About Prison

The Passaic County Jail is a local-level jail facility that is located in Paterson, New Jersey.  The Passaic County Jail was initially constructed in 1957 to hold 227 inmates.  Since then, the jail has been remodeled or expanded a number of times, and is now a four-floor facility that can hold 1242 inmates.  In 2010, the most recent remodeling began with the goal or upgrading or installing several different things in the jail facility, including: heating and air conditioning, and a fire suppression system with a fire alarm and a fire pump.

The Passaic County Jail is part of the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office.  The Passaic County Sheriff is Richard Berdnik, but the person in charge of daily operations at the Passaic County Jail is Warden Michael Tolerico.  The Warden is responsible for overseeing the various civilian and custodial staff at the jail to ensure that they provide appropriate services to the inmates and to the community.  These services include, but are not limited to: custodial care, operations and support, public services and information, inmate visitation, inmate health and safety concerns, and sexual abuse and excessive force response.

The Passaic County Sheriff’s Office offers tours of the Passaic County Jail facility.  These tours are escorted and must be authorized either by the Warden or the Warden’s designee.  The tours can be given to individuals or to groups.  Groups generally consist of students, churches, community support groups, law enforcement personnel, or related programs and individuals in related career fields.  There are about 40 facility tours per year.

Inmates at the jail have access to a variety of different types of inmate programming.  Not all inmates will have access to all programming at all times; there may be wait lists or requirements to attend the program.  Some of the programs available to inmates at the Passaic County Jail include: alcoholics anonymous, narcotics anonymous, substance abuse programming, GED program, religious volunteers program, religious counseling, and the Passaic County Re-Entry Program.

Jail is not the only alternative available in Passaic County; the county also has the Community Release Center (CRC).  The CRC deals with inmates who are eligible for community release and offers alternatives to incarceration including: home detention, Bail Enhanced GPS, Electronic Monitoring, and the Sheriff’s Labor Assistance Program (SLAP).  The CRC not only provides defendants with a non-incarceration alternative, but also provides valuable community services such as emergency snow removal for seniors who need help after snow storms and maintaining the county’s Clean Parks Program.

Passaic County Jail Addresses

Passaic County Jail is located at:

Physical Address

Passaic County Sheriff's Office
Corrections Services Division
11 Marshall Street
Paterson, NJ 07501

Mailing Address

The mailing address for non-inmate mail is:

Passaic County Sheriff's Office
Corrections Services Division
11 Marshall Street
Paterson, NJ 07501

Inmate Mailing Address

The mailing address inmate mail is:

Inmate’s Full Name

Passaic County Sheriff's Office
Corrections Services Division
11 Marshall Street
Paterson, NJ 07501

Inmates at the Passaic County Jail are permitted to send and receive mail.  However, if you want to ensure that an inmate is able to receive mail you send, then you need to adhere to rules for jail mail.  Some jails post specific rules about inmate mail, but Passaic County Jail is not one of them.  Therefore, we are including general rules for jail mail.  If you have specific questions about mail at Passaic County Jail, you should contact the facility prior to sending the mail.  Failure to comply with jail rules may result in your mail not being delivered to the inmate.  However, if you attempt to send contraband or otherwise violate jail rules that could compromise the health or safety of the inmates or the jail staff, you could be subject to prosecution.

Throughout the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the inmates are all allowed to receive and send mail.  They have a uniform set of rules that apply to mail in all of these different jail facilities.  Violation of the rules can not only result in mail not being delivered, but also subject you to prosecution.

All incoming and outgoing mail has to be addressed appropriately.  This means that it needs a full address for sender and receiver, which includes a first and last name and a mailing address.  It is important that inmate mail has the inmate’s full name, rather than a nickname, unless the inmate was booked under a nickname or alias.  You need to see how the inmate’s name is listed in jail records and use that name when sending correspondence to the inmate.  Mail should be sent from the person on the return address and to the person addressed in the address line; mail rules generally prohibit the sending and receiving of third-party mail.

