How to Conduct a Prison Search
Searching for the address and contact information of a particular prison is not difficult, although there are more than a thousand correctional institutions in the United States. The Federal Prison Bureau maintains contact information about each of their facilities. State Departments of Corrections maintain contact information for all prisons within their jurisdictions.
It is very helpful if you know the name of the prison you are trying to locate before you initiate a search through the federal or the state prison contact information indexes. Most sites are organized alphabetically by the name of the institution, and there may be several with similar names if the state prison is part of an institutional complex.
Not everyone who is in a particular prison system is housed in a state correctional facility. Many inmates move to halfway houses or other rehabilitation facilities near the end of their incarceration periods. Some minor offenders may be housed at minimum security rehabilitation centers for their entire sentences. The prison search websites listed below include both major prisons and other types of corrections departments.
Other Ways to Find State Prison Information
If any of these links are broken or changed, you may access your state’s Department of Corrections website and look for a link titled “Facilities” or “Institutions” or something similar. These links lead you to contact information, maps, and addresses as well as visiting hours, rules of conduct, and administrator names.
If you are looking for information on a specific prisoner you know is incarcerated in a state prison system, go to the Department of Corrections site and look for the “Inmate Locator” button. Using this search function, you may look up the status of a convicted offender who has passed through the state’s correctional system.
How to Use Contact Information from a Prison Search
The mailing addresses you find during a prison search are not usually to be used by citizens who want to send mail to specific inmates. However, you will find inmate addresses on these web pages.
Telephone numbers are strictly for administrative purposes. Contacting inmates by telephone is strictly forbidden except under unusual circumstances such as an emergency.
Each website attempts to update its contact information as soon as it changes. Please be aware that contact information may have changed and the website has not been updated yet. Prisons are frequently closed or merged with one another, leading to confusion if you attempt to call a prison that is no longer open.
Searching Federal Prison Contact Information
To begin a search for contact information for a specific federal prison, visit http://www.bop.gov/. This is the official website of the U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons. If you know the name of the prison, visit http://www.bop.gov/DataSource/execute/dsFacilityAddressLoc?startPageRedirect=facilityAddressLookup.jsp and use the drop down menu to find its specific address.
Federal prisons are distributed throughout the United States in a total of six regions. There are 27 prisons in the Mid-Atlantic Region; 28 federal prisons in the North Central Region; 26 in the Northeast Region; 35 in the South Central Region; 30 in the Southeast Region; and 29 federal prisons in the Western Region. They are further divided into high security, medium security, low security, and administrative type prisons.
Only 28 federal prisons house females. Seven exclusively house women. These are listed at http://www.bop.gov/locations/female_facilities.jsp.
A facilities map is available by clicking http://www.bop.gov/locations/locationmap.jsp. Click on the region, locate the specific institution on the regional map, and click once more to reach its location. The institution specific pages also contain PDF documents of visiting rules, facilities administrators, telephone numbers, and address information.
Searching Specific State Prison Contact Information
Specific state Department of Correction information is listed below. Contact information from state government websites only is listed. Some of these are graphical map locators; follow the directions on each page to access information about each individual state prison.
Most of these direct links lead you to indexes. You must click on the specific state prison name to access contact information. In addition, these indexes usually contain halfway house information, rehabilitation facilities, and other types of prisons which may be included in the state prison system, so you will find very complete contact information through these links.
