The New Mexico Corrections Department, NMCD, runs the NMCD Offender Search for law enforcement and the public, covering people incarcerated or on probation or parole; a search needs a first or last name or the NMCD number, can be limited to active offenders, include inactive ones, or list absconders alone without any other information, and can be narrowed by region and age, behind a bot check. Adult prison data is updated nightly and probation and parole data in real time, so a new arrival may take 24 hours to appear, and the department asks that location or legal status be confirmed with the institution or the probation and parole office because people move; a person who was listed and then disappears may be a technical gap, not a release. The department states that it has no jurisdiction over county or city detention facilities, and that its central office, Constituent Services and Records Bureau will not provide information, updates or statuses on inmate releases.
A person held before trial or on a county sentence is in a county jail, found through the New Mexico county pages; Bernalillo County's Metropolitan Detention Center and Santa Fe County's adult facility publish their own lists, covered below. Questions about a prisoner go to the Family Constituent Services office at CDFamilySrvcs@cd.nm.gov or (505) 827-8710 and (505) 231-4762, with the offender's full name, NMCD number, date of birth or Social Security number and the caller's relationship, answered within about five business days; Inmate Records answers at (505) 690-9790, the Offender Management Services office that holds each judgment and sentence, computes release dates and posts good time, and the Classification Bureau, which decides housing and transfers, at (505) 827-8688. The department's family questions say a projected release date moves with good time earned or forfeited and that every file is audited before release, that a transfer closer to home must be asked for by the inmate through the caseworker, and that no health information is given without a signed and witnessed or notarized release.
- Search: the NMCD Offender Search by name or number, with an absconder only option; county jails are the sheriff's record.
- Mail: personal letters are scanned off site at a Florida box: the June 2024 announcement names Smart Communications boxes in Seminole, one per prison, while the 2022 memo the department still links names the Securus Digital Mail Center, PO Box 25397, Tampa, FL 33622; legal mail and money orders go to the facility.
- Money: a money order with the inmate's name and five digit NMCD number, mailed to the facility, from a sender who is on the inmate's approved visitor list; cash and personal checks are returned.
- Visits: only people on the approved visiting list, by an application the inmate requests and that is renewed every two years, on schedules set facility by facility, with video visits on the Smart Communications tablets.
Written by SearchSystems.net from New Mexico's own systems: the New Mexico Corrections Department Offender Search, the department's Offender Search information page, the department's Family and Offender Resources page, the department's Visitation page, the department's Inmate Mail Change memo, the department's June 20, 2024 tablet announcement, the department's Frequently Asked Questions, the department's Prison Facilities page, the department's Penitentiary of New Mexico page, the department's VINE page, the department's Offender Management Services and Classification Bureau page, the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, the Santa Fe County inmate lookup, the Santa Fe County inmate mail page, the Santa Fe County inmate visitation page, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Mail: the two addresses the department has published
The department has published two off site addresses for personal mail, and both were on its site when read. Its memo to families of December 29, 2021, still linked from the family resources page as the inmate mail change memo, says that from February 1, 2022 state run prisons stopped accepting personal mail and that letters go to the inmate's name and NMCD number, care of Securus Digital Mail Center, NMCD, PO Box 25397, Tampa, FL 33622, with the privately run Lea County Correctional Facility and Otero County Prison Facility still taking mail directly.
Its announcement of June 20, 2024 says Smart Communications tablets launched in every state operated facility on July 1, 2024, replacing the mail and telephone vendor, and that from June 24, 2024 mail goes to Seminole, FL 33775-9189: PO Box 9187 for Central New Mexico, 9188 for Guadalupe County, 9189 for Northeast New Mexico, 9190 for the Penitentiary of New Mexico, 9191 for Roswell, 9192 for Southern New Mexico, 9193 for Springer and 9194 for Western New Mexico, with new addresses for Lea County and Otero to follow.
