The Florida Department of Corrections' Offender Information Search, part of its Corrections Offender Network, holds public record information on felony offenders sentenced to the department, those sent to state prison or placed on state supervision, with current and prior offenses including attempts, conspiracies and solicitations. The form takes a last name, a first name or a DC number, searches aliases on request, can hide photographs from the list to speed it up, and matches names by their first letters, so Williams also returns Williamson and Will returns Willis and Willoughby. The DC number is the department's primary identifier, six characters, either all digits or one letter followed by five digits.
Who is missing matters as much as who is in: the department says information on offenders sentenced to county jail, county probation or any other form of supervision is not contained, that the data is derived from court records provided to the department, and that it may not reflect the true current location, status or release date. The web applications menu splits the network into five databases that can also be searched at once: inmate population, inmate releases, inmate escapes, the supervised population and absconders and fugitives.
- The databases: inmate population, refreshed weekly with release dates and locations updated nightly; inmate releases, people released or scheduled for release, nightly; escapes since January 1, 1990 not recaptured within 15 days; the supervised population and absconders, weekly with termination dates and locations nightly. Questions to the Bureau of Classification and Central Records at (850) 488-9859, releases to the Bureau of Admission and Release at (850) 488-9167, escapes to 850-922-6867 or 1-866-850-0355, absconders to the Absconder Unit at (850) 717-3475.
- Mail: every routine letter to the inmate's last name, first name and DC number, PO Box 23608, Tampa, FL 33623, where it is scanned to the inmate's tablet under Rule 33-210.101; legal mail goes to the institution and, since September 15, 2025, must carry the attorney's registration number and a legal mail tracking number or be returned unopened.
- Money and visits: both only from people on the inmate's approved visiting record under Rule 33-601.716; deposits through CorrectPay since May 1, 2024, visits by the DC6-111A application and a weekly scheduling form.
- Calls: collect calls only, at $0.105 a minute, funded through a ConnectNetwork AdvancePay account at (866) 732-9098, with two free five minute calls a month, calls up to 30 minutes and statewide phone hours from 8 am to 11 pm Eastern, 1 am on Fridays and Saturdays.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Florida's own systems: the Florida Department of Corrections Offender Information Search, the Corrections Offender Network web applications menu, the department's Contact an Inmate page, the department's Send an Inmate Funds page, the department's Visiting Information page, the department's Inmate Telephone System page, the Florida Commission on Offender Review, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Reading the five databases
The inmate population database carries information and photographs of inmates who are incarcerated, completely refreshed weekly except for release dates and location changes, which are nightly. The inmate release database carries those released or scheduled for release, updated nightly. The escape database shows inmates who escaped from the department's custody since January 1, 1990 and have an outstanding warrant, created the moment an escape happens and updated on capture or new information, with tips to local law enforcement, the facility or the department's lines.
The supervised population database and the absconder and fugitive database cover people under state supervision and those who have ceased to make themselves available for it, both refreshed weekly with nightly date and location changes, under the Probation and Parole Field Services office at (850) 717-3444. The single search of all databases accepts only the criteria common to all of them. The department's money page adds what a record shows: offense, location, sentence, history, custody level, race, sex, age, release date and a photograph, all public record, which an institution will also give by phone.
County jails are a different search
A person booked by a sheriff and awaiting trial, or serving a county jail sentence, is not in the department's network; each of Florida's 67 sheriffs publishes its own jail roster, reached through the Florida county pages, and the Florida arrest records page explains what a booking makes public. Parole and conditional release decisions belong to the Florida Commission on Offender Review at 4070 Esplanade Way, Tallahassee, FL 32399-2450, (850) 922-0000, whose dockets the department links.
Mail: Tampa scanning and the legal mail rule
The department has moved to electronic delivery of routine mail. Every routine letter is addressed to the inmate's last name, first name and DC number at PO Box 23608, Tampa, FL 33623, where it is opened, examined, read by designated staff, scanned and distributed electronically under Rule 33-210.101 of the Florida Administrative Code; an inmate whose housing status bars kiosk or tablet access receives the scan printed at no cost, and properly addressed, compliant mail is not held more than 72 hours after receipt, weekends and holidays excluded.
Letters travel only by the U.S. Postal Service in standard envelopes, since envelopes with metal parts, boxes, padded or card stock envelopes, plastic bags and bubble wrap are returned unopened, must use the committed name and DC number, and must be in English, Spanish or Creole unless the warden approved another language in writing. Legal and privileged mail never goes to Tampa: it reaches the institution under Rules 33-210.102 and 33-210.103, and since the amended rule took effect, legal mail postmarked on or after September 15, 2025 without an Attorney Registration Number and a unique Legal Mail Tracking Number is returned to the sender unopened.
Publications follow Rule 33-501.401 on admissible reading material. Inmates have no internet, but through the department's vendor they receive secure mail on kiosks and tablets at $0.39 a stamp, one stamp per email, which the department notes is $0.43 cheaper than the $0.82 first class postage stamp.
