SPOKE ARTICLE - State Inmate Locator series - MINNESOTA

How to Find an Inmate in Minnesota

If someone you love was just arrested or sent to prison in Minnesota, the first thing you need is also the hardest to get: a straight answer about where they are. Minnesota 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. Minnesota also gives families a real advantage worth knowing up front: it has made phone calls from its state prisons free. 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 and transferred into the custody of the Minnesota 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 Minnesota 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 the Minnesota state prison system (DOC)

The Minnesota Department of Corrections holds everyone serving a state prison sentence. Its public offender search lets you look up a person by name or by their DOC offender identification number and returns their current facility and basic custody information, including a projected release date. 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 DOC 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 the state system at all. That is normal. It means they are still in the county system.

Searching county jails in Minnesota (recently arrested)

Minnesota has 87 counties, and each one runs its own jail and inmate roster through the county sheriff's office. There is no single statewide county jail search, and Minnesota's county rosters are more scattered than most: many counties post their jail rosters through separate online vendors rather than a common format, so the look and the search process vary quite a bit from county to county. You have to find the roster for the specific county where the arrest happened.

If you know the county, search that county's jail roster directly, or find the facility on InmateAid and use the search link on its page. The largest county systems, where most arrests happen, are Hennepin (Minneapolis), Ramsey (St. Paul), Dakota, Anoka, and Washington, all in the Twin Cities metro, followed by St. Louis County (Duluth) up north. Each posts a current booking list, and most update within hours of someone being booked.

To search a county roster you typically need the full name. A booking number, if you have it, finds the record immediately. If you are not certain which county made the arrest, the city where it happened tells you: look up which county that city sits in, then search that county's jail.

Federal inmates in Minnesota (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 Minnesota tool. It covers everyone in federal custody from 1982 to the present and searches by name or by federal register number.

Minnesota holds federal facilities including FCI Sandstone in the east-central part of the state and the Federal Medical Center at Rochester, which provides medical and mental health care to federal inmates from around the country, so a federal inmate may be held in Minnesota for medical reasons even if their case had no connection to the state. 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 Minnesota

If the person is being held on an immigration matter, they are in ICE custody, 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. Minnesota's immigration detention runs primarily through county jails under contract with ICE, and detainees may be moved between facilities and to other states.

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 post bail, get transferred to another county, or be handed from county to federal or immigration custody, and during a 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, which matters in Minnesota where county rosters vary so much.

Get notified automatically: VINELink

Rather than checking rosters over and over, you can register with VINE, the free victim and family notification service Minnesota 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 Minnesota gives families a real advantage that most states do not.

Minnesota is one of the few states that has made phone calls from its state prisons free. If your person is in Minnesota Department of Corrections custody, you should not be paying for their calls, though calls are typically limited to 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 Minnesota 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 state prison call and a paid county jail call depends entirely on where your person is held.

- See every prison, jail, and detention center in Minnesota: /prisons/minnesota

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

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