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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. This guide walks you through all four, in the order most families need them, and tells you what to do when someone does not show up at all.

One thing worth knowing up front, because it changes how you stay in touch later: Minnesota is one of the handful of states that made phone calls from its state prisons free. So once you locate your person inside the state system, calling them does not have to cost you anything. More on that at the end.

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 who was 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 entire 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 physically transferred into the custody of the Minnesota Department of Corrections, which can take days to weeks after sentencing while a reception center processes them and assigns a facility.

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 across town.

Searching the Minnesota state prison system (DOC)

The Minnesota Department of Corrections, or DOC, holds everyone serving a state prison sentence. Its public Offender Locator lets you look up a person by name or by MNDOC Offender ID (the DOC's own inmate identification number) and returns their current facility, custody status, sentence information, and anticipated release date.

To search, you generally need the person's first and last name, and the MNDOC Offender ID helps narrow it when the name is common. The Offender Locator covers people currently committed to the Commissioner of Corrections who are still under the DOC's jurisdiction, which includes people in prison and people released from prison but still under supervision. One thing to keep in mind: it can take several business days for a newly sentenced person to show up in the Locator, so if they were just sentenced, give it time before assuming something is wrong.

What the results will not tell you is anything about a county case. If your person was arrested last week and has not been sentenced and transferred, they will not be in the DOC system at all. That is normal, not a dead end. 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 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.

If you know the county, search for 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, which together make up the Twin Cities metro where most of the state's population lives. St. Louis County, which covers Duluth, is the major hub in the north. Each posts a current booking list, and most update within hours of someone being booked, though some delay new bookings for a period for security reasons.

To search a county roster you typically need the person's 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 several federal facilities: FCI Sandstone, a low-security institution in east central Minnesota; FMC Rochester, a federal medical center in the southeast that holds men of all security levels needing medical or mental health care; FCI Waseca, which holds female inmates; and FPC Duluth, a minimum-security camp. FPC Duluth was slated for deactivation under an earlier announcement, but that decision was reversed in 2025 and the camp remains open. A person arrested on a federal charge may first sit in a county jail under a federal contract before being moved to a federal facility, 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, 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. You search for them 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.

Minnesota does not run a dedicated standalone immigration prison. Instead, ICE holds people in county jails that contract with the federal government, with Sherburne, Kandiyohi, Freeborn, and Crow Wing counties among those housing detainees, plus the federal Whipple Building at Fort Snelling, which has been used mainly for processing and short holds. Because of that setup, a detainee may appear in the ICE locator, on a county roster, or both. 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, and newly sentenced people can take several business days to appear in the DOC Locator. Try again later. 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 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 or records unit 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 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 it matters more than most families realize for how someone gets through their time.

The best place to start is mail. Letters and photos reach almost everyone in custody, they are the most reliable form of contact, and a person who hears from home regularly does easier time. Phone calls are the next layer, and Minnesota is unusual here in a good way: the state made all calls from its DOC prisons free back in 2023, so once your person is inside the state system, talking to them does not cost you or them anything. County jails are a different story and still charge per minute, though the federal rate caps that took effect in April 2026 brought those county costs down sharply. You can also send money to most facilities so your person can cover commissary and basic needs.

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 carrier, and the mailing address are different at every facility.

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)