The Alabama Department of Corrections, ADOC, publishes an Inmate Search of the people it holds, searchable by the AIS number or the inmate's full name, with the result showing the AIS, name, race, sex, birth year and institution. The department asks searchers to keep one thing in mind: the database contains only currently incarcerated inmates, and historical data is not available online. The day it was read, the search's own statistics counted 27,625 inmates, 25,032 men and 2,591 women.
The AIS, the Alabama Institutional Serial number, is a unique six digit number assigned to each inmate incarcerated by the ADOC, and the AIS field takes precedence in every search; the department calls it the quickest way to find a particular inmate. A name search is open ended, so typing a few letters returns every inmate whose name begins with them. Inmates sentenced under the Youthful Offender Act appear neither in the search nor in the population totals.
- State prisons: the ADOC Inmate Search, current inmates only, by AIS number or name; the death row list and the executions list are separate pages.
- County jails: not in the ADOC database, which holds only ADOC inmates; a person awaiting trial or serving a county sentence is found through the sheriff of that county, listed on the Alabama county pages.
- Writing to an inmate: personal letters, pictures and drawings go to ALDOC Inmate Mail Processing, Inmate Name and AIS Number, P.O. Box 17339, San Antonio, TX 78217, where they are scanned to the inmate's tablet; packages and legal mail still go to the facility.
- Calls and money: IC Solutions for calls, messages and video since August 1, 2025, with domestic calls at $0.08 a minute; Access Corrections for deposits by card, phone, cash at CashPayToday locations or money order, with the fees in the table on this page.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Alabama's own systems: the Alabama Department of Corrections Inmate Search, the department's Inmate page, the department's Digital Mail for Inmates page, the department's Inmates on Death Row page, the department's Executions page, the department's Submit an Inmate Concern page, Administrative Regulation 303, Visitation, of October 28, 2025, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
What the ADOC search returns, and what it leaves out
A search returns the inmate's AIS number, name, race, sex, birth year and the institution holding them. It covers the state prison system only: the ADOC says the database contains only currently incarcerated inmates, so a person who has been released, paroled or has finished a sentence is not found, and historical data is not available online at this time. The AIS field wins over everything else typed into the form, and a name entry runs as an open ended search of the inmate records, which the department illustrates by saying that entering a few characters shows every inmate whose name begins with those letters. Two groups are missing by design: inmates sentenced under the Youthful Offender Act, left out of both the search and the population totals, and anyone held by a county rather than the state.
Finding someone in a county jail
The ADOC database is the state prison system's, and it does not list people in the custody of a county sheriff, which is where a person goes after an arrest, while awaiting trial, or to serve a county sentence. That search runs through the sheriff's office of the county where the arrest or the case took place; each office is listed with its site on the Alabama county pages, and the Alabama arrest records guide explains what a booking makes public.
Death row and the executions list
The department keeps two public lists beside the search. The Inmates on Death Row page counted 154 inmates with an average age of 58 when read, 76 Black men, 71 white men, 2 other men, 1 Black woman and 4 white women, and lists each one by AIS, name, sex, race, birth year, current location, the date moved to death row and the crime; the men are held at Holman Prison and the women at Tutwiler. The Executions page lists every execution by AIS, name, race, sex, county, crime, arrival on death row, birth year, execution date and the governor in office; the entries read on October 14, 2026 ran from the most recent back through Anthony Boyd of Talladega County on October 23, 2025, Geoffrey Todd West of Etowah County on September 25, 2025 and Gregory Hunt of Walker County on June 10, 2025.
Mail: the San Antonio processing address
The ADOC moved personal mail to a digital system. Letters, pictures and drawings are scanned and delivered electronically to the inmate through the tablet's Facility Messages application, and all personal mail must be addressed exactly as the Digital Mail page shows it: ALDOC Inmate Mail Processing, the inmate's name and AIS number, P.O. Box 17339, San Antonio, TX 78217, with the sender's full name and physical mailing address in the top left corner of the envelope, since mail without the processing line, the name and the AIS number is not delivered. Personal mail sent directly to a correctional facility stopped being delivered after November 10, 2025 and is returned to the sender; packages and legal mail continue to go to the local address of the facility and never to the processing center. Family and friends may also exchange digital messages with an inmate through the CorrLinks website or its mobile app.
