Forrest County Active Warrants Explained
An active warrant in Forrest County is a signed court order that has not been served, recalled, or closed. The judge who signed it controls it. That signature can come from a Justice Court judge, a County or Circuit Court judge, a Chancery judge, or a municipal judge sitting in Hattiesburg or Petal. The Sheriff's Warrants and Process Unit then carries out what those judges direct. Status questions belong to the issuing Forrest County clerk, while service questions belong to whichever agency holds the paper, and keeping that line straight saves a caller from being bounced between offices that each think the other one owns the answer.
Forrest County Warrant Lists: The Gaps
Forrest County publishes no downloadable warrant roster. Since September 2026, the Forrest County Sheriff's site has carried a curated Most Wanted section, with profile entries and short charge descriptions. That is the closest thing to a warrant list. Treat it as a lead, not a complete record of outstanding warrants.
- No search field, sort control, or pagination appeared anywhere on the page.
- No total count of outstanding Forrest County warrants was published.
- No update cadence or "as of" date told a reader how fresh the entries were.
- No completeness disclaimer explained what the page leaves out.
- No export, feed, or print version of the Forrest County warrant material was offered.
Note: Recheck the official Forrest County page before relying on any list, because an agency can add an interface or a disclaimer at any time.
How Forrest County Tracks Active Warrants
Tracking lives inside each Forrest County court's own file and inside the serving agency's system, not in a shared county database. Hattiesburg's published legal-process policy describes a warrant maintenance file with entry, status, service, and update sections. County and Circuit matters run through Mississippi Electronic Courts. The Sheriff coordinates service from its Arena Drive office during posted weekday hours.
The Sheriff's contact page lists the dispatch and detention numbers with its 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. posted hours, which is the window for routing a Forrest County question to the right court.
Forrest County Active Warrant Status Codes
Hattiesburg publishes the clearest status vocabulary in Forrest County. Its codes show how a warrant file changes state. Read them as service history, not case outcomes.
- Active
- The judge signed the process and it stands. Under city policy an arrest warrant or mittimus has no return date and stays active until closed out.
- Pending
- An affidavit is waiting on judicial review. Nothing is executable yet, which surprises most callers.
- Served
- An officer executed the process and recorded the date. The underlying case continues.
- Non-collectable
- Service leads were exhausted. This is a work status, not a judicial dismissal.
Inside an Active Warrant Record
When a Forrest County clerk reads an active file aloud, the same categories recur. They trace to Mississippi Rule 3.2. They also match the local maintenance schema Hattiesburg publishes.
| Reference number | The number the entering system assigned when the process was recorded |
|---|---|
| Original incident | The report or affidavit that produced the charge |
| Charge code | The statute or ordinance identified on the order |
| Judge and issue date | Who signed and when, which fixes the start of the clock |
| Bond | Amount or release condition, blank where the judge set none |
| Status | A code such as Active plus the date it last changed |
| Service attempts | Officer, date, method, and reason for non-service |
| Agency copies | Which other agency received a copy and when it was sent |
Forrest County Warrants Do Not Expire
Waiting does not work with a Forrest County warrant. Hattiesburg's own policy says arrest warrants and mittimuses carry no return or due date. They stay active until served, collected, recalled, or purged by the court. Search warrants are the exception, with a return required no later than seven days from issuance. City policy also lets an officer who finds outstanding process during an ordinary contact serve it on view, and squads get updated process lists weekly. So an old Forrest County case is still very much a live case, and age alone changes nothing about it. Call the issuing clerk the same way you would for a fresh warrant, because the question is what action closes it, not how long it has sat in the file.
The clock does not run out. A Forrest County warrant from several years ago can still be served at a traffic stop today, so age is no reason to assume a record has cleared itself.
Warrant Roundups and Most-Wanted Lists
The Forrest County Sheriff's Office maintains a curated Most Wanted page, and it pays to know exactly what that is. A small selected group sits there, chosen and published by the agency, on top of a much larger body of process that never appears in public. A separate Sheriff's page covering absconded and noncompliant sex offenders links to the state registry and is not a general warrant list either. Enforcement operations work the same way. WDAM reported a countywide Sheriff's warrant roundup from May 20 to 25, 2024, that produced 15 arrests. That is one week of activity, not a count of how many Forrest County warrants remain open. The most wanted program and the full body of outstanding process are two different things, and a clean search of one still tells you nothing about the other.
Never treat a roster as a status check. Names appear and disappear from a curated page for reasons that have nothing to do with whether a particular court order is still executable.
Questions for a Forrest County Warrant Call
Forrest County clerks answer narrow questions well and broad ones poorly. Work through the list in order. You will leave the call with a record you can act on rather than an impression.
- Ask for the exact process label the file carries and spell it back.
- Ask for the case, cause, or citation number and the original court date.
- Ask which judge signed it and on what date.
- Ask for the current status and the date that status last changed.
- Ask whether a bond, a payment, an appearance, or a motion changes it.
- Ask whether another Forrest County court, agency, or probation authority also holds something.
When Your Name Is on the Warrant List
Finding your own name on a public page is unsettling. Slow down before you act. Treat the listing as a lead, then call Forrest County Sheriff's dispatch at (601) 544-7800 and ask which court issued the warrant. Once you know the issuing court, its clerk can tell you the real status, the bond condition, and any appearance or payment instruction. Skip any tip line or payment site that asks for personal identifiers, since you have no way to verify who runs it. If arrest is a realistic possibility, a Mississippi attorney can contact the court and arrange the next step for you. That way you never stand at a counter unprepared.
Forrest County Warrant Bond and Booking
Once a Forrest County warrant is served, the question shifts from status to release. The Adult Detention Center at 55 Arena Drive publishes its bonding windows but not its bond amounts, payment instruments, or surety rules. Confirm those with the jail or the issuing court before anyone travels.
The facility page posts booking at (601) 545-6148 and the schedule below.
| Day | Published Bonding Window |
|---|---|
| Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday | 9 a.m. to noon, 1 to 4 p.m., 7 p.m. to midnight |
| Tuesday | 7 p.m. to midnight only, because of visitation |
| Saturday and Sunday | 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
Note: The listed hours tell you when the Forrest County counter is open, not which warrant matters can be bonded there the same day.