The 2024 address is the later one; the department's site gives both, and a sender can confirm with the facility. The rules in the memo apply at every facility: no cardboard or rigid envelopes that cannot run through a scanner, no magazines, no cash or personal checks, which are returned, no packages, which go back unopened, and no glued items or greeting cards, which cannot be inspected without destruction; the envelope must identify the inmate clearly or it is returned.
Privileged legal mail comes only from a licensed attorney, a judge or a court clerk, with official markings on the envelope, is opened in the inmate's presence, and loses its status if it arrives through an intermediary; legal mail, cashier's checks and money orders go to the facility: Central New Mexico at P.O. Drawer 1328, Los Lunas 87031-1328, Guadalupe County at PO Box 520, Santa Rosa 88435, Northeast New Mexico at 185 Dr.
Michael Jenkins Road, Clayton 88415, the Penitentiary at P.O. Box 1059, Santa Fe 87504-1059, Roswell at 578 W. Chickasaw Road, Hagerman 88232, Springer at P.O. Box 10, Springer 87747, Southern New Mexico at P.O. Box 639, Las Cruces 88004-0639, Western New Mexico at P.O. Drawer 250, Grants 87020, Lea County at 6900 West Millen, Hobbs 88244 and Otero at 10 McGregor Range Road, Chaparral 88081.
The facilities
The facilities page lists eight state operated prisons, Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas with the Reception and Diagnostic Center where every new inmate spends the first weeks in orientation and classification, Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa, Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility in Clayton, the Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe, Roswell Correctional Center in Hagerman, Springer Correctional Center, Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility in Las Cruces and Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Grants, and one privately operated facility, the Otero County Prison Facility in Chaparral.
The Penitentiary is the maximum security prison for the highest classification of male inmates, with a Level 2 minimum restrict unit, the Predatory Behavioral Management Program and a Special Management Unit, at 4311 State Highway 14 with administration at (505) 827-8201, the minimum restrictive unit at (505) 827-8973, the south facility at (505) 827-8303 and the north at (505) 827-8732; its Old Main, opened in 1956, was the scene of the February 1980 riot in which about 33 inmates were killed and 12 officers held hostage over 36 hours, closed in 1998 and is now used for tours and films, and the Corrections Training Academy beside it opened in 1980 as the first in the nation.
Visiting: facility by facility
A visitor must be on the inmate's approved list: the inmate asks to have the name added, the department sends the application, and the completed form is reviewed against the visiting guidelines; applications are renewed every two years, a suspended visitor is told in writing and may appeal under the visitation policy, and a positive result on the ion drug scanner, which registers traces from everyday contact, brings a vehicle search and a non contact visit rather than an accusation.
The visitation page sets the schedules facility by facility. Central New Mexico keeps its schedules by level with visitor coordinator Michelle Bouska at (505) 383-3334, and inmates in the Reception and Diagnostic Center see immediate family only. Guadalupe County takes in person requests at GCCF.Visitation@cd.nm.gov with the visitor's name and number, the inmate's name and NMCD number and the time asked, allows one visit a week per inmate, holds general population visits on Fridays from 8 to 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., and answers at (575) 472-1002.
Northeast New Mexico runs in person barrier visits Monday to Friday, scheduled at least a week ahead in two hour blocks at 8, 10 and 1, non contact unless the visitor is immediate family with proof of kinship, which the department defines as a legal spouse, parents, stepparents, foster or adoptive parents, grandparents, siblings, children, stepchildren and grandchildren, not aunts, uncles or cousins; because of the distance it offers a two day visit of two hours each on consecutive days with the same visitors, holds no weekend visits but most holidays, bars visits for restrictive housing inmates on disciplinary status, runs video visits only through Smart Communications on the tablets after NMCD approval, and handles special visits for people traveling over 500 miles, prospective employers and others on form CD-100201.3 with the Deputy Warden's final approval.
