exception: an arrest that was simply never prosecuted must wait for the prescriptive period on the underlying charge to run before the petition can be filed. A DWI resolved through pretrial diversion is the one non-conviction that carries a hard wait: five years from the date of arrest before the petition is eligible.

Convictions carry waiting periods measured from the completion of sentence, probation, or parole — not from the conviction date itself. A misdemeanor conviction becomes eligible five years after that completion date. A felony conviction requires ten years. A first marijuana-possession conviction has a shorter path: ninety days after completion of sentence.

To file, prepare a Petition to Expunge and file it with the Madison Parish Clerk of Court at the Madison Parish Courthouse in Tallulah. The Clerk’s office is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A filing fee applies; call the Clerk to confirm the current amount. If you cannot afford the fee, ask the Clerk about an indigency waiver — the statute provides a path for petitioners who qualify.

You can file the petition yourself without an attorney. The Louisiana State Public Defender’s office may be able to assist with self-represented filings; their locator is at Louisiana State Public Defender. For more complex cases — prior convictions, multiple arrests, or cases involving the DWI diversion exception — an attorney familiar with Louisiana expungement procedure is worth consulting. The Louisiana State Bar Association attorney finder can help you locate one.

After a successful expungement, the public record is sealed. The Madison Parish Clerk of Court removes the case from public access, and the Sheriff’s Office treats the booking entry as confidential. Law enforcement agencies retain access to the sealed record — it does not disappear from their systems. A person whose record has been expunged may lawfully represent that the arrest did not occur in most non-law-enforcement contexts, but the specific legal effect depends on the context and the controlling statute.

Quick-contacts: Madison Parish arrest records

Frequently asked questions about Madison Parish arrest records

What is the bond process after an arrest in Madison Parish, and how do I find out the amount?

After a Madison Parish arrest, bond is typically set at a first appearance before a District Court judge. The bond amount, once set, appears on the court docket — search the Louisiana Clerk of Court case search portal by the person’s name to find the docket entry. If the case is too new to appear online, call the Madison Parish Clerk of Court at the Madison Parish Courthouse (open Mon–Fri 8:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m.) or the Madison Parish Sheriff’s Office at 318-574-1831. Payments to the Sheriff’s Office must be by cashier’s check or money order payable to the Madison Parish Sheriff’s Office.

How do I get a Madison Parish arrest record expunged?

File a Petition to Expunge with the Madison Parish Clerk of Court under La. Code Crim. Proc. art. 971. Eligibility depends on how the case resolved: arrests that ended in dismissal or acquittal can generally be petitioned immediately. A misdemeanor conviction requires five years after completing the sentence, probation, or parole; a felony conviction requires ten years. The Clerk’s office at the Madison Parish Courthouse is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Call ahead to confirm the filing fee. If cost is a barrier, ask about an indigency waiver. The Louisiana State Public Defender may assist with self-represented filings.