Calls: 10.5 cents a minute and two free calls
Florida prison inmates cannot receive telephone calls; they place collect calls, and a family emergency goes through the institution's chaplain, who may arrange a special call. The telephone page describes the fastest way to receive calls as a ConnectNetwork AdvancePay prepaid account tied to the family member's number, opened online or at (866) 732-9098 and funded online, by app or on the automated line. The rates: $0.105 a minute for every call on the North American dialing plan, collect or prepaid, down from $0.135 under the previous contract, $0.105 a minute plus the terminating rate for international calls, $0.105 a minute for the PIN protected voicemails friends and family can leave, and $0.50 for a coin operated call of up to five minutes.
Every inmate gets two free five minute calls a month, applied to the first two calls made after they are credited, calls may now run 30 minutes instead of 15 with a 30 minute wait between completed calls, and the statewide hours are 8 am to 11 pm Eastern on Sunday through Thursday and 8 am to 1 am on Friday, Saturday and the day before a state holiday, with institutions in the Central zone keeping the Eastern clock and wardens setting local hours under Chapter 33-602.205(2)(i).
Money: CorrectPay and the approved visitor rule
An inmate may receive funds only from people on the automated visiting record with approved status under Rule 33-601.716, except that a newly received inmate may receive money from any remitter for up to 60 days or until the visiting record is established. Since May 1, 2024 CorrectPay has been the department's money transfer provider: online at CorrectPay.com/Florida, through its mobile app, or by phone with a live agent at (855) 836-3364 around the clock, up to $300.00 per online, app or phone deposit, with fees of $3.90 up to $29.99, $7.90 from $30.00 to $74.99, $9.90 from $75.00 to $149.99 and $11.90 from $150.00 to $300.00.
Money orders, cashier's checks and certified bank drafts are made payable to Correct Pay and mailed with the deposit slip and a copy of the sender's driver's license, state ID or passport to FDC Inmate Deposits, PO Box 25900, Bradenton, FL 34206-5900, available within ten business days, with a $0.50 bank processing fee charged by the department, a $999.99 limit on money orders and $3,000.00 on cashier's checks and bank drafts; personal checks are not accepted.
Pensions, VA benefits, tax refunds and transfers from private facilities or county jails go to the Inmate Trust Fund, Centerville Station, P.O. Box 12100, Tallahassee, FL 32317-2100, and inmates at the private facilities and community release centers the page lists, from Bay and Blackwater to South Bay and the Bridges and Transition House centers, take deposits through those facilities. The Inmate Bank answers at 850-717-3869. The department also runs a canteen package program through its vendor.
Visiting: the application, the weekly form and the hours
Everyone 12 or older who wants to visit completes the Visitation Application Form DC6-111A, mailed or emailed to the classification department at the inmate's current facility, never during reception, with a decision in about 30 days that the inmate passes on; an incomplete form is denied, a criminal record is weighed by nature, extent and recency rather than automatically disqualifying, and since January 8, 2007 an applicant must be a year past discharge from community supervision.
A visitor may be on the list of every inmate who is family under Rule 33-601.713 and one non family inmate. Once approved, the visitor completes the Visitation Scheduling form every week, available only from Monday at 5:00 AM to Wednesday at 5:00 PM Eastern, by finding the inmate on the Offender Search and pressing the Schedule a Visit button that appears when the visitation status is Not Suspended; an inmate in close management, administrative management, on death row or in a medical or mental health status shows By Appointment, Contact Classification, and no button appears for anyone in reception, in confinement, out of the department's custody or ineligible.
No walk up visit is accommodated without the form, a confirmation email follows, and the visiting page warns that unauthorized websites carry outdated forms. Regular visiting runs Saturdays and Sundays from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern, 8:00 to 2:00 Central, with registration from 8:15 and no processing after 2:00 without the duty warden, and on approved holidays; the incentivized prisons, Everglades, Jefferson, Lowell's O and P dorms, Madison, Marion, the Santa Rosa Annex's L to P dorms, Sumter and Tomoka, add Thursdays and Fridays.
Visitors 16 and older show a photo ID with address, date of birth and physical characteristics, minors come with an approved parent, guardian or authorized adult, and the full rules sit in Chapter 33, sections 601.711 to 737.
Reading a Florida result
A Florida result is a state felony offender's record, with photograph, offenses, custody level and a release date the department warns may lag, and it never covers a county jail or county probation. The DC number on it addresses the Tampa mail, the CorrectPay deposit and the visiting form, and the inmate's visitation status on the same record decides whether a Schedule a Visit button appears at all; the approved visiting record, not the family tie, is what lets money and visitors through.
Questions about finding an inmate in Florida
Related Florida records
The Offender Search is one of the Florida records this site covers: the Florida arrest records page explains what a booking makes public, the court records guide covers the clerks' case files, the sex offender registry guide covers the FDLE registry, and the Florida county pages list each sheriff and jail.