The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) maintains a searchable public database of all of the inmates they have in custody.
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.
The California State Prison System began in 1851, when the State Legislature first authorized the state to lock up prison convicts.
Today the state of California Prison System, operating under the name of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), maintains 34 prisons and 34 conservation camps. With a staff of 26,000 correctional workers, as of the end of 2023 they oversee approximately 95,000 inmates, with another 45,000 on parole or supervised release.
The following will explain the instructions, tricks and hacks you can use to find any inmate in custody with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).
The California Department of Corrections provides a limited amount of information you may want to know about any inmate in their system, however they do list every inmate.
To look up an inmate, you don't even need to know the spelling of their name.
The CDCR has incentivized incarcerated people to take responsibility for their own rehabilitation by providing credit-earning opportunities for sustained good behavior, as well as in-prison program and activities participation.
The following chart explains the Good Conduct Credit (GCC) for inmates:
| Workgroup | GCC Rate Non-violent Inmates |
GCC Rate Violent Inmates |
| A1 | 50% | 33.3% |
| A2 | 50% | 33.3% |
| B | 50% | 33.3% |
| C | 0% | 0% |
| D1 | 50% | 33.3% |
| D2 | 0% | 0% |
| M | 66.6% | 33.3% |
| F | 66.6% | 50% |
| MCC | 12 Weeks | 12 Weeks |
| RAC | 10 Days | 10 Days |
| EMC | 180 Days | 180 Days |
| ECC | 12 Months | 12 Months |
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.
