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Inmate Search in Pennsylvania

Searching for inmates can now be accomplished online for many states. The State Department of Corrections in 33 states participate in this program. The program is referred to as the Inmate Locator. The Inmate Locator is useful as a tool to gather specific information on inmates.

The participating states provide an independent website where individuals may search for inmates using a partial name, a full name, a birth date, or incarceration number. The database of inmates may include those who have recently been released from prison until the system is updated.

This is a free service provided to law enforcement agencies, as well as to the general public, in the interest of public safety. The service is free of charge.

It is important to note that the inmate locator is designed to work with Internet Explorer. Therefore, it may not work properly or it may not work at all with other browsers. In fact, the web pages may partially load onto your computer, but integral parts will be missing. If you encounter this difficulty because your computer system does not use Internet Explorer, then you may want to consider using a computer at a public library.

In accordance with the Pennsylvania Criminal History Record Information Act (CHRIA), the type of information available with the Inmate Locator is limited to the specific criminal justice information that the act allows. The inmate database for the Inmate Locator generally includes the inmate’s full name, the inmate’s sex, the inmate’s age, the inmate’s race, the inmate’s date of birth, the inmate’s present location, the inmate’s citizenship, and the inmate’s committing county.

To acquire access to the database for inmates in the state of Pennsylvania, use the following link: http://www.cor.state.pa.us/inmatelocatorweb/

This directs you to the main page of the Inmate Locator. In the center of the page, several search boxes are available inside a box labeled “Search Criteria.” On the left hand side of this box, fill in as much information as you have available for the inmate’s last name, first name, sex, committing county, location, and citizenship. Directly underneath this, an option to include either the date of birth or the age of the inmate is provided. Click inside the circle in front of your choice and fill in the information in the designated box.

On the right hand side, fill in as much information as you have available for the inmate’s number, middle name, and race. If you do not have specific information, exclude that search box. For categories in which you are unsure of the answer, you may select the choice “ALL.” You will not be able to do this with any name or the inmate number, you will need to leave those blank if you are unsure of the answer.


Directly underneath this box, you will see another box labeled “Sort By.” In this box, you will click the manner in which you would like your results to be displayed. The choices include: name, race, location, inmate number, committing county, and date of birth.

Once you have entered your data, click the “Find Inmate” button underneath the “Search Criteria” and “Sort By” boxes.

After a few seconds, you will either receive results or no results. If you receive the information that no inmate was located, you are given three options. The first option simply offers you the opportunity to search again by clicking on the link labeled “here.” This returns you to the search page where you can enter new information for a new search.

The second option is to click a link that will take you to the Support Team. If you follow this link by clicking on it, an email window opens. The email is addressed to
ra-cenrecordsinq@state.pa.us. The subject line and the body of the email are blank so that you may personalize them with your request.

The third option suggests that you can jump ahead to the search page. This returns you to the search page with empty search boxes.

On the other hand, if your search is successful, then you will be taken to a page that provides the total number of matches to the information that you provided. Obviously, if you provided an inmate number, then you will receive only one result. However, if you entered only a last name, your search can produce a thousand or more results.

The information will be displayed in the manner that you selected in a grid like format. The following information is included for each inmate that is listed: Inmate number, First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Suffix, Race, Date of Birth, Current Location, and Committing Count.

If the name that you are searching for is not listed, look for the inmate number to match it. If the inmate number is unavailable, then you can search each inmate individually for his or her aliases. Simply click on the inmate number listed on the left hand side for one inmate at a time. This will produce a list of aliases indicating the alias as “also known as” or as the name under which the inmate was incarcerated and labeled as “commit name.”

Clicking on the inmate number will also provide the inmate details listed in a box below the aliases. The information that is provided in this box includes: age, date of birth, race, height, current location, permanent location, committing county, sex, citizenship, and complexion. The listing for the current location is a live link. If you click on it, you will be taken to a new page that lists the facility’s location, phone number, and a brief description such as the date of opening for the facility and its current use (for example, medium security facility for males).

At the bottom of the page, underneath the inmate details, you can opt to return to the search page or back to your search results.

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