Medication and mental-health information
Sheriff’s Medical Services and Jail Mental Health Service are separate departments inside the same jails, and they do not share a fax inbox. Send a psychiatric history to a medical machine and the people who needed it never see it.
Fax the history so jail clinicians can assess and treat. They will not automatically continue a prescription from home.
Put nothing about the case on that fax. The Sheriff’s instruction is exact: “Do NOT address any impending charges against your family member in this fax. Medical information only!”
Which number do I send it to?
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Mental health onlyDiagnosis, psychiatric medication, a psychiatrist’s records, suicide concernFax(909) 463-5233Jail Mental Health Service — one number, all four jails
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Physical health onlyDiabetes, blood pressure, seizures, heart conditions, and the medication for themFaxThe jail’s own medical numberDifferent at each of the four jails — see the table below
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BothThis is the common case. A psychiatric history almost always arrives with something physical attached.FaxSend the same packet to both numbersThe Sheriff’s form says it in capitals: fax to both when both apply
Faxes are accepted 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If they are moved to a different jail, send it again — the packet does not follow them.
Where it goes
The four jails, and the fax number for each.
Mental health is one number countywide. Medical is per jail, so this is the row you need to get right — and it depends on where they are being held today, not where they were arrested.
West Valley Detention Center
9500 Etiwanda Avenue, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91739
Central Detention Center
630 East Rialto Avenue, San Bernardino, CA 92415
Glen Helen Rehabilitation Center
18000 W. End of Institution Road, Devore, CA 92407
High Desert Detention Center
9438 Commerce Way, Adelanto, CA 92301
On the Sheriff’s form this jail is the box marked ADC. That is this jail in Adelanto — not the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, which is a separate federal facility.
These are fax machines, not phones — they are printed rather than linked so a tap does not dial one. Taken from the Sheriff’s own Inmate Medication Information Form, which prints all four jails. The Sheriff’s guidance page lists only West Valley’s medical fax next to the shared mental-health number, which reads as though one medical number covers the county. It does not.
What to send
What has to be on it.
Use the Sheriff’s form if you can. If you cannot print it, a plain cover letter is accepted — it just has to carry the same things.
So they can match it to a person
- Full legal name
- Date of birth
- Booking number — ten digits
- Which jail they are in now
- Any other name they may have been booked under
Bookings are sometimes entered with or without a middle name. If the locator finds nothing, try the variations before assuming they are not there.
So clinicians can act on it
- The diagnosis
- Psychiatrist’s name, phone and address, and the date last treated
- Medical doctor’s name, phone and address, for physical conditions
- Daytime medications — name, dose, time
- Nighttime medications — name, dose, time
- Anything that failed, caused side effects, or triggered an allergic reaction
- Suicide attempts, threats or current concern, and when
- Urgent physical conditions — diabetes, blood pressure, seizures, heart
Keep a copy. You will need it again if they are transferred, and it is the only record you hold that the information was sent.
Say on the cover page whether they have signed a confidentiality waiver. Staff are allowed to receive what you send without one. They are not allowed to tell you anything back without the person’s consent. If no waiver exists, ask that they be given one to sign while they are inside.
The form
The Sheriff’s medication form, both languages.
Hosted here so it stays reachable. The Sheriff’s page is the authority on the current version — if you are filing something time-sensitive, check there too.
- Inmate Medication Information FormEnglish · PDF Carries the four-jail fax table on page one. Revision stamp on the form itself: 09/22/08.
- Formulario de Información de MedicamentosEspañol · PDF The same form in Spanish, as published by the Sheriff’s Department.
- Sheriff’s guidance pageCurrent version · sbcounty.gov The instructions these steps follow, in the Sheriff’s own words.
In order
The whole process, start to finish.
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Find out where they are and get the booking number
The fax cannot be matched to anyone without it. Use the Sheriff’s inmate locator — it gives the facility and the booking number. If they do not appear, call 909-350-2476, the countywide public information line.
Jail411 does not run an inmate search. That locator is the Sheriff’s own.
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Fill in the medication form
English or Spanish, above. If you cannot print it, write the cover letter instead with the identifiers and the clinical detail listed in what has to be on it.
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Fax it to the right number, or to both
Psychiatric to (909) 463-5233. Physical to that jail’s medical number in the table. Both, if both apply.
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If the process stalls
The Sheriff directs families to the Department of Mental Health Family Advocate during business hours, with the name, location and booking number ready.
No phone number is published for that advocate — not on the Sheriff’s page and not anywhere we could verify. We are not going to invent one or point you at a different office and call it the same thing. Ask for the Family Advocate by name when you reach the jail on its public line.
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Legal representation is a separate track
A public defender is assigned at arraignment if there is no private attorney. That is its own process and it is not part of the medical fax — but a defense attorney should be given the same medical and mental-health history at the earliest opportunity.
What this does, and what it does not.
It puts the history in front of clinicians. That is real, and it is worth doing the day someone is booked.
It does not continue a prescription. Jail clinicians have a stated preference for keeping treatment that is working, but they must assess independently and may prescribe something different.
It does not place anyone in a mental-health unit. Housing is their decision, made after their own assessment.
It does not get information back to you. Without a signed waiver, staff can receive what you send and legally cannot tell you anything in return.