There is no single national inmate database for state and county custody. Every state corrections department runs its own offender search, county jails post their own rosters, and the federal Bureau of Prisons covers only federal inmates. The fastest route is always the state page: it pairs the DOC search with the county rosters that actually hold pre-trial detainees.
All 51 jurisdiction guides linked below are maintained individually. Content reviewed July 30, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
How the States Differ
The big split is DOC-search states versus VINE-first states. Most states run a searchable offender database with photos, charges, and projected release dates. A cluster of smaller states — Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and Wyoming among them — route public lookups through VINELink, the victim-notification network, instead of a homegrown search.
County jails are the other half of the picture. Roughly two-thirds of people in local custody are pre-trial — they never appear in a state DOC search. Sheriff-run roster sites vary from live booking feeds updated hourly to PDF lists updated weekly, which is why each state guide below links its county jail rosters alongside the DOC tool.
Pick Your State
Frequently Asked Questions
Related National Directories
Start from a state page for the full picture, or cross into arrest records and background checks for the paper trail around a booking.