The Taft Community Correctional Facility is the large institution on the east edge of town, and its history explains most of the confusion around it. It opened in the early 1990s holding California state inmates, closed in 2011 during prison realignment, reopened in 2014, and closed again as the state wound down its contract facilities — accounts differ on the exact year.

According to local reporting in 2023, the city then spent roughly a million dollars on renovations — flooring, kitchens, plumbing, HVAC — hired about 50 staff, and reopened under an intergovernmental agreement with the United States Marshals Service, holding detainees for federal authorities rather than people arrested locally. Facility arrangements change, so call to confirm anything current.

That distinction is the whole point of this page.

Facility information

Name

Taft Community Correctional Facility

Address

330 Commerce Way, Taft, CA 93268

Phone

661-765-2840

Fax

661-765-2856

Inmate mail

PO Box 925, Taft, CA 93268

Operated by

City of Taft

Holds

Federal detainees under a U.S. Marshals Service agreement (per 2023 reporting)

Not to be confused with

Taft PD jail, 320 Commerce Way (local arrests) — or the former Taft Correctional Institution, which closed in 2020

Why bail works differently here

This is the part worth understanding before you spend any money.

When someone is arrested on California state charges — a Taft PD arrest, a Sheriff’s arrest, almost everything we handle — bail is set from a county schedule, and a licensed bondsman can post a bond for a premium that is most commonly 10% of the bail amount (sureties file their rates with the California Department of Insurance, and 8% filed rates exist for qualifying cases). That’s the system this whole website is about.

Federal custody is a different system. There is no county bail schedule and no standard 10% commercial bond. Release is decided by a federal magistrate judge at a detention hearing, usually within a few days of the initial appearance, under the federal Bail Reform Act. The judge weighs flight risk and danger to the community and either releases the person on conditions — supervision, travel limits, sometimes a bond secured by property or a family member’s signature — or orders them detained.

We say this as a bail bonds company: on a federal detainer, we are usually not the right people. Where we can help is when someone also has a California state case — a Kern County charge, an out-of-county warrant, an old bench warrant — running alongside the federal matter. That part we handle every day. Call and we’ll tell you honestly which situation you’re in.

Sending mail and money

The facility handles inmate mail through a post office box rather than the street address:

• Mail: PO Box 925, Taft, CA 93268. Include your loved one’s full name as it appears on their booking record. Facilities return mail that doesn’t follow their rules exactly, so call first if you’re unsure about photos, books or enclosures.
• Money: funds are deposited through Access Corrections.
• Commissary: care packages and commissary orders go through Access Securepak.
• Legal visits: attorneys arrange meetings with detainees by email through the facility.

Vendor procedures and fees change, and so do visiting rules. Call 661-765-2840 and confirm before you send money or drive out.

Which facility do you actually need?

If your loved one was picked up by Taft police or a Kern County deputy in the last day or two, you want the city jail. Start with our Taft jail guide or the first 48 hours timeline, and if they’ve already been moved to Bakersfield, the Kern County inmate search walkthrough will find them.

Frequently asked questions

Is this the same as the Taft city jail?

No. The city jail is the Taft Police Department facility at 320 Commerce Way — short-term holding for people arrested locally. The Community Correctional Facility at 330 Commerce Way is a separate, city-operated contract facility housing federal detainees.

Is this the same as Taft Correctional Institution?

No. Taft Correctional Institution was a separate federal prison on Cadet Road, operated under contract by a private company for the Bureau of Prisons; it closed in 2020. The similar names and the same small town make this a common mix-up.

Can you bail someone out of this facility?

Generally not. Federal detainees are released on conditions set by a federal magistrate judge, not by posting a 10% California bail bond. If there’s also a state case or warrant in the mix, that part we can help with.

How do I find out if someone is being held here?

People held for federal authorities won’t appear in the Kern County inmate search. Call the facility at 661-765-2840. If you’re not certain your loved one is there at all, call us and we’ll check the local and county systems.

What are visiting hours?

Be careful here: an old state corrections listing for this address still shows weekend visiting hours, but those date from when the state ran the facility and no longer apply. Rules for federal detainees are set in coordination with the holding agency. Call 661-765-2840 before making the drive.

The hardest part of the first night is not knowing what’s happening. Someone you love was arrested in Taft an hour ago, nobody is telling you much, and the county inmate search is coming back empty. Here is the actual sequence, start to finish, so you know what’s going on and when you can do something about it.

The single most important thing to understand: there is a window. Early on, your person is in Taft, minutes from your house, and bail can be posted locally. Once they are moved to Bakersfield everything takes longer. Most families lose that window simply because nobody told them it existed. How long it lasts is worth a phone call — see below.

