How to Find Out if Your Child Was Arrested at Penn State (Happy Valley)

Not being able to reach your child when they are at college can be stressful.  If you truly cannot reach your child and want to know that they are safe, you might try to make phone calls until you can reach someone who knows where they are.  One thing you might check is to see whether your child was arrested – so knowing who to call to find out this kind of information is important.  Alternatively, if you received a call saying that your child was arrested, you can use the phone numbers and tools in this article to help you confirm the facts.  Then you can start working to get your child out of jail.  Criminal defense lawyer for Penn State students, Andrew Shubin, explains how to find out if your child was arrested at Penn State and what steps to take next.

How Can I Find Out if My Child is in Jail at Penn State?

If your child is a Penn State student and you cannot get a hold of them, one possibility is that they were arrested.  The same is true if they were attending a party at Penn State or visiting friends in the area.  If that is the case, you can usually find out whether the police have them in custody by calling local law enforcement or contacting the local jail.

Information about an arrest is public record.  This means that anyone should be able to contact law enforcement and find out whether a certain person is in custody.  As long as the person being arrested was over the age of 18, there shouldn’t be any reason that your request for information would be turned away.  This means they should be able to affirmatively say whether they do or do not have a record of someone’s arrest.  This is different from what might happen if you call a hospital or another medical or mental health clinic.  There, they might not be able to even confirm whether they have a patient in their facility unless there is a signed release.

Penn State’s campus police are full-fledged law enforcement officers.  If they arrested your child, you might be able to find out from them directly.  Contact information for Penn State Campus Police can be found on their website.

Alternatively, local police in State College are part of a separate police department.  The State College Police Department makes arrests off campus.  If your child was arrested at a party off campus or somewhere in town, these officers might know.  Their contact info can be found on their website.

If your child was arrested and transferred to jail, they are likely being held at the Centre County Correctional Facility.  This is the closest jail that covers the State College/Happy Valley area.  If they have already been booked and entered into the system, then your child should appear on the inmate listing, which can be searched at this site.  However, this kind of search might be slow and might not be updated, so you could be better off contacting Central Booking directly by calling (814) 355-6794.

What to Do if Your Child Was Arrested at Penn State

If you got a call telling you that your child was arrested and needs bail, the first thing you should do is confirm that information.  It may be difficult to hang up the phone or say no if someone on the line is claiming that your child is in custody.  However, many scams revolve around calling parents and grandparents and requesting money for bail with false claims that their child is in custody.

By calling the police offices and jails above, you should be able to first confirm whether or not your child was actually arrested before working to get them out of jail.

Once you know where your child is being held, you should call a lawyer immediately.  The Law Office of Andrew Shubin’s experienced criminal defense attorney in Happy Valley has represented Penn State students and other college students.  He has helped these students fight the charges against them and move along with their lives.  Our lawyer might be able to meet with your child in jail, work to get them bail, and help them deal with the charges against them.  Our attorneys work not only with young adults and college students facing criminal charges but also with college students under 18.  These children would be handled through the juvenile justice system instead of the criminal justice system.

Before we can represent your child, there are a few issues we must clear away.  First, we must actually meet with your child and confirm that they will accept our legal services.  If you hire us to represent your child, but your child refuses our legal services, we cannot represent them.  Additionally, it is important to understand that even if you pay for a lawyer for your child, the lawyer must maintain lawyer-client confidentiality with the defendant.  That means that if your child does not give us permission to share information with you about their case, we will not be able to inform you about how the case is going and what steps are next.  This is true even if you are the one paying for our services.  Most college students do allow us to work with their parents so we can all keep their best interests in mind, which would prevent many of these issues from taking root.

Once we are hired to represent your child in their criminal case, we can begin the work to keep them out on bail, fight the charges against them, and have charges dismissed or penalties reduced.  We can also help with college disciplinary hearings related to criminal charges, especially for offenses that occur on campus like drug possession charges or sexual assault charges.

Call Our Criminal Defense Lawyer for Penn State Students for a Free Case Consultation

If you are having trouble finding out where your child is being held after an arrest in Happy Valley, call The Law Office of Andrew Shubin.  Our criminal defense attorney for college students fights to get charges dropped and penalties reduced.  This helps our clients stay out of jail and beat the charges against them.  If you think your child was arrested near Penn State, we may be able to help.  Call us today at (814) 826-3586 for a free consultation.