Florida State Departament Of Corrections Inmate Search

Florida has experienced a drop in violent and property crime rates since the mid-1990s. Currently, the crime rates are almost similar to those of the mid-1960s. Police reports indicate that the crime rate in Florida dropped by 14.1 percent between 2019 and June 2022. Property crimes went down by 17 percent at the same time. A well-established and functional Florida prison system is one of the factors attributed to the decrease in crime.  

Inmate In-Custody Search in Florida

The Florida Department of Corrections maintains files for persons incarcerated in state-supervised prisons in Florida. The department has an inmate in-custody search tool you can use to conduct a free inmate search.  

With the tool, you can search for an inmate using the inmate's name and DC number. To make the search more specific, you can give the known aliases. Besides the name, you should also provide the inmate's release date, current location, and photo. The search tool is usually hosted on specific jail websites.   

Most county jails in Florida publish inmate name rosters where you can also perform an inmate search. If these options are unavailable, you can directly call a specific county jail to inquire if the inmate is held there.  

Florida Prison and Jail System  

The Florida Department of Corrections is the third largest prison system in the United States, housing around 80,000 inmates and almost 145,000 others on probation. The state has 143 correctional facilities, including seven private facilities and fifty correctional facilities. The department also runs other facilities, including: 

• Thirty-four work stations 
• Two road prisons  
• One forestry camp 
• One basic training camp  
• Sixteen private work release centers  

Road prisons, work camps, and forestry camps house offenders who have shown positive behavioral changes and completed part of their sentence. Offenders in these centers are assigned public and community work squads. Release centers hold offenders participating in community work release programs and serving the last fourteen to nineteen months of their sentence. 

The Florida Department of Corrections calls all the prisons managed by state correctional institutions. Only the facility in Bradford County has the term Prison in its name. Private and state prisons house offenders with sentences longer than one year, while county jails hold individuals with shorter sentences. County jails are managed by the sheriff's office in each county.  

Contacting an Inmate  

You can contact an inmate through a letter. You should include the inmate's last and first name and their Identification number. 

Contact can also be made via email. Inmates are not allowed to access the internet, but JPay offers several multimedia services such as secure mail and secure tablets. Inmates cannot receive calls, but they can make calls to only approved numbers.  

Sending Money  

You can only send money to an inmate in Florida through JPay. It's the single inmate money processor authorized by the Florida Department of Corrections. JPay allows five ways for family members and friends to send funds to inmates. The five ways include: 

• Money transfers through JPay mobile apps 
• Money orders sent using JPay's postal address 
• Cash deposits at MoneyGram agents  
• Credit/debit card deposit through the phone  
• Online Credit/debit card deposit at www.JPay.com 

As you send inmate funds from a MoneyGram location, you should give 5188 as the recipient code. Money sent through MoneyGram reaches the inmate within one to three days. When sending through mail, you should send it together with a JPay deposit slip  

Note that you have to pay a 50-cent processing fee on every money order, and the money reaches your inmate within ten business days. It's quicker to send money through JPay mobile apps, by phone, or online.  

Private prisons don't use JPay, so to send money to an inmate housed in these facilities, you need to contact them to get deposit details. Most county jails also allow you to make cash or credit card deposits through the payment kiosks found in their lobbies.  

Visiting an Inmate  

To visit an inmate, you should be approved and listed. To get visitation approval, you should send a signed application form. You can mail the form or send it through the email provided by the facility you intend to visit.  

Private and state correctional facilities take thirty days to process and approve visitation requests. You can visit the inmates during the following holidays: 

• Memorial day  
• New year's day 
• Labor day 
• Martin Luther King's birthday  
• Independence day  
• Thanksgiving day  
• Veteran's day 
• Christmas day 
• Friday after Thanksgiving  

The time to visit, rules, and regulations differ depending on the facility you want to visit. Always check the facility section on the county website to learn more.