The timeline

Why the county inmate search shows nothing

This is the question we get most from Taft families, and the answer is reassuring. Someone sitting in the Taft city jail has not been booked into a county facility, so they generally will not appear in the Kern County inmate database at all. An empty search result usually doesn’t mean something went wrong — it means they’re still in Taft.

Once they’re in the county system you can find them here:

1. kernsheriff.org → “Inmate Search” — the Kern County Sheriff’s official database, and the one to trust.
2. kerninmatesearch.org — an unofficial site some families find easier to navigate; always confirm what you find there against the Sheriff’s database.

What we need from you

You don’t have to drive anywhere, and you don’t have to have everything figured out. One phone call starts it:

1. Their full name and date of birth. Enough for us to find the booking record.
2. Where they were arrested, if you know — in town or out in the county. It tells us which building to call.
3. We pull the record and tell you the charges, the bail amount, and whether there are any holds, before you commit to anything.
4. You sign by phone or online. No trip to Bakersfield.
5. We post the bond at whichever facility they’re in.

Taft arrest at a glance

What bail costs

The premium is most commonly 10% of the bail amount — $1,000 on a $10,000 bail. It is not fixed by statute: each surety files its rates with the California Department of Insurance and its agents charge the filed rate, and many sureties file as low as 8% for qualifying cases. Ask what filed rate applies to yours. We offer payment plans and easy-to-qualify terms, and you’ll know the exact figure before you agree to anything. Run a quick estimate with our free bail bond calculator, or read how to post bail in Kern County.

Frequently asked questions

How long before they’re moved to Bakersfield?

Sources differ — the city’s website says 96 hours, the department’s own manual says 48. Past whichever applies, anyone still in custody is transported to the county jail, where new arrests are booked at the Sheriff’s Inmate Reception Center at the Lerdo Jail Complex. Medical or detox needs can trigger an earlier transfer. Call 661-763-3101 to ask.

Do I need to drive to Bakersfield to post bail?

No. If they’re still at the Taft jail, we post the bond there. And either way you don’t need to be present — paperwork is handled by phone or online.

Can I do anything in the first hour?

Call us. We often can’t post a bond until booking is done and bail is set, but we can confirm where they are, watch for the bail amount, and have the paperwork ready to go the moment it posts. That preparation is usually what saves the window.

What if they were arrested outside Taft city limits?

Then a Sheriff’s deputy made the arrest and they went straight to Bakersfield — the Taft Substation is not a booking facility. This includes Ford City, South Taft and Taft Heights, which are unincorporated. Skip the Taft jail and start with the county inmate search.

What if there’s a hold?

An out-of-county warrant or a probation or parole hold can keep someone in custody even after bail is posted. We check for holds before you pay anything.

Most people in Taft assume an arrest means an immediate trip to Bakersfield. It usually doesn’t — at least not right away. The Taft Police Department operates its own jail, and for the first day or two after an arrest, that’s where your husband, wife, son or daughter is sitting: a few blocks off Kern Street, not an hour up the highway.

That matters more than it sounds. It means you can often post bail in Taft, in person, and drive them home the same night. It also means there’s a clock running. This page explains what the Taft jail is, how bail works there, what the hours are, and what changes the moment someone is transferred to Bakersfield.

Quick facts: the Taft Police Department jail

Facility

Taft Police Department Type I Jail — pre-arraignment holding

Address

320 Commerce Way, Taft, CA 93268

Phone

661-763-3101 — the department’s main line; there is no separate published jail number

Visiting hours

5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m., Monday through Sunday

Length of stay

Short-term — see below; then transfer to Bakersfield

Bail accepted

Yes — at the facility

We’re available

24 hours a day, every day — Se Habla Español

What a “Type I” jail actually means

California sorts local lockups into types. Under state regulation (15 CCR §1006), a Type I facility holds people for no more than 96 hours after booking, excluding holidays — a short-term lockup, not a jail where a case is served out. The City of Taft describes its own facility as “a Type I Jail facility for pre-arraignment prisoners.”

How long in practice? Sources disagree, so ask. The city’s website states a maximum of 96 hours. The Taft Police Department’s own jail manual sets a stricter internal limit — “prisoners will not be held over 48 hours” — and directs that anyone remaining past that point be transported to the county’s jail in Bakersfield. The manual names the Central Receiving Facility, which is now a court-holding facility that no longer books anyone; transfers now go to the Sheriff’s Inmate Reception Center at the Lerdo Jail Complex. Either way it is short-term, and either way the answer for your situation comes from a phone call to 661-763-3101, not from a number on a website.

Can you post bail at the Taft jail?

Yes, and this is the single most useful thing to know about the facility. The Taft jail accepts bail on site. Under the department’s procedures, bail may be posted by cash deposit, money order, certified check, or by a bondsman — and personal checks are not accepted. Bail is receipted on a three-part form; cash is deposited with City Hall, while money orders, certified checks and bonds go to the appropriate court.

