The Michigan Department of Corrections, MDOC, runs OTIS, the Offender Tracking Information System, searched by last and first name, offender number, sex, race, age, offender status and marks, scars and tattoos. The status filter separates active offenders from all, prisoners, parolees, probationers, discharged offenders, parole absconders and probation absconders. OTIS holds information about prisoners, parolees and probationers who are currently under supervision or who have been discharged but are still within three years of their supervision discharge date, and nothing about people beyond that three year period, whom the department sends to the Michigan State Police ICHAT, the Internet Criminal History Access Tool. Help with the search is at 517-335-1426.
A person in a county jail is not in OTIS; the Michigan county pages list each sheriff's jail. For custody status across both systems the state offers MI-VINE, Victim Information and Notification Everyday, run by the Department of Health and Human Services' Crime Victim Services Commission since 2000: a free, anonymous service at 800-770-7657 or vinelink.com that notifies a registered user of a release, transfer or escape, used by 77 county jails, 71 prosecuting attorney offices and the Department of Corrections, with the RegistrationLink feature added in 2017 so a registration made while an offender sits in a county jail follows the person into the state prison system.
- Search: OTIS for prisoners, parolees and probationers under supervision or within three years of discharge; the prisoner number OTIS gives goes on every letter, deposit and application.
- Visits: six steps on the visiting page: qualify, be added to the prisoner's list, apply online through MiLogin or on paper, submit it and wait up to four weeks, schedule on ViaPath 48 hours to 7 days ahead, then follow the ID, dress and contact rules.
- Money: only through GTL Financial Services, never Cash App, Apple Pay, Zelle, PayPal or Venmo, no deposit over $300; a money order with the deposit form to GTL Financial Services, 10005 Technology Blvd. West, Suite 130, Dallas, TX 75220, costs nothing, cards online or by phone carry fees.
- Calls: a Personal Allowed Numbers list of 20 numbers that resets every quarter, collect, prepaid through AdvancePay or debit, all at $0.0735 a minute through ViaPath, formerly GTL, at 855-466-2832.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Michigan's own systems: the Michigan Department of Corrections Offender Tracking Information System, OTIS, the department's For Families page, the department's Visit a Prisoner page, the department's Write a Prisoner page, the department's Send a Prisoner Goods or Money page, the department's Call a Prisoner page, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services notice on MI-VINE RegistrationLink, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The prisons and their levels
The department has 26 prison facilities across the state, managed by its Correctional Facilities Administration and housing roughly 32,000 prisoners. There are four general population security levels, I, II, IV and V, assigned on each prisoner's confinement and management needs rather than the conviction, and a prisoner's level and location may change more than once during a sentence with conduct, health care and programming needs.
The For Families page gives the numbers that answer questions: the Central Office at 517-335-1426, the Parole Board at 517-373-0270, the Bureau of Health Care Services at 517-335-2263 and Educational Programming at 517-335-1418, while questions about a specific prisoner, property or visiting go to the facility where the prisoner is housed.
Visiting in six steps
Prisoners may visit with immediate family, qualified clergy, attorneys, outreach volunteers and up to ten other people they designate. Step one is to qualify: not a current restricted visitor, not a current prisoner, not a former prisoner applying to visit someone other than immediate family, not on felony parole or probation, at least 18 or an approved minor, and not already on another prisoner's list unless immediate family of that prisoner.
Step two is to be added to the prisoner's visiting list at the prisoner's request, which means writing or calling them first. Step three is the application, printed and mailed or completed online after registering for a MiLogin account, with a separate application for attorneys, legal representatives, child welfare professionals and government employees. Step four is submitting it, online with the answer by email, or by mail to the facility with a self addressed stamped envelope, and processing may take up to four weeks.
Step five is scheduling on the department's visitation site hosted by ViaPath, formerly GTL, which a visitor cannot use until the application is approved, at least 48 hours and no more than 7 days ahead: a maximum of five visitors at a time, up to two separate visits with the same prisoner on one day, blocks of three hours on weekdays and two on weekends, and a check of the facility's quarantine status before leaving home; video visits run up to 20 minutes at $0.16 a minute, with a $3.20 hold adjusted to the actual length.
