SPOKE ARTICLE - State Inmate Locator series - NEW YORK

How to Find an Inmate in New York

If someone you love was just arrested or sent to prison in New York, the first thing you need is also the hardest to get: a straight answer about where they are. New York does not have one single database that lists everyone in custody. The person you are looking for could be in a city or county jail, a state prison, a federal facility, or immigration detention, and each of those is searched a different way. New York also has two things worth knowing up front: New York City runs its own large jail system separately from the rest of the state, and New York has made 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 held locally for the place where the arrest happened. In most of New York that means a county jail. In New York City it means the city jail system. They stay there through booking, arraignment, 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 state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, which can take weeks after sentencing.

So the rule of thumb is simple. Recently arrested in New York City: look in the city jail system. Recently arrested elsewhere: look in that county's jail. Sentenced to state prison time and transferred: look in the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Federal charge: the federal system. Immigration hold: ICE.

New York City jails and Rikers Island

New York City is different from the rest of the state, and different from almost every other big city in the country. The five boroughs are technically five counties (New York, Kings, Queens, Bronx, and Richmond), but the jails are not run by five separate county sheriffs. Instead, the New York City Department of Correction runs the entire city jail system as one operation, and most people held in it are on Rikers Island, the large jail complex that holds the bulk of the city's pretrial detainees.

So if your person was arrested anywhere in the five boroughs, you do not search five separate county jails. You search the New York City Department of Correction inmate lookup, which covers Rikers and the city's other jail facilities together. You generally need the full name, and a booking or case number helps. You can also reach the facilities through their pages on InmateAid.

It is worth knowing that the city's jail system, and Rikers in particular, has been under long-running scrutiny and plans for change, so facility arrangements can shift. The central city inmate lookup remains the place to start for any New York City arrest.

Searching county jails outside New York City

Outside the five boroughs, New York has 57 counties, and each runs its own jail and inmate roster through the county sheriff's office. There is no single statewide county jail search, so you 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 systems outside the city are in the suburban and upstate population centers: Suffolk and Nassau on Long Island, Westchester just north of the city, and Erie (Buffalo), Monroe (Rochester), Onondaga (Syracuse), and Albany upstate. Each posts a current booking list, and most update within hours of someone being booked. To search you typically need the full name; a booking number finds the record immediately.

Searching the New York state prison system (DOCCS)

New York's state prison system is the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS. The name reflects that New York merged its prison system and its parole and community supervision into a single agency, so DOCCS handles both people in state prison and people under state supervision after release.

Its public inmate lookup lets you look up a person by name or by their DIN, the department identification number, and returns their current facility and basic custody information, including for many people a parole or release status. To search, you generally need the person's first and last name. What the DOCCS results will not tell you is anything about a local city or county case. If your person was arrested recently and has not been sentenced and transferred, they will not be in DOCCS at all. That is normal. It means they are still in the city or county system.

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

New York holds federal facilities including the federal detention center in Brooklyn that holds people whose cases are pending in the New York City area, and FCI Otisville and the Ray Brook federal facility upstate. A person arrested on a federal charge may first sit in a city or 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 local jail where the arrest happened.

ICE detainees connected to New York

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. New York has limited immigration detention within the state, so people detained by ICE in New York are frequently held at facilities in nearby states such as New Jersey or further away, rather than locally.

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. Because New York detainees are often moved out of state, the A-Number is by far the most reliable way to track someone. If you have it, use it.

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.

You searched the wrong system for a New York City arrest. For an arrest in any of the five boroughs, use the central New York City Department of Correction lookup, not a county-by-county search. 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 be released after arraignment, transferred, or handed from local to federal or immigration custody, and during a handoff they may briefly appear nowhere. If immigration is involved, they may have been moved out of state. 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 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 New York 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 New York gives families a real advantage that most states do not.

New York is one of the few states that has made phone calls from its state prisons free. If your person is in DOCCS custody, you should not be paying for their calls. 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. City and county jails are different: calls from a New York City or 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 city and 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 jail call depends entirely on where your person is held.

- See every prison, jail, and detention center in New York: /prisons/new-york

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

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