Unless otherwise posted, mails usually only accept mail via the United States Postal Service.  Passaic County Jail does not post its rules, but before attempting to make a delivery in another manner, including FedEx and UPS, contact the jail to determine whether they will accept the delivery.  Packages are usually prohibited.

The contents of jail mail are also strictly scrutinized.  All incoming and outgoing mail is monitored and may be checked for contraband.  Letters may be read.  The exception is legal mail; while legal mail is still subject to checks for contraband, it will not be read and should be checked in the presence of the inmate.

The best rule of thumb for jail mail is that it should be plain.  Some jails do not allow inmates to receive mail on paper that is not standard-sized or paper that is anything other than plain white; therefore, we suggest using plain white 8.5 x 11 paper for your correspondence.  Likewise, you want to select a plain blue or black ink for your correspondence, because some jails will reject any mail that is written in inks with other colors, pencils, crayons, or markers.  Do not decorate the letter with stickers, stamps, or other items.  Some jails allow inmates to receive drawings, but this policy can vary not only jail-to-jail, but at various times at the same jail, so check on the policy before sending any drawings or artwork.  The letter should not contain any: paint, glitter, lipstick, perfume, or bodily fluids.

If the inmates can receive greeting cards, you want to select plain greeting cards that do not contain anything that can be used as a weapon.  The cards should be made of normal card stock and be normal sized.  No musical card, electric cards, moving parts, plastic parts, or wood parts should be included.  No laminated or plasticized cars are permitted.

If the inmate indicates that he or she can receive photos, check with the jail about rules for photos.  Some jails have rules about the number of photos that inmates can receive in a letter, the total number of photos an inmate can have, and the format of any photos sent to the inmate.  Almost all jails prohibit inmates from receiving Polaroid and Polaroid-type photos because of the removable backing.

Keep in mind that the content of jail mail is also monitored.  No jail mail should include any type of material likely to cause a disturbance in the jail facility.  This includes, but is not limited to: pornography, nudity, sexually explicit material, racist material, gang material, material that could be used to plan an escape, and violent material.

Inmates cannot receive contraband.  Each jail determines its own contraband list, but items that are almost always considered contraband include: cigarettes and other tobacco-containing products, alcohol, illegal drugs, prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, food, and drinks.

While you cannot send books, magazines, or other published materials directly to an inmate, you can arrange to have those items sent to the inmate through the publisher or an authorized bookseller.  The same content restrictions apply to material being mailed from a publisher.  You also need to make sure that books are softcover, and usually books must be new in order to ship to the jail.

Phone Number

The Passaic County Jail’s main phone number is 973-881-4620.

Passaic County Inmate Search

The Passaic County Jail does not maintain its own inmates database, but does operate a booking log report that allows you to search recent arrests by a date range or by an inmates name.  However, we found inconsistent results when attempting to use this booking log report; sometimes it would return results, but other times it would return a 403 error.  Therefore, we suggest that if you have questions about whether a person is detained as an inmate at the Passaic County Jail, you contact the jail by phone to verify.

Recent Arrests

Passaic County maintains a booking log report that allows you to search recent arrests by a date range or by an inmates name. 

Mugshots

The Passaic County Jail does not have a dedicated mugshot/ booking photo database. 

Passaic County Jail Visitation

All visitation at the Passaic County Jail is non-contact and the jail uses GTL mobile to schedule and facilitate its visitation program.  You must schedule your visits in advance, whether you are using on-site visitation or visiting remotely.

Visiting hours are: no visitation on Monday; from 7:30am to 10:00am, 12:00pm to 2:30pm, and 6:00pm to 10:30pm Tuesday; no visitation on Wednesday; from 12:00pm to 2:30pm and 6:00pm to 10:30pm on Thursday; no visitation on Friday; from 7:30am to 10:00am, 12:00pm to 2:30pm, and 6:00pm to 10:30pm no Saturday; and from 7:30am to 10:00am, 12:00pm to 2:30pm, and 6:00pm to 10:30pm on Sunday.

