Delaware has no county jails. The Department of Correction, the state's largest law enforcement agency with over 2,500 employees, runs a unified system in which every correctional facility and institution falls under the state, supervising between 4,500 and 5,000 inmates in its facilities and about 13,000 probationers in the community. A person held after an arrest and a person serving years are in the same system, and the department's Locate an Inmate page encourages anyone seeking information on the incarceration of an offender in Delaware to use VINELink, the online version of VINE, the national victim notification network.
VINELink gives timely information about criminal cases and the custody status of offenders 24 hours a day, and victims and other concerned citizens may register to be notified by phone, email, text message or TTY when an offender's custody status changes, or register through the state's toll free number. The department adds three cautions about what a release date means: it may adjust the date through forfeiture of good time, the offender may have other sentence levels such as work release or probation to serve after the Level V prison term, and the department may hold an offender past the release date when another jurisdiction wants them.
- Locate: VINELink, the department's recommended tool, for custody status and notification of changes; a Pennsylvania Offender Transfer FAQ on the same page covers Delaware inmates housed under the contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
- The levels: Level V is 24 hour incarceration, with jail describing offenders serving one year or less; Level IV is work release centers, home confinement with electronic monitoring, residential drug treatment and violation of probation centers; Level III intensive probation; Level II standard probation; Level I administrative supervision.
- Mail: since April 15, 2024 every prison's non legal mail is scanned centrally and addressed to the inmate's name and SBI number, the facility and its code, PO Box 96777, Las Vegas, NV 89193; legal and pre approved mail goes to the facility.
- Money and calls: kiosks at each facility's gatehouse, online deposits through ViaPath/GTL or money orders mailed to ViaPath with the department's form, never personal checks or cash; prepaid phone accounts through GTL at 1-866-230-7761, video visits and tablet support through GettingOut.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Delaware's own systems: the Delaware Department of Correction Locate an Inmate page, the department's home page, the department's Mail to Inmate page, the department's Send Money page, the department's Visit an Inmate page, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
VINELink and what a Delaware status means
The department does not run a search of its own for the public; it points to VINELink, which shows the custody status of a Delaware offender and lets anyone register for notification of a change by phone, email, text or TTY, in Spanish where the state supports it. A Delaware sentence is read with the department's own notes: the release date can move when good time is forfeited, Level V incarceration may be followed by Level IV work release or home confinement and then probation, and a hold for another jurisdiction keeps a person past the date.
The department's home page publishes a daily population summary, the number of inmates, of offenders on probation, in pre trial detention and in pre trial detention within the community, and of inmates released, with a 24 hour delay, and a walkaways and escapees page.
The five levels of supervision
Within the unified system Delaware keeps a five level system of supervision. Level V is 24 hour incarceration in a jail or prison, with jail describing those serving one year or less; Level IV covers the work release centers, home confinement with electronic monitoring, residential drug treatment and the violation of probation centers; Level III is intensive probation supervision, Level II standard probation and Level I administrative supervision.
The department's four bureaus, administrative services, correctional healthcare services, prisons and community corrections, run the levels, and its facilities are the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna, the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington, the Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown and the Baylor Women's Correctional Institution in New Castle, with the Community Corrections Treatment Center in Smyrna, the Hazel D.
Plant Women's Treatment Center in New Castle, the Morris Community Corrections Center in Dover, the Plummer Community Corrections Center in Wilmington and the Sussex Community Corrections Center in Georgetown.
Mail: the Las Vegas scanning address and the rules
Effective April 15, 2024 a centralized mail scanning system took over at every Delaware prison, after the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center began the process on April 4, 2022. Non legal mail for the four prisons is addressed to the inmate's name and SBI number, the facility and its code, at PO Box 96777, Las Vegas, NV 89193: Delaware DOC - 1101 for Vaughn, Baylor Women's Correctional Institution - 1200, Sussex Correctional Institution - 1201 and Howard R.
Young Correctional Institution - 1202. Legal and pre approved mail goes to the facility itself: Vaughn at 1181 Paddock Road, Smyrna, DE 19977, Baylor at 660 Baylor Boulevard, New Castle, DE 19720, Howard R. Young at P.O. Box 9561, Wilmington, DE 19809, and Sussex, with the building and tier, at P O Box 500, Georgetown, DE 19947; the community corrections centers take mail at their own addresses. The mail page sets the rules for every facility: white envelopes except for legal mail, a return address, the inmate's name and SBI number or date of birth, paper no larger than 8.5 by 11 inches in envelopes no larger than 4 by 9.5 inches, commercially produced greeting cards of standard card stock no larger than 5 by 7 inches with no batteries, embellishments or multiple folds, no crayon, highlighter or marker, glitter, lipstick, stains, body fluids, perfume or oils, photographs between 4 by 6 and 8.5 by 11 inches with a ten photo limit, and only letters, cards, written correspondence, non Polaroid pictures and money orders; packages, pornography, cash, stamps, tobacco and illegal substances are not to be mailed. The public cannot phone an offender; offenders call out under their institution's policy.
Money, phone and video accounts
Money reaches an offender's account three ways: at the kiosks in the gatehouse or main entrance of each facility, online through ViaPath/GTL, or by money order mailed directly to ViaPath/GTL with the department's form. For offenders at Baylor, Howard R. Young and Vaughn, money orders must not be mailed to the facility or sent through Pigeonly, and those facilities do not accept money orders in person during visitation; personal checks are not accepted anywhere and cash must never be mailed.
A prepaid phone account is opened with GTL at 1-866-230-7761 or online, and prepaid video visitation accounts and inmate tablet support run through GettingOut. On September 24, 2026 the department announced identity verification for electronic tablet messaging and video visitation to strengthen their safety and security, and on November 3, 2025 it launched a Friends and Family Handbook for navigating the system.
Visiting
Visiting an incarcerated person is a privilege, not a right, the visiting page says, and the rules, procedures and hours differ by facility, published under the department's Inmate Visitation Procedures of November 2021 with a visitor consent form. Baylor Women's Correctional Institution shows how a schedule reads: face to face visits since May 1, 2023 run Sunday to Tuesday for units 5 through 9 and Thursday to Saturday for units 3 and 4, in hour long slots at 8:30, 10:30 am, 12:30 and 2:30 pm, scheduled a week ahead by calling (302) 577-5837 on Monday through Wednesday between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm; most inmates may add one video visit a week, of fifteen or thirty minutes, paid and scheduled online; split visits ended on April 3, 2017, any child under 18 comes with an adult, and a visit may be contact or no contact. The other facilities publish their own hours on the same page.
Reading a Delaware result
A VINELink status places a person in the Department of Correction's custody, at whatever level, and a registered number learns when that changes; there is no county layer to check, because Delaware has none. The SBI number and the facility turn a status into a mailing line, with the Las Vegas box for ordinary letters to the prisons, a kiosk or ViaPath deposit and a visiting call to the right facility, and the release date stays provisional for the three reasons the department gives.
Questions about finding an inmate in Delaware
Related Delaware records
The department's records are among the Delaware records this site covers: the Delaware arrest records guide explains what an arrest makes public, the court records guide covers the Judiciary's case files, the sex offender registry guide covers the State Police registry, and the Delaware county pages list each police department and court.