Preston County Jail Mugshots
Preston County jail custody is handled through the West Virginia regional jail system, with Tygart Valley Regional Jail and Correctional Facility serving as the main jail facility for county arrests. That means a booking-photo search starts with the WV Regional Jail Offender Search, not a Preston County sheriff-run photo gallery. The public search form is free, name based, and captcha protected.
The research pass could not inspect a full sample inmate profile because captcha prevented access to the public result page. For that reason, it would be inaccurate to promise that every Preston County jail profile displays a mugshot, that a photo remains online for a set number of days, or that historical booking photos are kept in a public gallery. The accurate wording is narrower: if the WV Regional Jail profile displays a booking photo, it is part of the regional jail search record; if it does not, the custodian must be contacted.
Public access limit: A jail roster entry can help identify custody status, but it is not a complete court record, criminal-history report, or guaranteed mugshot source.
Preston County Booking Photo Search
The practical search path follows the record trail. Start with the official jail search because it is the source most likely to connect a current Preston County jail inmate to a current regional jail profile. If the person was booked the same day, check the WV Daily Incarcerations page for admission context. If neither public page answers the photo question, call Tygart Valley or use a records request through the correct custodian.
- Open the WV Regional Jail Offender Search and search by at least the first three letters of the last name.
- Add a first name when the last name is common or may return several regional jail matches.
- Review any public profile that appears after captcha to see whether a booking photo field is displayed.
- Check the Daily Incarcerations page if the arrest may be too new for a normal name search.
- Call Tygart Valley at 304-637-0382 for custody-record questions tied to regional jail booking.
- Use the Preston County Sheriff's Department report request form when the requested photo is part of a sheriff-generated arrest report.
A photo request should be specific. Include the person's full name, date of arrest or booking if known, arresting agency, and the exact record sought, such as booking photo, booking sheet, or sheriff incident report. Do not ask a court clerk for a jail booking photo unless the image is part of a court exhibit or filed court record.
Preston County Mugshot Record Fields
Because the full WV Regional Jail profile was not inspected, the table below separates the photo issue from fields that commonly sit near a jail profile. The public form confirms name searching and WVDCR's disclaimer. The result fields must be verified from the live profile or the custodian before a user treats them as complete.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Booking Photo | May show a front-facing intake image if the public regional jail profile displays one. Full photo visibility was not confirmed because of captcha. |
| Name | The name returned by the WVDCR regional jail search after a last-name and optional first-name search. |
| Current Facility | May identify Tygart Valley Regional Jail and Correctional Facility for Preston County regional jail custody. |
| Booking or Admission Detail | May provide intake context if exposed in the profile or daily admissions result. |
| Charges | May list jail-system allegations or charge labels. Formal charge status belongs in court records. |
| Bond / Custody Status | May appear as custody data. Call the jail or check the court order before acting on it. |
| Release Status | Can change quickly. WVDCR warns the public search may not reflect the true current status. |
The distinction between a jail field and a court field matters. A booking photo is an intake record. A conviction is a court outcome. A dismissed charge, amended charge, acquittal, plea, or expungement order should be checked through the court record, not inferred from a jail mugshot.
Preston County Mugshot Law
West Virginia public-records law starts with access to public records unless a law provides an exemption. W. Va. Code § 29B-1-3 gives every person the right to inspect or copy public records of a public body, requires the request to go to the custodian, and requires action as soon as practicable, not later than five business days excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays. The same section allows fees tied to actual reproduction costs and bars search or retrieval fees based on staff hours.
Booking photographs also have a specific West Virginia rule. W. Va. Code § 62-1-6A says a law-enforcement agency may not share on social media the booking photograph of a person arrested for the alleged commission of a minor offense, with exceptions including conviction based on the conduct for which the person was in custody. This statute is a social-media limit on law-enforcement publication. It is not a promise that every booking photo is categorically hidden, and it is not a promise that every photo must be posted online.
Key statutes: W. Va. Code § 29B-1-3 governs public-records inspection and copying. W. Va. Code § 62-1-6A restricts certain law-enforcement social-media sharing of booking photographs for minor offenses.
Request Preston County Booking Photos
A booking-photo request should go to the agency that created or keeps the record. For regional jail booking records, that likely means WVDCR or Tygart Valley. For a deputy arrest report or incident report, the local route is the Preston County Sheriff's Department and its official report request form. The sheriff's office is at 103 W Main Street, Kingwood, WV 26537, phone 304-329-1611.
FOIA requests work best when they name the custodian and the record with enough detail to locate it. Use full name, date of birth only if appropriate for identity matching, date of arrest, arresting agency, approximate booking date, and the type of record sought. A request for "all mugshots" is less useful than a request for one booking photo tied to one booking event.
| Record Needed | Likely Custodian | Practical Request Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Regional jail booking photo | WVDCR or Tygart Valley Regional Jail | Name, booking date, Preston County arrest link, and facility if known. |
| Sheriff arrest report photo | Preston County Sheriff's Department | Name, report date, deputy or case number if known, and requested report type. |
| Court exhibit image | Preston County court clerk for the filed case | Case number, party name, hearing date, and document or exhibit description. |
What Is Not Public
Public access does not mean every image held by an agency must be placed on the internet. Some records may be exempt, withheld, redacted, or controlled by a different custodian. Juvenile matters, protected victim information, medical or mental-health information, security-sensitive jail records, sealed court records, and certain investigative material may not be released in the same way as a basic public custody record.
Federal custody is also different. The BOP inmate locator does not publish federal mugshots. It shows fields such as name, register number, age, race, sex, release date, and location. USP Hazelton and FCI Hazelton are in Preston County, but they are federal facilities. Their public locator records are not county mugshot pages.
What is and is not public: A current jail profile may provide custody data and may display a photo if the portal supports it. Court exhibits, protected records, sealed matters, juvenile records, and federal inmate photos require separate rules or are not publicly posted.
Preston County Mugshot Removal
West Virginia expungement law can affect criminal records, but the research did not locate a Preston County or WVDCR page promising automatic removal of a booking photo after dismissal, acquittal, deferred outcome, pretrial diversion, or expungement. W. Va. Code § 61-11-25 covers expungement rules for acquittals, dismissed charges, and certain deferred or diversion outcomes. W. Va. Code § 61-11-26 covers expungement of certain criminal convictions.
The practical path is to obtain the court order first, then contact the agency or platform that is publishing the photo. If WVDCR or a sheriff's office controls the source record, ask that custodian how the order affects its public record. If a private website copied an image, the court order may help support a removal request, but no Preston County source promises that third-party copies disappear automatically. Commercial mugshot publishing or pay-to-remove services are not official public-record channels and should not be treated as government sources.
Preston County Charges and Photos
A mugshot proves only that an intake image may have been taken or published for a booking event. It does not prove guilt, conviction, sentence, or final charge status. The court record may show that an allegation was dismissed, amended, bound over, indicted, resolved by plea, or tried. For the charge path after booking, use the magistrate or circuit court systems rather than the photo itself.
For custody and roster fields, use Preston County inmate records. For the case filed after an arrest, use Preston County court records after jail arrest. Those two records often move at different speeds and may be held by different offices.
Note: A booking photo should be read as an identity and intake record, not as proof of the court outcome.