The Intake Release Center — almost always called the IRC — is where the Orange County Sheriff’s Department processes every person booked into and released from the Orange County jail system. If someone was arrested anywhere in Orange County, this is very often where they end up, and it is where bail is most commonly posted.

It is also the only Orange County jail facility that accepts bail 24 hours a day. That single fact decides what is possible at three in the morning.

Facility details

How bail is paid at the IRC

The Sheriff’s Department publishes exactly what it will and will not accept. Getting this wrong costs you a trip, so it is worth reading before you leave the house.

Accepted: cash, bank cashier’s cheques, personal cheques, money orders and traveller’s cheques.

• Cashier’s cheques must be verified with the issuing bank and made payable to “County of Orange – Sheriff’s Department”.
• Personal cheques require two forms of identification, must be drawn on a California bank, and are capped at $7,500 per account.
• Traveller’s cheques must be signed in front of the cashier and made payable to “County of Orange – Sheriff’s Department”.
• Company and business cheques are not accepted at all.

Two further rules catch people out: bail for certain defendants must be paid in cash or cheque only, and bail for any court outside Orange County must be paid in cash.

Three things to confirm before paying

The Sheriff’s Department asks you to verify all three before handing over money:

1. The person’s full name
2. Their booking number
3. The full bail amount owed

If you do not have the booking number, that is normal. Locating someone and confirming their booking details is free, takes us a few minutes, and carries no obligation.

What happens during intake

Booking is not instant, and no one can be released until it is finished. At the IRC the process includes medical and mental health screening, classification, and records processing. The facility also holds over 800 long-term beds and operates acute mental health care units for both men and women.

How long booking takes varies with how busy the facility is. Anyone who promises you a precise release time is guessing — the jail controls that, not the bail agency.

Help available in the IRC lobby on release

This part is not widely known and matters to families. The IRC lobby houses the Orange County Social Services Agency, Orange County Probation, and Project Kinship, available in the lobby to help people leaving custody with benefits, housing, transportation and reentry support. Published hours for these services vary by provider, so check availability before relying on them.

If someone is being released with nowhere to go and no way to get there, those services are in the building.

Where the case goes next

The IRC is custody, not court. The case is heard at whichever justice center covers the city of the arrest. For the eight cities around our offices — Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Fullerton, La Habra, La Palma, Placentia and Yorba Linda — that is the North Justice Center in Fullerton. Other cities are listed on our Orange County courthouses page, and the county-wide overview is on Orange County bail bonds. For the eight-city area around our offices see North Orange County bail bonds.

If you need a bond posted

Bail is posted at the jail, so being close to Santa Ana matters less than being reachable and knowing the process. We answer the phone at every hour, and we will tell you honestly whether a bond can be posted right now or whether the facility’s hours mean waiting.

Anaheim, Brea and La Habra are our only physical offices. We serve the surrounding cities from them — see service areas and locations. Other facilities — Theo Lacy and James A. Musick — are listed on our Orange County jails page, and payment options are set out separately.

Please note: American Freedom Bail Bonds is a private bail bond agency licensed by the State of California (licence 1841014). We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. The Sheriff’s Department states plainly that it cannot recommend, suggest, or otherwise direct you to any bail bond agent or company — and we would never claim it does. Details below come from the Sheriff’s own published information and can change. Confirm with the facility on (714) 647-6085 before you travel. Nothing here is legal advice.

Cities whose arrests are booked here

The Intake Release Center is the county’s central booking facility, so arrests from across Orange County pass through it — including from cities that hold people briefly at their own station first.

• North county: La Palma, Buena Park, Fullerton, Placentia, Yorba Linda
• Central: Santa Ana, Orange, Tustin
• Sheriff-policed cities with no municipal jail, such as Stanton, Mission Viejo and Lake Forest

Find someone

Locate a person in Orange County custody

Nobody can be bailed out until booking is finished. Locating someone is free and it is the first thing we do.

Step by stepFind an InmateWhat information you need to search, and what to do when the record has not appeared yet.How to searchOfficialOrange County Inmate LocatorThe Sheriff’s own inmate information system. Opens on ocsheriff.gov.Open official locatorCountyOrange County Jails & CustodyAll three county facilities, and what has to happen before bail can be posted.OC custody hub