How to Find the Location of an Inmate.
Finding the location of most inmates in a federal, state, city, or county prison can
be done, but you need to know the different ways to do so.
You will need:
1. Internet access
2. Letter to the Federal Bureau of Prisons
3. Local government authority contact information.
Step 1. Go to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) website’s Inmate Locator tool to find federal
inmates that have been incarcerated from 1982 to the present.
https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/
Step 2. Search the Inmate Locator by an inmate’s prison ID number, or their first and last name.
Step 3. Understand Inmate Locator search results. They not only include the inmate’s location, but also the projected release date or past date of release.
Inmate Locator results can also include locations such as a halfway house or a concurrent sentence
at a state prison.
Step 4. Mail a request to BOP’s Historic Inmate Locator to find Federal inmates that were released
before 1982.
Step 5.Go to the USA.gov website for links to state corrections department websites with searchable state inmate locator tools.
USA.gov also has links to nonsearchable state corrections department websites.
Step 6. Search for the location of sex offenders at the Department of Justice’s Dru Sjodin National
Sex Offender Public Website.
Step 7. Contact local government authorities for city or county prison inmate information.
Many state corrections department websiteslist city and county prison contact info.
Start by accessing the various inmate searches by clicking on the corresponding State/Agency Below:
List of additional resources per state where you can locate and search inmates