Alabama (AL): http://www.doc.state.al.us/contact.asp
Alaska (AK): http://www.correct.state.ak.us/corrections/institutions/institutions.jsf
Arizona (AZ): http://www.azcorrections.gov/prisons/prisons_1.aspx
Arkansas (AR): http://www.adc.arkansas.gov/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/facilities.html
California (CA): http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Visitors/Facilities/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/index.html
Colorado (CO): https://exdoc.state.co.us/secure/combo2.0.0/ajax/ajax_nodes_contentPreview.php?id=752
Connecticut (CT): http://www.ct.gov/doc/cwp/view.asp?a=1502&Q=265422&docNav=|
Delaware (DE): http://doc.delaware.gov/locations.shtml
Florida (FL): http://www.dc.state.fl.us/facilities/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/ciindex.html
Georgia (GA) (PDF document): http://www.dcor.state.ga.us/pdf/FacilitiesListing.pdf
Hawaii (HI): http://hawaii.gov/psd/corrections/institutions-division/prisons
Idaho (ID): http://www.corr.state.id.us/our_facilities/locations.htm
Illinois (IL): http://www.idoc.state.il.us/subsections/facilities/default.shtml
Indiana (IN): http://www.in.gov/idoc/2598.htm
Iowa (IA): http://www.doc.state.ia.us/Institutions.asp
Kansas (KS): http://www.doc.ks.gov/facilities
Kentucky (KT): http://www.corrections.ky.gov/instfac/
Louisiana (LA): http://www.corrections.state.la.us/view.php?cat=3&id=12
Maine (ME): http://www.state.me.us/corrections/Facilities/index.htm
Maryland (MD): http://www.dpscs.state.md.us/locations/prisons.shtml
Massachusetts (MA): http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eopssubtopic&L=4&L0=Home&L1=Law+Enforcement+%26+Criminal+Justice&L2=Prisons&L3=State+Correctional+Facilities&sid=Eeops
Michigan (MI): http://www.michigan.gov/corrections/0,1607,7-119-1381_1388---,00.html
Minnesota (MN): http://www.corr.state.mn.us/facilities/default.htm
Mississippi (MS): http://www.mdoc.state.ms.us/division_of_institutions%20State%20Prisons.htm
Missouri (MO): http://doc.mo.gov/map_inst.php
Montana (MT): http://www.cor.mt.gov/MSP/default.mcpx
Nebraska (NE): http://www.corrections.state.ne.us/
Nevada (NV): http://www.doc.nv.gov/facilities/index.php?idnum=0
New Hampshire (NH): http://www.nh.gov/nhdoc/facilities/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/index.html
New Jersey (NJ): http://www.state.nj.us/corrections/
New Mexico (NM): http://corrections.state.nm.us/prisons/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/locationmap.html
New York State (NY): http://www.docs.state.ny.us/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/faclist.html
North Carolina (NC): http://www.doc.state.nc.us/dop/index.htm
North Dakota (ND): http://www.nd.gov/docr/adult/
Ohio (OH): http://www.drc.ohio.gov/web/prisprog.htm
Oklahoma (OK): http://www.doc.state.ok.us/facilities/facilities.htm
Oregon (OR): http://www.doc.state.or.us/DOC/OPS/index.shtml
Pennsylvania (PA): http://www.cor.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/institutions/5270
Rhode Island (RI): http://www.doc.ri.gov/institutions/facilities/index.php
South Carolina (SC): http://www.doc.sc.gov/institutions/institutions.jsp#listing
South Dakota (SD): http://doc.sd.gov/adult/facilities/
Tennessee (TN): http://www.state.tn.us/correction/institutions/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/stateprisons.html
Texas (TX): http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/unitdirectory/all.htm
Utah (UT): http://www.cr.ex.state.ut.us/contentprison/diodraper.asp
Vermont (VT): http://www.doc.state.vt.us/custody-supervision/facilities
Virginia (VA): http://www.vadoc.state.va.us/facilities/
Washington State (WA): http://www.doc.wa.gov/facilities/default.asp
Washington D.C. (DC): http://doc.dc.gov/doc/cwp/view,a,3,q,491438,docNav,|30833|.asp
West Virginia (WV): http://www.wvdoc.com/wvdoc/PrisonsandFacilities/tabid/36/Default.aspx
Wisconsin (WI): http://www.wi-doc.com/index_adult.htm
Doing Business with Prisons and Correctional Facilities
The prison industry means work for both inmates and outside contractors and is very big business. Each state has its own rules for conducting business with prisons. The prison search addresses listed on this page are a good starting point to find contact information for specific prisons.
In addition, each state has clear guidelines for potential contractors to follow and posts requests for proposals on their main Department of Corrections pages. A request for proposal outlines the project that must be done, the duration of the project, and who qualifies to submit a bid. These directions must be followed carefully otherwise the bid will be rejected.
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