You must register in the visitor scheduling system before you can plan a visit.  You must provide a working email address and phone number as well as a security code.  GTL will then send you a password via email.  To set up the inmates you can visit, you can search by inmate ID number or by name.  If an inmate appears on your list without you adding them, then their jail facility uses an approval process for inmate visitor lists and you have been approved; you do not have to take further action to be on their list.  You can sign in other adult visitors and minor visitors when you visit.  While children can participate in visitors, they must be logged in as minor visitors; no people who are not logged in can participate in a visitation, regardless of age.

You can schedule a visit in the available times listed on the schedule visitation page.  Sometimes, there may be no times available for visitation because visitation scheduling is done on a first-come, first-served basis and visitation time slots are limited.  If you are unable to attend visitation, please cancel your visit to free up a visitation slot.  Check to see if your visit is still scheduled prior to visitation; you may have the visit canceled for jail administrative reasons or if the inmate does not wish to participate in visitation.

You may use a credit card or a prepaid debit card to pay for visitation, but you must register your prepaid debit card prior to using it.

Passaic County Jail prohibits the use of any electronic devices during visitation; failing to observe this rule results in termination of the visit and a 90-day suspension of your visiting privileges.

All children must be accompanied by a parent or guardians.  Guardians must be able to establish legal guardianship.  Children must be monitored at all times.

Once an inmate has run out of visits for the week, you can purchase additional visits.

Inmate Phone Privileges

The Passaic County Jail uses GTL for phone services for inmates.  All calls are collect, but you can set up a pre-paid calling account by contacting GTL customer service at 877-650-4249 or visiting them online at www.webconnectwork.com.

Except for privileged communication, all inmate calls are recorded and may be monitored.  Inmates cannot receive incoming phone calls. In the event of a verifiable emergency, you can contact the jail and ask them to relay a message to an inmate, but the discretion of whether or not to do so is with the jail staff working that day.

If you do not want to receive calls from the Passaic County Jail, you can contact Customer Service at 877-650-4249 to block calls.

Inmate Trust Accounts / Commissary

Passaic County Jail uses Keefe to provide services for its inmate commissary accounts.  You can make toll free phone deposits by calling 866-345-1884.  You can also go online to Access Corrections at https://www.accesscorrections.com/#/ and make an internet deposit.  Commissary, also known as canteen, provides a way for inmates to purchase items not supplied by the jail. 

Bail Information

The Passaic County Jail allows you to post bail for inmates after bail has been set.  You can pay a cash bond, which means paying the full amount of the bond set or you can use a surety bond.  Using a surety means you pay a fee, usually a percentage of the total bail, to a surety.  The surety then guarantees that the inmate will appear at all scheduled court hearings and otherwise comply with the terms of bail or the surety will pay the full amount of the bond to the court.  While all of a cash bond is refundable as long as a defendant complies with all court orders, the fee you pay to a surety is non-refundable.

Conclusion

The Passaic County Jail in Paterson, New Jersey, is a local level jail facility operated by the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office.  It is located at Corrections Services Division, 11 Marshall Street, Paterson, NJ 0750.  The Passaic County Sheriff, Richard Berdnik, is in charge of the facility, but the warden, Michael Tolerico, handles its day-to-day operations including: visitation, custodial care, inmate health and safety, public information, jail tours, and responding to allegations of sexual abuse or excessive force.  One of Warden Tolerico’s responsibilities is inmate programming, and the Passaic County Jail offers a variety of inmate programs, including: educational programming, religious programming, drug and alcohol treatment programs, and a program designed to help inmates with re-entry.

In addition to jail, Passaic County offers some non-incarceration options.  IN fact, in 2017 the jail population had a dramatic reduction because of bail reform, including bail enhanced GPS, which allowed a number of people who were previously incarcerated while awaiting trial to gain pre-trial release.