The Alabama Department of Corrections maintains a searchable public database of all of the inmates they have in custody. They do not however, publicize a list of former prisoners. Once an inmate is out of prison, there is no record online of their former status as inmates.
The Alabama Department of Corrections maintains different types of prisons. The prison that an inmate is assigned to depends on factors such as security classification, remaining time of their sentence, gang affiliation, and location of their residence.
These are the different prison designations in Alabama, and the code/acronym that you will see in the search results for each inmate:
Locations containing the acronym SRP refer to the Alabama Department of Corrections 'Supervised Reentry Program' and will also list the county in which the inmate resides on the program.
Inmates currently assigned to other states will appear with the name of that state in the 'Incarcerated' field.
Every inmate listing has a projected release date which is subject to change if the inmate loses 'good time', which every inmate automatically gets, due to disciplinary action or escape.
Lastly, there are special sentence codes to explain certain inmates that do not have a projected release date.
The codes are as follows:
DR: Death Row
LW: Life Without Parole
LB: Life & Barred from Parole
LP: Life with Parole Possible
BP: Barred from Parole
Every inmate is assigned a number called an AIS, also known as their Alabama Institutional Serial. This number follows them for life.
If an inmate is released and then re-arrested, convicted, sentenced again, and then put back in prison in Alabama, they will be identified using the same AIS. That is why when you look up an Alabama Department of Corrections inmate, you will see his or her previous Alabama prison experiences.
Since incarcerating its first inmate in 1842, in a prison with 20 guards and 208 cells, the Alabama Department of Corrections has grown into an organization today of over 3,400 employees with an inmate population approaching 26,000+ prisoners.
The following will explain the tricks and hacks you can use to find any inmate in custody with the Alabama Department of Corrections, even if you don't know how to spell their name.
There are many ways to search for an inmate doing state time in Alabama:
To produce the entire list, enter % in the field for the last name and click the 'search' button.
Once you click the search button you will see the results of your search. If you searched using the inmate's AIS, or if it's an uncommon name, the results will display your inmate.
If you chose to search for an inmate with a common name, or you chose to use just a single letter, or the %, you will be presented with a list that looks like this:
(Note, we have covered names and AIS numbers)
Click on the name of the inmate you wish to see displayed. The listing will give you their AIS, the insitution they are located, custody status, aliases, personal characteristics, personal information, admit date, time served, projected release date, parole consideration date and information about previous time served within the Alabama Department of Corrections on prior convictions.
County Jails in Alabama
County Jails in Alabama are primarily run by the local sheriff, and in the case of a few cities, there are also city jails run by their local police department.
After an arrest, an offender is sometimes held in the jail of the county where they were apprehended until they either pay a bond or bail, which entitles them to be released upon a promise to return to court for their trial, or they are held until their trial.
If an offender is found guilty and is given a sentence of less than one year, he or she will do their time in the county jail.
If they are found guilty and given a sentence of more than one year, they will be remanded to the Alabama Department of Corrections to do their time. The only exception is if their crime is a federal offense. In that case they will be tried in a federal court and if found guilty, will be remanded to a federal prison.
The Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator includes inmates that are not only in custody, but who have been in custody and have been released (or who died in custody) since 1982.
For inmates in custody prior to 1982, visit the National Archives Records Administration and provide the following information:
Searching by Name
Searching by Name Results
Searching by Number
Searching by Number Result
Things to Know About Federal Inmate Search Results
When someone that is not a US Citizen gets arrested in the United States, and they are here illegally, depending on what state or city they are arrested in, the person may be turned over to ICE.
Many states such as New York and California, as well as hundreds of US cities, have declared themselves 'sanctuary cities' and do not turn over foreigners here illegally, even if they are committing crimes in their jurisdiction.
However, when an alien here illegally is turned over to ICE, and sent to one of the over 100 Immigration Detention Centers in the United States, the only way to try and locate where they are being detained is using the Online Detainee Locator System.
You can look them up using their assigned A-Number.
You can also try and look them up by using their name.
