The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, ODRC, runs the Offender Search, which displays data on those currently incarcerated in an Ohio prison, currently under department supervision, or judicially released. A last name alone works, and returns Brown together with Browning, Browner and every Brown, Jr. and Sr.; a first name narrows it. A search by county of commitment lists people sentenced from that county, the first county listed where someone was committed from several, which is not the same as where they live; a residential county or ZIP code search reaches only people whose status is APA Supervision, parole or post release control, or Violators at Large, and returns the last recorded address, not a current location, since the department records no location for anyone at large. A search by the next parole board hearing date, entered as a year and month such as 202610, lists everyone scheduled that month. An offender number search needs the prefix, A or R for men, nearly all A, and W for women, and six digits with no spaces or hyphens, so 123-456 becomes 123456 and a five digit women's number takes a leading zero. The department advises too few search terms over too many.
The same gateway carries the Parole Violators at Large list, people wanted by the Adult Parole Authority for violating supervision, to be treated as dangerous and possibly armed and reported to local law enforcement or 911, never approached; a tip goes to the fugitive section at 614-752-1114 or Fugitive.Val@odrc.state.oh.us, in confidence, and officers verify the warrant through LEADS or NCIC before an arrest. The listing read on October 14, 2026 ran to 48 names under the letter A alone, each with the number, date of birth, the date declared at large and the offenses. A person in a county jail is the sheriff's record, found through the Ohio county pages.
- Search: the ODRC Offender Search, by name, county, ZIP code, parole hearing month or number with its prefix, for people in prison, on supervision or judicially released; the record carries the institution and the number every letter, call and deposit needs.
- Visits: an adult or minor visitor application with a copy of the ID or birth certificate, mailed, faxed or emailed to the facility, never to the mail center, then registration with ViaPath at ohdoc.gtlvisitme.com to book in person or video visits; a photo ID at every visit, and a birth certificate or custody papers for every child.
- Mail and calls: letters and cards to the ODRC Mail Processing Center, which scans them to the person's tablet, 15 written pages and 10 photographs per envelope, no pop out cards; calls through ViaPath at two cents a minute to people who said yes to the automated call allow list request.
- Money: only from approved or tentatively approved visitors, up to $200 a transaction and $400 a calendar month, through ConnectNetwork online or in its app, by phone at 1-888-988-4768 with facility site ID 86, at more than 26,000 stores, or by money order with the deposit form and a name matching the visitor list.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Ohio's own systems: the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Offender Search, the department's Parole Violators at Large listing, the department's Visitation page, the department's Facilities and Institutions page, the department's General Mail and Email page, the department's ODRC Mail Processing Center page, the department's Legal Mail page, the department's Phone Services page, the department's Incarcerated Population Funds page, the department's Office of Victim Services page, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The 28 institutions
The visitation page lists the institutions a visitor chooses from: Allen-Oakwood in Lima, opened in 1988, at 2338 North West Street, (419) 224-8000, with in person sessions every day of the week and video visits daily in three blocks; Belmont; Chillicothe; the Correctional Reception Center; Dayton; the Franklin Medical Center; Grafton; Lake Erie; Lebanon; London; Lorain; Madison; Mansfield; Marion; Noble; the North Central Correctional Complex; the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center; the Northeast Reintegration Center; the Ohio Reformatory for Women; the Ohio State Penitentiary; Pickaway; Richland; Ross; the Southeastern Correctional Complex; the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility; Toledo; Trumbull; and Warren.
The facilities page groups them into North, South and Specialty regions and records the closed ones, the Ohio State Reformatory in 1990, Orient in 2002, Lima and the Montgomery Education and Pre-Release Center in 2004 and Hocking in 2016. Each institution sets its own visiting hours and may add its own guidelines, and the Operation Support Center is at P.O. Box 430, Columbus, OH 43216.
Visiting: the application and ViaPath
Every adult and every minor under 18 needs a completed visit application: the adult form with a copy of a driver's license or state ID, the minor form with a copy of the birth certificate and proof of guardianship where it applies, each reviewed and signed, mailed to the person if it cannot be downloaded, and sent by mail, fax or email to the facility where the person is held, never to the central mail processing center; the facility tells the incarcerated person the outcome, who tells the visitor, and the department says the process takes 30 to 60 days.
An approved visitor then registers with ViaPath at ohdoc.gtlvisitme.com to reserve in person or video visits around the clock, with an email on any change; registering before the department's approval can delay it. At the door an adult shows bona fide identification, a driver's license, passport or military ID, under the General Visiting Instructions form DRC2274 and the Declaration of Understanding DRC2554, and a child's birth certificate or custodial papers are presented at every visit: when the incarcerated person is the parent on the certificate, the child may come with a parent, guardian or temporary caregiver; when not, the accompanying parent or guardian is named on the certificate or a custody order; and when the child comes with someone else, a signed and notarized Authorization for Minor Child Visitation names the approved visitors who may bring the child and allows the child to be photographed and searched, expiring after a year or on a change of facility.
The visitation page also sells refurbished replacement tablets to approved friends and family on an incarcerated person's behalf.