The Penitentiary sees Level II inmates Saturday and Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Levels IV to VI by appointment Wednesday to Sunday at 8:30, 10:30 and 12:30; Roswell visits Saturday to Tuesday in four blocks from 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Springer on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Southern New Mexico by level from Wednesday to Sunday, Level IV non contact on Wednesday and Thursday, Level III semi contact on Thursday and Friday, Level II on the weekend, scheduled at snmcf.visitation@cd.nm.gov; Western New Mexico, whose applications must be complete and approved before a visit is scheduled, Level II and III in person non contact Monday to Friday from 8 to 10 a.m. and video from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., with Maria Rael at (505) 876-8219 for the women's facility and Christie Baca at (505) 287-9659 for the men's; and Otero on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Money, packages and the family office
Money from family or friends comes only as a money order showing the inmate's name and five digit corrections number, mailed to the facility, and the sender must be on the inmate's approved visitor list for the inmate to receive it; a deposit in proper form goes to the inmate's account with a receipt to the inmate. Food and goods come through the quarterly package program run by Union Supply Direct, whose pre approved items are ordered at nminmatepackage.com or by phone at (562) 361-5734 and by mail to the New Mexico Quarterly Program, Dept. 610, P.O.
Box 619059, Dallas, TX 75261-9059, with the state, inmate number and facility on every inquiry. The department also posts a list of inmate advocates by facility, an offender family guidebook and a resources list, and names an appeals manager at the central office.
VINE and the release question
The department's own offices will not give release updates, and its answer is VINE. The VINE page describes a free, confidential, 24 hour service in English, Spanish and Navajo at (877) 551-8463, with zero for an operator, and at vinelink.com, open to anyone seeking public information on an offender's custody and location; registration by phone, text or email brings notice of a release, an out to court movement or an escape, not of transfers between prisons, with calls repeated until the PIN is entered or 48 hours pass, and a registration must be renewed when someone moves from a county jail to another jail or into the department.
When read, the page carried a notice that the New Mexico VINE service for the department was being upgraded and was unavailable for offender searches, registrations and new notifications, with release notifications continuing for people already registered, and questions to (505) 827-8848 or (505) 288-2535; victims of violent crime must also register with the prosecuting district attorney to receive written notice of parole board hearings and releases, and Victim Services answers at (877) 842-8464 on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mountain time.
Albuquerque and Santa Fe: the county jails
The Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, 100 Deputy Dean Miera Drive SW, Albuquerque, (505) 839-8700, publishes an inmate custody list and an inmate release list, with an information desk from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; it warns that scammers are calling inmates' families offering releases for cash, that it does not control release dates and will never call asking for money, and asks for such calls to be reported to mdc@bernco.gov.
Santa Fe County's adult facility offers an inmate lookup it labels for reference only, and since September 1, 2024 sends all personal mail through JailATM.com, Santa Fe County Detention Center, NM, with the inmate's name and number, P.O. Box 16120, Jonesboro, AR 72401, where it is opened, scanned and delivered digitally, while legal mail from the attorney of record and documents such as checks, identification cards and birth certificates go to the business office at 28 Camino Justicia, Santa Fe 87508; its mail page caps the trust account at $400, takes only money orders and cashier's checks with the name and ID from people the inmate has listed with a case worker, allows no more than six photos no larger than 5 by 7, black or blue ink on white or college ruled paper, no greeting cards, no Polaroids, no priority mail and no dropped off mail, and allows two publications at a time sent from the publisher or an online bookstore.
Its visitation page gives each inmate up to two free on site non contact visits a week, one for those on disciplinary status, off site video visits through JailATM, a bar on visitors who were held there in the past year, and identification by driver's license, military ID, passport, agency ID or immigration card.
Reading a New Mexico result
An active result means the department holds or supervises the person, updated overnight for prisons and at once for probation and parole; an absconder search runs alone. The letter goes to the Florida box, the money order to the facility from someone on the visiting list, the visit on that facility's own schedule, and the release date comes from VINE or the caseworker, never from the central office.
Questions about finding an inmate in New Mexico
Related New Mexico records
The search is one of the New Mexico records this site covers: the New Mexico arrest records guide explains what a booking makes public, the court records guide covers the courts' case lookup, the sex offender registry guide covers the Department of Public Safety registry, and the New Mexico county pages list each sheriff and jail.