How an Inmate Search Works in West Virginia

West Virginia keeps its regional jails and its prisons under one agency, the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, DCR, so one Offender Search page leads to both. The jail search takes at least the first three letters of a last name, with the first name optional, and covers people held in the regional jails, most of them awaiting trial or serving county sentences; the prison search takes at least the first four digits of the offender ID, the OID number, or the first three letters of both names, and is set up for people under active supervision, in prison or on parole, so that someone discharged or moved out of the division's custody returns no results. Both carry the same disclaimer: the information is public and updated regularly but can change quickly, may not reflect the true current location, release date or status, is not warranted, may be incomplete because of data conversion, and its sentencing information is not meant to describe the underlying case, for which the court's own records are the reference.

Two more lists sit beside the searches. The daily incarcerations page lists the people booked into a regional jail by county, chosen from all 55; when read it answered that the offender information service was not responding and asked for the search to be run again in a few minutes, which the page itself says does not mean no records were found. The escapees and absconders page listed none on October 14, 2026. The sheriffs and the county jails each one bills are on the West Virginia county pages.

  • Search: the jail search by three letters of a last name, the prison search by OID number or name, and a daily booking list by county.
  • Mail: letters only, handwritten or typed, to the inmate's first and last name and OID number, the full facility name with no abbreviations, PO Box 336, Phoenix, MD 21131, with the sender's full first and last name and return address; photographs, enclosures and envelopes naming more than one inmate go back.
  • Money: to the trust account by phone at 888-988-4768, at ConnectNetwork.com, in the ConnectNetwork app or at a lobby kiosk; the division's notice says the trust account buys commissary and inmate services and that funds deposited to it are used at the inmate's discretion.
  • Calls and visits: calls and video visits through GettingOut, with AdvancePay at 800-483-8314 for one dedicated number and PIN debit for any approved contact; jail visits are non contact, scheduled by the inmate on each facility's schedule.

Written by SearchSystems.net from West Virginia's own systems: the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Offender Search page, the division's Offender Search for jails, the division's Offender Search for prisons, the division's Daily Incarcerations list, the division's Escapees and Absconders page, the division's Sending Letters to an Inmate page, the division's Offender Banking page, the division's Offender Calling and Video Visits page, the division's deposits notice, the division's Adult Facilities page, the Central Regional Jail and Correctional Facility page, the South Central Regional Jail and Correctional Facility page, the Southern Regional Jail and Correctional Facility page, the Mount Olive Correctional Complex page, the Huttonsville Correctional Center page, the division's Parole Services Offices page, the division's Policies page, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.

The facilities: jails and prisons under one roof

The adult facilities page lists 20 prisons and jails, ten of them regional jails that double as correctional facilities, Central, Eastern, North Central, Northern, Potomac Highlands, South Central, Southern, Southwestern, Tygart Valley and Western, with the correctional centers and jails at Denmar, Huttonsville with its work camp, Lakin, Martinsburg, Mount Olive with the Slayton Work Camp, Ohio County, Pruntytown, Saint Marys, Salem and Stevens, and community corrections centers at Anthony, Beckley, Charleston and Parkersburg.

Mount Olive Correctional Complex, opened in 1995 at 1 Mountainside Way in Fayette County to replace the Civil War era penitentiary at Moundsville, is the state's only maximum security prison, with a capacity of 1,030 men and the 48 bed minimum security Slayton Work Camp outside its perimeter since July 2007, at (304) 442-7213; Huttonsville Correctional Center, created by the Legislature in 1937 to relieve the penitentiary, sits 18 miles south of Elkins on U.S.

Route 250 in Randolph County at (304) 335-2291, with a work camp beside it since April 1, 2012. Each regional jail serves named counties: Central Regional at 1255 Dyer Hill Road, Sutton, (304) 765-7904, opened February 22, 1993 as the prototype of the podular design used in every regional jail, serves Braxton, Calhoun, Clay, Gilmer, Lewis, Nicholas, Roane and Webster; South Central Regional at 1001 Centre Way, Charleston, (304) 558-1336, in operation since 1993 with the state's only forensic evaluation unit, serves Jackson and Kanawha; and Southern Regional at 1200 Airport Road, Beaver, (304) 256-6726, built in 1994, serves Fayette, Greenbrier, Mercer, Monroe, Raleigh, Summers and Wyoming counties.

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Mail: letters only, to Maryland

The letters page requires every letter to an inmate to go to the inmate's first and last name and OID number, the full name of the facility with no abbreviations, PO Box 336, Phoenix, MD 21131, with the sender's full first and last name, no initials, and a full return address. Only handwritten or typed letters are scanned to the inmate: an envelope with photographs is returned, an envelope addressed to more than one inmate is returned, attachments and enclosures are not allowed, and any violation sends the whole contents back to the sender.

Goods come through the division's inmate package vendor, and the division's policy directives, 503.00 on mail privileges, 503.03 on incoming publications and 504.00 on the tablet program, are posted on its policies page.

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Money, calls and video visits: ConnectNetwork and GettingOut

The banking page takes deposits to an inmate's trust fund account by phone at 888-988-4768, at ConnectNetwork.com or in the ConnectNetwork app, and the division's deposits notice adds the lobby kiosk, explains that the trust account buys commissary items and self funded inmate services and that funds in it are used at the recipient's discretion, and gives 888-428-1845 for support. Phones run two ways: AdvancePay lets an inmate call one dedicated number funded at ConnectNetwork.com, in the app or by the automated line at 800-483-8314, and PIN debit lets the inmate call any approved contact, with support at 877-650-4249.

