SPOKE ARTICLE - State Inmate Locator series - COLORADO

How to Find an Inmate in Colorado

If someone you love was just arrested or sent to prison in Colorado, the first thing you need is also the hardest to get: a straight answer about where they are. Colorado does not have one single database that lists everyone in custody. The person you are looking for could be in a county jail, a state prison, a federal facility, or immigration detention, and each of those is searched a different way. Colorado also has a couple of features worth knowing up front: it has made phone calls from its state prisons free, and it holds the most secure federal prison in the country. This guide walks you through all of it.

Start here: figure out which system is holding them

Before you search anything, answer one question, because it tells you which tool to use.

How long ago were they taken into custody, and what happened? Someone arrested in the last few days is almost always in the county jail for the county where the arrest happened. They stay there through booking, first appearance, and often through their whole case if it is a local charge. People do not go to "state prison" when they are arrested. They go to state prison only after they have been sentenced to more than a year and physically transferred into the custody of the Colorado Department of Corrections, which can take weeks after sentencing.

So the rule of thumb is simple. Recently arrested, case still pending, or a short sentence: look in the county jail. Sentenced to state prison time and transferred: look in the Colorado Department of Corrections. Federal charge: look in the federal system. Immigration hold: look in ICE custody. Most families searching for someone newly arrested waste time on the state prison site when their person is sitting in a county jail.

Searching county jails in Colorado (recently arrested)

Colorado has 64 counties, and each one runs its own jail and its own inmate roster, usually through the county sheriff's office. There is no statewide county jail search, so you have to find the roster for the specific county where the arrest happened.

One Colorado detail to know: Denver is a consolidated city and county, so the jails there (the Denver County Jail and the Downtown Detention Center) are run by the Denver Sheriff Department rather than a separate county government. For searching purposes it works the same as any other county, you just look up the Denver Sheriff's inmate search.

The largest county systems, where most arrests happen, are Denver, El Paso (Colorado Springs), Arapahoe, Jefferson, Adams, Larimer, Boulder, Weld, and Pueblo. Each posts a current booking list, and most update within hours of someone being booked, though a few delay new bookings by 24 to 72 hours for security reasons. To search a county roster you typically need the full name; a booking number finds the record immediately. If you are not sure which county made the arrest, the city tells you: look up which county that city sits in, then search that county's jail, or reach the facility through its page on InmateAid.

Searching the Colorado state prison system (CDOC)

The Colorado Department of Corrections, or CDOC, holds everyone serving a state prison sentence. Its public offender search lets you look up a person by name or by their DOC offender number and returns their current facility and basic custody information. To search, you generally need the person's first and last name, and the offender number narrows it when the name is common.

What the CDOC results will not tell you is anything about a county case. If your person was arrested recently and has not been sentenced and transferred, they will not be in CDOC at all. That is normal, not a dead end. It means they are still in the county system.

Federal inmates in Colorado (BOP)

If the charge was federal, the person is in the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons, not the state, and you search the BOP's own national inmate locator rather than any Colorado tool. It covers everyone in federal custody from 1982 to the present and searches by name or by federal register number.

Colorado has a notable federal presence. The Federal Correctional Complex at Florence, in the southern part of the state, includes ADX Florence, the only federal supermax prison in the country and the most secure prison in the federal system. It is where the federal government holds many of its highest-profile inmates, which is why searches for certain well-known federal prisoners lead to Colorado. The Florence complex also includes a penitentiary, a medium-security institution, and a camp, and there is a separate federal facility, FCI Englewood, near Denver. A person arrested on a federal charge may first sit in a county jail under a federal contract before being moved, so if the BOP locator does not show them yet, check the county jail where the arrest happened.

ICE detainees in Colorado

If the person is being held on an immigration matter, they are in ICE custody, which is a civil detention system separate from criminal jail and prison. ICE detainees are not criminals serving sentences; they are held while their immigration cases are decided. Colorado's immigration detention is concentrated at a single large facility, the Aurora ICE Processing Center, east of Denver, operated by a private contractor under contract with ICE.

You search for an immigration detainee using the federal ICE Online Detainee Locator, which works by the detainee's A-Number (a nine-digit immigration identification number) or by their full name, country of birth, and date of birth. If you have the A-Number, use it, because name searches in the immigration system are far less reliable when names are common or were recorded differently than expected.

When you cannot find them anywhere

If you have searched and your person is not turning up, work through these explanations before assuming the worst.

The booking is not complete yet. Newly arrested people can take hours to appear on a roster. Try again later the same day. They were released, transferred, or moved between systems. Someone can bond out, get transferred to another county, or be handed from county to federal or immigration custody, and during the handoff they may briefly appear nowhere. The name does not match the record. People are booked under legal names, middle names, maiden names, or misspellings. Try variations, and search with less information rather than more. They are a minor. Juveniles are not listed in public adult locators at all, regardless of facility.

When the online tools fail, calling works. Call the jail or facility you believe is holding them, give the full name and date of birth, and ask the booking desk to confirm custody status. That is often faster than any website.

Get notified automatically: VINELink

Rather than checking rosters over and over, you can register with VINE, the free victim and family notification service Colorado participates in. It lets you look up a person's custody status and sign up for automatic alerts about changes such as transfer or release. It is the simplest way to stop refreshing a website every day.

Once you have found them

Finding the person is the first step. Staying connected is the next, and Colorado gives families a real advantage that most states do not.

Colorado is one of the few states that has made phone calls from its state prisons free. If your person is in CDOC custody, you should not be paying for their calls, though calls are typically capped at 15-minute sessions. This is a genuine break for families, and it is worth knowing so you are not signing up for a paid calling plan you do not need for a state prisoner. County jails are different: calls from a Colorado county jail are not automatically free, though their rates are now capped under the federal rules that took effect in April 2026, so they are far cheaper than they used to be.

Mail is still the most reliable form of contact everywhere. Letters and photos reach almost everyone in custody, and a person who hears from home regularly does easier time. You can also send money to most facilities so your person can cover commissary and basic needs, and at county jails, phone time.

To set any of this up for the specific facility holding your loved one, find that facility on InmateAid and follow the instructions on its page, since the rules, the phone setup, and the mailing address are different at every facility, and the difference between a free CDOC call and a paid county jail call depends entirely on where your person is held.

- See every prison, jail, and detention center in Colorado: /prisons/colorado

- Understand the new 2026 call rates: link to FCC Prison Phone Rate Caps 2026 guide

- Search arrest records across Colorado: Arrest Record Search (honestly labeled affiliate per I239)