Step six is the day itself: sign in with an approved identification document, dress without skirts or shorts more than three inches above the knee, leggings or yoga pants, hooded items or graphic content, and keep personal contact to a brief hug and kiss at the start and end. Over the holidays the department opens in person visiting on December 23, 24, 25, 30 and 31 and January 1 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in two hour blocks, five sessions a day, subject to the monthly limits, with each facility's sessions posted on the ViaPath site.
Mail and email
A letter carries the prisoner's name and number and the facility's address, and the prisoner number comes from OTIS. All incoming personal mail, envelopes included, is photocopied in black and white and the copy delivered, with the originals shredded; color copies come only through JPay. Policy Directive 05.03.118 governs prisoner mail, and the page describes mail as any written, typed or printed communication. Email goes through a JPay account, paid with electronic stamps or a subscription, scanned for security before release and delivered to a kiosk in the housing unit, where the prisoner can reply with stamps bought on the kiosk or ask for a printed copy for a small fee; one photo per page, no collages, and a violation of Policy Directive 05.03.119 can block either side.
Deposits, fees and the $300 cap
Every deposit to a prisoner's account is processed by GTL Financial Services, and the money page warns that a request to send money through Cash App, Apple Pay, Zelle, PayPal, Venmo or any other service may be a scam that puts nothing in the account. No deposit may exceed $300. A money order payable to GTL Financial Services, with the deposit form in English or Spanish, mails free of charge to GTL Financial Services, 10005 Technology Blvd.
West, Suite 130, Dallas, TX 75220, with questions at 877-650-4249. A card deposit online at ConnectNetwork costs $2.95 up to $20, $3.95 from $20.01 to $100 and $2.95 from $100.01 to $300; by phone at 888-988-4768 it costs $3.95, $4.95 and $3.95 for the same bands; a facility kiosk takes cash at $4.00 a transaction and cards at the online rates. All funds are subject to Policy Directive 04.02.105 and to collection for obligations the sentencing court or the department imposed.
Packages come only through the Friends and Family Program, SecurePak: one order a quarter, the first placed being the only one processed, up to $125 before tax and shipping, ordered at the michiganpackages.com catalog, never from another prisoner, parolee or probationer or their family unless it is the prisoner's own, and never to a prisoner in segregation, under Policy Directive 04.02.135; the department no longer allows hard cover books.
Calls: the PAN list and the rate
The telephone vendor is Global Tel Link, now ViaPath, and the calling page opens with a warning about resellers that claim to cut the cost of inmate calls, which the department's vendor does not recognize or refund. Each prisoner has a Personal Allowed Numbers list of 20 numbers that resets automatically on January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1. Calls are placed collect, where the charges appear on the called party's bill and no cell, office, hospital or commercial number can be called, prepaid collect through AdvancePay, an account on the family member's number set up at ConnectNetwork or 855-466-2832, or debit, with minutes the prisoner buys through the institutional disbursement process.
Since October 1, 2023 the rate is $0.0735 a minute for all calls, before taxes and federal universal service fees, with international calls adding the destination's termination rate; a customer may fund up to three prepaid accounts in one transaction through a service agent, there is no minimum deposit online or by phone, and no fee to close an account.
Reading a Michigan result
An OTIS record gives the status and, for a prisoner, the facility and number that every other step uses; a person absent from OTIS is either in a county jail, which the sheriff answers for, or more than three years past discharge, which only ICHAT shows. The visiting application, the Dallas lockbox and the PAN list all wait on the prisoner acting first, and MI-VINE follows the person between jail and prison without a second registration.
Questions about finding an inmate in Michigan
Related Michigan records
OTIS sits among the Michigan records this site covers: the Michigan arrest records guide explains what a booking makes public, the court records guide covers the trial court files, the sex offender registry guide covers the State Police registry, and the Michigan county pages list each sheriff and jail.