Calls, messages and video
Beginning Friday, August 1, 2025, IC Solutions provides inmate communication services; families fund an inmate's account at icsonline.icsolutions.com or by calling (888) 506-8407. Inmates place outbound calls through the provider to family members who have set up an account, with calls monitored and recorded under ADOC regulations, and the eMessage system carries monitored electronic messages. The Inmate page prints the prices: domestic phone calls $0.08 a minute, international calls the carrier cost plus $0.08 a minute, remote video visitation $0.16 a minute, tablet streaming content $0.03 a minute, email and text messaging $0.15 a message, inbound photo sharing $0.30 a photo and voice messaging $0.25 a message.
Sending money and what it costs
Deposits run through Access Secure Deposits of Access Corrections, by MasterCard or Visa debit or credit card online at accesscorrections.com or by phone at (866) 345-1884 around the clock, by cash at more than 800 CashPayToday locations across Alabama such as Dollar General and Family Dollar stores, found at CashPayToday.com or 844-340-2274, or by money order mailed with a deposit coupon printed from the Access Corrections site or picked up at a facility to Secure Deposits, Alabama DOC, PO Box 12486, St. Louis, MO 63132. The fees, deducted from the deposit: $0.01 to $25.00 costs $2.95 online, $3.50 by phone, nothing by money order and $5.00 walk in; $25.01 to $100.00 costs $5.95, $6.50, nothing and $5.00; $100.01 to $200.00 costs $7.95, $8.50, nothing and $5.00; and $200.01 to $300.00 costs $7.95, $9.00, nothing and $5.00. The department warns that a credit card company may add its own cash advance fee, which Access Corrections neither collects nor controls.
Visiting an inmate
Visiting is governed by Administrative Regulation 303, Visitation, dated October 28, 2025. All visits must be pre scheduled and approved, every visitor is first identified against a photo identification card issued by a federal, state, county or city government, and the facility records the visitor's full name, physical address with no post office box, city, state, date of birth, driver's license number and phone numbers. An inmate's application names up to eight active approved visitors, a child is anyone under nineteen, and immediate family for the regulation means parents, stepparents and foster parents, a spouse, children, stepchildren and grandchildren, siblings and half siblings, grandparents and parents, sons and daughters in law as documented in the inmate database; a special visit outside the scheduled period needs the warden's approval. Visitation rules, forms and changes are posted in the law library, the orientation packet, bulletin boards, newsletters and the tablets.
Records and concerns
An inmate's health records are released only on the department's Inmate Authorization for Release of Health Records, signed by the inmate or a legally authorized representative, naming the records and the recipient, valid for one year and emailed to ohs.medicalrecords@doc.alabama.gov for the Office of Health Services; state law allows a reasonable fee for producing them, and the form notes that HIV, sexually transmitted disease, mental health and substance treatment records need the inmate's express consent. The department's Central Records answers at 334-353-9738, its public records coordinator at public.records@doc.alabama.gov or 334-353-3883, and a family member or friend reports a problem through the online Submit an Inmate Concern form, which asks for the offender's name, AIS number, facility, the type of concern and whether it was reported before. The department is at 301 South Ripley Street, P.O. Box 301501, Montgomery, Alabama 36130, toll free 1-855-WE-R-ADOC, main line 334-353-3883.
Reading an Alabama result
An ADOC result means the person is in state custody on the day of the search, at the institution shown; no result means they are not an ADOC inmate now, which includes everyone released, everyone in a county jail and the youthful offenders the search omits, and the department keeps no online history to check further. The AIS number on the result is the key to everything that follows, from the mail processing address to the visitor application and the deposit account.
Questions about finding an inmate in Alabama
Related Alabama records
The ADOC search is one of the Alabama records this site covers: the Alabama arrest records guide explains what a booking makes public, the court records guide covers the clerks' case files behind a sentence, the sex offender registry guide covers the ALEA registry, and the Alabama county pages list each sheriff and jail.