This free tool walks you through finding a person in federal prison using the official Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator. It helps you get ready for the search, and then helps you understand what the result means, including when the person does not come up at all.
The search itself runs on the Bureau of Prisons website. We walk you there and help you read what comes back.
Your privacy: you will type the name or register number on the BOP's own website, not here. We never see it, and this page stores nothing.
The register number looks like this: 12345-678. It appears on all BOP paperwork and stays with the person for the whole case.
Use the exact spelling from the court paperwork, not the family spelling. Small differences are the most common reason a search comes back empty.
The number is written in more places than most families realize:
If none of those are in hand right now, the name search still works. You can look for the number later; it goes on every letter and form from here on.
Tap the button below. The BOP Inmate Locator opens in a new tab, so this guide stays open behind it. Run the search there, then come back to this page and tell us what you saw.
Open the official BOP Inmate LocatorThis is the facility, or halfway house, where the person is held now. It can change with transfers. The locator shows the BOP's most recent update.
This is the BOP's projected date. The BOP itself notes that, because of the First Step Act, sentences are being reviewed and recalculated, so a release date may not be up to date. If that date matters to your family, our free estimator shows how FSA credits are earned and how to check the math.
Open the FSA Time Credit Estimator
Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. It goes on every letter, money order, and form from here on.
It means the person is no longer held in a Bureau of Prisons facility. It does not always mean they are home. Possibilities include:
The date shown next to the status matters. It tells you when the BOP's custody ended, which is the starting point for figuring out which of the above applies.
Not finding someone is common in the first days, and it usually has a paperwork explanation. It is rarely the emergency it feels like. Work through these in order.
Compare against the court paperwork letter by letter. Try hyphenated and unhyphenated versions, and suffixes like Jr. If any paperwork has the register number, search by number instead.
After a recent arrest or sentencing, the person may still be in U.S. Marshals custody or in transit, and not yet designated to a facility. The locator updates after designation. Check again over the coming days.
The person may be in state custody, which has its own state DOC inmate search, or in immigration custody, which has the ICE detainee locator. A federal case can also involve a hold from another system, and the reverse.
The BOP locator covers 1982 to the present. Older records do not appear in it.
If days pass and nothing appears, the defense attorney of record and the U.S. Marshals district office are the two routes that can confirm where a person is held.
Custody changes, transfers, and release dates move. We send free case updates by email, in plain language, about federal cases, BOP policy, and deadlines that matter to families.
Get free case updates by email