How to do a Federal Inmate Search

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) is responsible for the custody and care of sentenced Federal inmates and has custodial responsibility for District of Columbia felons sentenced to terms of imprisonment. A “federal” inmate is one who has been convicted of violating the laws of the United States. Where as state laws differ from state-to-state, they all have the same federal laws. There are over 192,000 federal inmates; most of them are in BOP facilities.

The FBOP inmate search (http://www.bop.gov/inmate_locator/index.jsp) contains information about all inmates that have been incarcerated from 1982 to present. Before searching the FBOP, you must make sure you have JavaScript and “cookies” enabled on your browser.

You can search for inmates by name or ID number. If you choose to search by name, you must enter the full first and last name. The database does not do partial name searches and will not tolerate misspellings. You can limit your searches by race, sex, and age.

Searches by ID number can be done using the person’s DCDC (District of Columbia Department of Corrections) number, FBI (Federal Bureau of Information) number, or INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) number. It should be noted that INS numbers are also known as USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) numbers.

Search results will list the name, register number, age, race, sex, either the actual release date or the projected release date, and location of the inmate. Age listed is the current age of the person. If the inmate is deceased, that information will appear in the “Date Released” column.
Some inmates had their projected release date as “unknown” and their location as “not in BOP custody.” This can mean several things: the inmate’s sentence may not have been computed, the inmate may not have come to trial, or the inmate was released to another jurisdiction.
If the inmate is currently in custody, a link is provided where more information about the prison can be found. If an inmate is listed as being in a regional office, it means they are serving a concurrent state sentence in a state prison. If they are listed as being in a Community Corrections Management (CCM) center it means they are in a contract “halfway house” and not in the CCM.
One final note, it is possible that a record will exist for an individual who was in BOP custody but never served a sentence of incarceration. Any one who was detained pre-trial but their criminal charges were dismissed, who was held as a material witness, or who was held for civil contempt could have a record that is listed in the FBOP inmate search database.

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