So if a licensed bondsman posts a bond at 320 Commerce Way inside that window, your loved one is released from Taft — no Bakersfield trip, no county intake, no waiting on the transport schedule. You pick them up in town.

Once the transfer happens, that option closes. Bail then has to be posted at the county facility in Bakersfield, and release runs on county timelines — typically 2 to 6 hours after the bond is posted, sometimes longer on a busy weekend night. Neither path is unusual and we handle both, but the first one gets people home considerably faster.

What bail costs

The premium on a California bail bond is most commonly 10% of the bail amount — $1,000 on a $10,000 bail. That rate isn’t fixed by statute: each surety company files its rates with the California Department of Insurance, and its agents must charge the filed rate. Many sureties have a filed rate as low as 8% for qualifying cases (for example, where the defendant is represented by a private attorney), and California law permits an agent to rebate part of the premium. Ask what filed rate applies to your case.

We offer payment plans and easy-to-qualify terms, and we’ll tell you the exact number before you commit to anything. For a quick estimate, try our free bail bond calculator.

Visiting someone at the Taft jail

The jail manual lists visiting hours as 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday through Sunday. Meals are served in three windows — early morning, midday, and early evening — so visits are scheduled around the last of those.

This is a small facility with a handful of staff, so call 661-763-3101 before you drive over. Hours can shift with staffing, and if your person was transferred to Bakersfield earlier in the day, you’ll want to know that before you’re standing at the counter.

What happens if they’re transferred

If they stay in custody, your loved one is driven northeast to the Sheriff’s Inmate Reception Center at the Lerdo Jail Complex, 17801 Industrial Farm Road in Bakersfield — north of the city. (Older guides, including the Taft jail manual, name the Central Receiving Facility downtown; it is now the Metro Court Holding Facility and no longer books or houses anyone.) The Reception Center is the county’s intake point. From there, most people who aren’t released quickly move on to the Lerdo Pre-Trial Facility north of town.

Once someone is in the county system, you can track them through the Kern County inmate search:

1. kernsheriff.org → “Inmate Search” — the Kern County Sheriff’s official database, and the one to trust.
2. kerninmatesearch.org — an unofficial site some families find easier to navigate; always confirm what you find there against the Sheriff’s database.

Taft jail vs. the county facilities

Other Taft-area facilities and agencies

A few nearby places get confused with the city jail, so it’s worth separating them:

• Taft Community Correctional Facility — 330 Commerce Way, 661-765-2840. Right next door, but a different kind of facility with a different population. Not where someone goes straight after an arrest.
• Kern County Sheriff’s Office — Taft Substation — 601 Gardner Field Road, 661-763-8550. This is the patrol base covering the west Kern communities outside Taft city limits: the city of Maricopa, plus Fellows, McKittrick, Derby Acres, Dustin Acres and Valley Acres. It is a patrol base, not a booking facility, so deputies transport arrestees to Bakersfield. If a deputy made the arrest outside Taft city limits, your person went to Bakersfield, not to Commerce Way.

Which court will handle the case?

The Taft courthouse on Lincoln Street operates on a limited schedule and does not hear the full range of cases, so where a Taft case is heard depends on the case. Don’t guess — the release or court paperwork names the courthouse, department, date and time.

If the paperwork isn’t clear, call the Kern County Superior Court to confirm which location has the case, or call us at 661-324-6009 — we track court dates for our clients and can look it up. Missing a first appearance because you drove to the wrong courthouse is a genuinely avoidable problem. See also our Kern County courthouse locations page.

Frequently asked questions

Does Taft have its own jail?

Yes. The Taft Police Department operates a Type I jail at 320 Commerce Way. It’s a short-term holding facility, not a county jail, and people are moved to Bakersfield if they stay in custody. Sources differ on the exact limit — the city says 96 hours, the department’s own manual says 48 — so call 661-763-3101 to ask.

Can I bail someone out directly from the Taft jail?

Yes. The facility accepts cash, money orders, certified checks and bail bonds — not personal checks. Posting before the transfer to Bakersfield is the fastest way home.

Why can’t I find my loved one in the Kern County inmate search?

If they were arrested in Taft city limits within the last day or so, they may still be at the Taft PD jail and not yet booked into a county facility, so they won’t show in the county database. Call the Taft jail at 661-763-3101 to confirm.

How long does release take?

From the Taft jail, release after a bond is posted is usually quick — it’s a small facility. From the county jail at Lerdo, the Sheriff says release can take up to 8 hours after bail is posted.

What if there’s a hold?

An out-of-county warrant or a probation or parole hold can keep someone in custody even after bail is posted. We check for holds before you pay anything.

Are you available in the middle of the night?

Yes. We’re open 24 hours a day, every day, including holidays, and the Taft jail accepts bail on site; call 661-763-3101 first to confirm when it can be posted.