The Colorado Department of Corrections, CDOC, runs an online Inmate Locator, linked from its home page as Find an Inmate, and every one of its own instructions sends families there first: the Contact an Inmate page says an inmate's DOC number and current facility assignment are found through the locator, and mail, deposits and visiting applications all need both. On September 30, 2026 the department posted a notice that users were reporting ongoing issues with the locator, including no results or old results, that a work order had been filed with IT, and that there was no estimated timeframe for a fix.
The locator covers people in CDOC custody, in the state's own prisons and the private facilities it contracts. County jail inmates are the sheriffs' records; the department's home page links County Sheriffs of Colorado among its outside resources, along with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Judicial Branch and the Office of Community Corrections.
- Locate: the CDOC Inmate Locator, from the Find an Inmate link on cdoc.colorado.gov, for the DOC number and facility; jail inmates through the county sheriff, listed on the Colorado county pages.
- Calls: outgoing only, to people on the inmate's approved phone list, through Securus on the Colorado Inmate Phone System; the contracted rate is $0.019 a minute and the actual rate $0.014, after the 25 percent reduction HB23-1133 required from October 2023; phone lines were expanded to 24 hour availability in September 2026.
- Mail: to the inmate's commitment name, DOC number and facility at the facility's mailing address with a valid return address; every DOC facility, state and private, photocopies all non legal incoming mail and delivers the copy, and fourteen facilities copy legal mail on a copier with its memory disabled.
- Money: CorrectPay only, since May 10, 2026, online at correctpay.com, by app or at 1-855-836-3364, with the facility's ID code; a minimum of 20 percent of each deposit is withheld for court ordered fines, fees, restitution or child support; the Inmate Bank answers at (719) 269-4271.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Colorado's own systems: the Colorado Department of Corrections home page, the department's Contact an Inmate page, the department's Send Money to an Inmate page, the department's Visit an Incarcerated Individual page, the department's Frequently Asked Questions, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The locator and the county jails
The Inmate Locator is the department's own tool for the DOC number and the facility a person is assigned to, and its FAQ and contact pages repeat that both come from it; each facility then has its own page under the Facilities menu with its mailing address, its visiting office and the instructions for submitting a visiting application. The locator's reliability is in question by the department's own account: its September 30, 2026 notice reports searches returning nothing or old results with no date for a fix, so a result that looks stale is worth checking with the facility.
People held before trial or on county sentences are in the sheriffs' jails and found through County Sheriffs of Colorado and the individual sheriff sites, and the Colorado arrest records guide explains what a booking makes public. The home page also links the department's Request Records service, its Victim Services and Notification, and a Question or Concern form, with the Constituent Services Office at cdoc@state.co.us.
Calling an inmate: approved lists and the 1.4 cent rate
Inmates cannot receive calls; they call out to people on their approved phone list, under Administrative Regulation 850-12, Telephone Regulations for Offenders, and the way onto the list is to write to the inmate, or send a Securus eMessage, with the number, which the inmate adds through the case manager. Anyone ever listed as a victim in one of the inmate's offenses cannot be added and must write to the facility's administrative head for approval, and taking part in a three way call can suspend the number from the list for up to 30 days per incident.
The Colorado Inmate Phone System moved from Global Tel Link to Securus, where friends and family open an account and inmates buy communication credits through the canteen. The contracted Securus rate is $0.019 a minute for debit and collect calls, local, intrastate and international alike; under HB23-1133 every eligible inmate received a one time allocation to a Securus account in September 2023, and from October 2023 the rate was cut by 25 percent to $0.01425, which the department prints as an actual rate of $0.014 a minute.
On September 25, 2026 the department announced it was expanding outgoing phone lines to 24 hour availability across state and private facilities.
Mail: the commitment name and the photocopy rule
A letter goes to the inmate at the assigned facility, addressed with the commitment name, with a legally changed name allowed only after it, the DOC number, the facility's mailing address from its page, and a valid return address, without which mail may be rejected; mail and publications are governed by Administrative Regulations 300-38 and 300-26. Under 300-38, where the Office of the Inspector General finds inmates using the mail to bring dangerous contraband into a facility, all incoming mail there is photocopied, the copy delivered and the original destroyed, and the department lists the result: every DOC facility, state and private, photocopies all non legal mail, while legal mail is photocopied at Arkansas Valley, Bent County, Buena Vista, Centennial, the Colorado State Penitentiary, Crowley County, the Denver Complex, Fremont, La Vista, Limon, San Carlos, Sterling, Territorial and the Youthful Offender System, on a designated Lexmark copier whose internal memory has been disabled to keep attorney client privilege.