Mail: the processing center
Since November 13, 2023 every letter and card for an incarcerated person goes to the ODRC Mail Processing Center, the OMPC, while business correspondence, legal and court mail and visitation forms still go to the parent institution; anything sent to the old address is forwarded with a delay. Mail is opened, may be read, copied or scanned, and is inspected for cash, checks, money orders and contraband; first class letters, the front of the envelope, pictures, greeting cards and brochures up to 8 1/2 by 11 are copied or scanned, in color if they came in color, the envelope front kept for the return address, photographs copied and the originals destroyed after a 30 day hold unless the person pays to have them sent elsewhere.
A copy goes promptly to the person unless it threatens security, and both sides get a Notice of an Unauthorized Item Received or Withholding of Incoming Mail, form DRC4225, under Ohio Administrative Code 5120-9-17. A first class letter may hold 15 written or typed pages front and back on white or yellow paper no larger than 8 1/2 by 14, 10 photographs with no nudity, and professional single or multi fold greeting cards but no pop out cards.
Letters are generally held no more than 48 hours and packages 72, excluding weekends and holidays. Family and friends may no longer buy magazines, newspapers or books for an incarcerated person from a third party vendor; all new orders and subscriptions go through identified staff at fair market price, and families are told to put money on the account instead, a change made to keep drugs out, with printed materials reviewed but never copied under policy 75-MAL-02.
Food and sundry packages come only from the Director's approved vendors, Keefe Group's Access Securepak, Union Supply Direct and Walkenhorsts, which anyone may order from whether or not on the visiting list, under rule 5120-9-33 and each institution's list of allowed items. Legal mail needs a control number the sender obtains after registering as an attorney, law firm, legal clinic or court; without it, mail from a lawyer or a court is processed as regular mail, opened and copied, under policy 75-MAL-03 and rules 5120-9-17 and 5120-9-55.
Calls: two cents a minute
ViaPath Technologies, doing business as Global Tel Link, holds the telephone contract, renegotiated to two cents a minute plus taxes and the Federal Universal Service Fund fee for every call within the United States, with no surcharge or connection fee, since July 1, 2021; its customer call center at 1-877-650-4249 answers weekdays from 8 a.m. to midnight and weekends from 9 to 8 Eastern. A person who wants calls first receives an automated ViaPath call asking permission to be added to the incarcerated person's Call Allow List, three times a day for five days until a yes or no, and calls go only to people who agreed.
They are paid as standard collect calls billed to the receiver, as prepaid collect calls through a ConnectNetwork account with a 20 percent discount, or as commissary calls on phone debit credits the person buys with money from the personal account, which an approved visitor may fund. To block calls from all Ohio prisons or from one person, the same number takes the request.
Money: $200 a transaction, $400 a month
Only approved or tentatively approved visitors may send money, by any method, after security verification against the visiting list; funds from an unapproved source are refused under rule 5120-5-02, deposits are subject to collection for debts the person owes under Revised Code 5120.133 and rule 5120-5-03, and the limit is $200 per transaction and $400 per calendar month from a visitor. Deposits go through ConnectNetwork by ViaPath: online or in the mobile app by card, with a payment history; by money order with the Money Order Deposit form, in a name matching the visitor list exactly, no more than $200 without the Warden's advance approval and with no letter enclosed, since any letter is discarded; by phone at 1-888-988-4768 with the account number, the facility, the person's name and facility site ID 86; or in cash at more than 26,000 stores including Walmart and Kroger.
The fee table the department posts, dated October 2012, charges $3.00 for a kiosk cash or card transaction up to $100 or $50, and $3.50, $4.50 or $5.50 plus 3.5 percent for a card transaction by phone or web up to $20, $100 or $200. Incarcerated persons pay for their own calls through a PIN debit account bought at the commissary.
Victims: the Office of Victim Services and Roberta's Law
The Office of Victim Services, created under Revised Code 5120.60 within the Division of Parole and Community Services, has four victim advocates and two administrators covering all 88 counties, all credentialed, who give notice of escapes, apprehensions and deaths, register victims for notice of transfer and release proceedings, support them at victim conference days, full board hearings, clemency hearings and violation hearings, and can petition the Parole Board for a full board hearing.
The Offender Search gateway adds that Roberta's Law, Senate Bill 160, effective March 22, 2013, notifies the victim automatically of specified events when the inmate was convicted of aggravated murder, murder, a first, second or third degree offense of violence or is serving a life sentence, whether or not the victim asked, and links the registry of sex offenders and the Attorney General's Victim Compensation Fund.
Reading an Ohio result
A record tells whether a person is in an institution, under the Adult Parole Authority or judicially released, and for those at large only the last address the department holds. The number with its prefix is the key to the mail center, the call allow list and the ConnectNetwork deposit, the facility runs the visits on its own hours, and the Office of Victim Services, not the search, is the source of notice when the status changes.
Questions about finding an inmate in Ohio
Related Ohio records
The Offender Search is one of the Ohio records this site covers: the Ohio arrest records guide explains what a booking makes public, the court records guide covers the clerks of courts, the sex offender registry guide covers the Attorney General's eSORN, and the Ohio county pages list each sheriff and jail.