The calling page says calls and video visits are contracted to GettingOut, at GettingOut.com or in its app, where a family and friends account carries messages and video visits, funded by the automated line at 866-516-0115, and a juvenile only account lets young people buy tablet services; the division's video visit guide describes visits from a station at the facility, from a computer or from a mobile device at facilities that allow it, started at schedule.telmate.com by logging in with a phone number and PIN.

The notice records that Global Tel*Link became ViaPath Technologies and that its payment services run through GTL Financial Services. The policy directives on telephone use, 504.01, and visitation, 505.00, are on the policies page with 111.07 on the jail processing fee.

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Visiting a regional jail: non contact, scheduled by the inmate

Jail visits are non contact and are set up by the inmate, not the visitor, on each facility's schedule. At Central Regional every visit is scheduled by the inmate into half hour slots on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 9 to 11 a.m. and noon to 3 p.m. and on Wednesdays from noon to 5 p.m., with none on Monday, Thursday, Friday or Sunday. At South Central visits go by inmate request on the approved days, Thursdays from 1 to 9 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with two adults or one adult and two juveniles, notarized visitation forms when juveniles come, the name, address, date of birth, telephone and driver's license number of every adult, one visit every 30 days, only the remaining time for a late arrival, and a dress code that bars tight, see through or low cut clothing, sleeveless shirts, skirts or shorts more than two inches above the knee, pants with holes, bib overalls, open toed shoes, piercings, jewelry, hats, scarves, coats, hoodies, keys, lighters, wallets, purses, phones and anything orange.

At Southern Regional the inmate submits form 5-0029, each visit takes one adult and two minor children or two adults, each inmate has one visit a month, visits last 30 minutes and are scheduled ahead through (304) 256-6738, longer visits need the Superintendent's or Chief Correctional Officer's approval 24 hours ahead, and special visits for unusual circumstances go to the Chief Correctional Officer with proof. The division also posts a juvenile visiting request form and a resource guide for each regional jail listing county health departments, the 2-1-1 line and treatment and crisis services for people leaving custody.

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Parole and the records

The prison search covers parolees as well as prisoners because Parole Services is part of the division, with thirteen parole offices at Beckley, Charleston, Clarksburg, Elkins, Huntington, Lewisburg, Logan, Martinsburg, Moorefield, Parkersburg, Princeton, Welch and Wheeling; the Charleston office at 1356 Hansford Street, (304) 558-3597, covers Boone, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Logan, Mingo and Roane counties and the Beckley office at 3225 Robert C.

Byrd Drive, (304) 256-6950, covers Fayette, Greenbrier, Nicholas, Pocahontas and Raleigh. The division's policies page lists the directives that govern what a search shows and what else can be had: 151.00 on offender records, 151.06 on good time computation, 142.00 on the release of information from an inmate's record, 142.01 on health care records, 108.01 on Freedom of Information Act requests and 457.08 on victim services; its publications page holds the annual reports back to 2002 and the regional jail authority's reports through 2018.

The division's headquarters are at 1409 Greenbrier Street, Charleston, WV 25311, (304) 558-2036.

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Reading a West Virginia result

A jail result means a regional jail booking, most often before trial, found by last name; a prison result means a sentence or parole under the division, found by OID number, and no result in the prison search means the person has discharged or left the division's custody. The OID number goes on the letter to Maryland and the deposit, the calls come through GettingOut, and a jail visit waits on the inmate's own request under that jail's schedule.

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Questions about finding an inmate in West Virginia

How do I find someone in a West Virginia jail?
Through the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation's jail search by at least the first three letters of the last name, or the daily incarcerations list by county; the division runs the regional jails and the prisons.
How do I find a West Virginia prison inmate?
Through the division's prison search by the first four digits of the OID number or three letters of each name; it covers people in prison or on parole, and no result means the person is no longer in the division's custody.
Where do I mail a letter to a West Virginia inmate?
To the inmate's first and last name and OID number, the full facility name, PO Box 336, Phoenix, MD 21131, with your full name and return address; only the letter is scanned, and photographs or enclosures send the whole envelope back.
How do I send money to a West Virginia inmate?
To the trust account by phone at 888-988-4768, at ConnectNetwork.com, in the ConnectNetwork app or at a lobby kiosk; phone time is funded separately through AdvancePay or PIN debit.
How do I visit someone in a West Virginia regional jail?
The inmate schedules it; visits are non contact on each jail's schedule, such as Thursdays and weekends at South Central with one visit every 30 days, or one 30 minute visit a month at Southern Regional on the inmate's form 5-0029.
Can I video visit a West Virginia inmate?
Yes, through GettingOut, from a station at the facility, a computer or, where the facility allows, a mobile device, with a family and friends account funded at 866-516-0115.

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The searches are among the West Virginia records this site covers: the West Virginia arrest records guide explains what a booking makes public, the court records guide covers the circuit and magistrate courts, the sex offender registry guide covers the State Police registry, and the West Virginia county pages list each sheriff and jail.