Commercially produced photos escape copying only when shipped by an approved vendor straight to the inmate, and all photos go before the reading committee. Securus eMessaging sends a staff reviewed electronic message to the inmate's tablet with the DOC number, one way only, since the inmate cannot reply electronically.
Money: CorrectPay, the codes and the 20 percent
Effective May 10, 2026, CorrectPay became the exclusive electronic deposit provider; JPay, Western Union and GTL/ConnectNetwork are no longer supported, and CorrectPay is a private company whose accounts department staff cannot set up. A deposit is made online at correctpay.com by choosing Colorado, the facility and Commissary Deposit, through the CorrectPay app, or by calling 1-855-836-3364, pressing 1# to deposit and 7# for Colorado, then the facility's code: AHCC 2891#, AVCF 2892#, BCCF 2893#, BVCF 2894#, YOS 2895#, CCF 2896#, CCCF 2897#, CSP 2898#, CTCF 2899#, DCC 2900#, DRDC 2901#, DWCF 2902#, FMCC 2903#, FCF 2904#, LCF 2905#, LVCF 2906#, RCC 2907#, SCCF 2908#, SCC 2909#, SCF 2910# and TCF 2911#; customer service is 2#, 9, 3 and 1 on the same line, with live agents around the clock.
Money sent before 4:00 p.m. Mountain time is generally available the next day, though the department advises two to three days before a canteen order. The deposit page states the statutory withholding, a minimum of 20 percent of any deposit toward court ordered fines, fees, restitution or child support, and the banking rules of Administrative Regulation 200-02: offenders may not send, receive or solicit transfers from other offenders or their relatives and visitors, with exceptions only for common immediate family approved by the custody and control manager; questionable funds are held while the facility intelligence officer decides within ten business days whether to return, release or confiscate them; and people on active parole, in community corrections or under an active Colorado sentence may neither send money to an inmate nor receive it without the administrative head's approval.
Balances follow the person to any facility and are released at discharge to parole, community corrections or the street.
Visiting under House Bill 25-1013
The department rewrote its visiting policy, Administrative Regulation 300-01, after House Bill 25-1013, which the visiting page describes as an effort to enhance offender and family communication and reduce recidivism. Social visitation covers contact visits, non contact visits, family time visits, telephone calls and video visits, and excludes professional visits by attorneys, health professionals and clergy. To visit at all, a person completes a visiting application with a copy of a government issued photo ID and submits it through the visiting office of the inmate's facility, following the instructions on that facility's page, and must be an approved visitor on the inmate's list before any in person or video visit can be scheduled.
Contact visits are supervised in an open area with restricted physical contact; non contact visits run through a barrier, by telephone, which the bill defines as a form of non contact visitation, or by video through Securus once approved; in person non contact visits are offered at the administrative head's determination for certain custody levels or when contact visits are unavailable. Special and extended visits, for visitors who traveled from out of state or a long distance, for the inmate's rehabilitative needs, or for people who would not normally be approved, are requested at least ten calendar days ahead and still need an application on file.
In person visits are scheduled with the facility's visiting office, and video visits through a Securus account after approval.
Parole and the Board
The Colorado State Board of Parole is a separate entity from the department, with the sole authority to grant or deny discretionary parole to people in CDOC custody, and the department links it from its home page beside the Department of Probation and the Judicial Branch. Emergency notifications to families follow Administrative Regulation 850-10, and the department's policies are published on its policies page for anyone who wants the text behind a rule.
Reading a Colorado result
A locator result gives the DOC number and facility for a person in CDOC custody, state or private, and the department itself warned in September 2026 that the result may be missing or old. No result means the person is not a state prisoner today, which leaves the county jails. The number and facility feed everything else: the mailing line that is photocopied on arrival, the CorrectPay code and the 20 percent withholding, the phone list the inmate controls, and the visiting application the facility must approve.
Questions about finding an inmate in Colorado
Related Colorado records
The locator is one of the Colorado records this site covers: the Colorado arrest records guide explains what a booking makes public, the court records guide covers the Judicial Branch's case files, the sex offender registry guide covers the Colorado Bureau of Investigation registry, and the Colorado county pages list each sheriff and jail.