There may be someone that you know who gets into jail. And then, you probably want to know why he or she is in jail. For asking the person directly is impossible and to ask his or her family members or friends may not be possible for you, too. If this is your problem, then you are able to search the information through these ways.
Using an Inmate Locator
We have to be grateful for the existence of the internet because it becomes easier for us to find any information. If you access the internet, you are able to find an inmate search tool or inmate locator where it can be used for searching an inmate, for an example https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/ is most popular. The information that you can find in an inmate locator about an inmate is their personal identity such as their name, date of birth, age, sex, their physical characteristics and some other information related to their case such as where they are incarcerated, their crime, the length of their sentence, and some more.
To know why someone is in jail, the first thing that you have to do is to know the location of the crime. By using an inmate locator, you are able to search an inmate and firstly usually you have to choose the state or the state department of corrections.
There are a lot of states in the United States that have an inmate locator in their websites. Usually, they call it an Offender Database Search or an Inmate Search. If a state does not have the feature, it means that you have to contact the department of correction. If you try to find out someone in an inmate search feature in a website of a state, but then you cannot find the inmate, you have to make sure whether the inmate is recently arrested or not. If he or she was just arrested recently, the possibility is that the information about the inmate may not be entered in the system yet. If this is the case, you are able to check next time.
It is important for you to know that the system of prison is divided into some different types of facilities and those are federal prison, state prisons, and county jails. Where an inmate is placed depends on the type of crime that they do and also the duration of the sentence. If they commit federal crimes, they are placed in a federal prison. For state law felony convicts sentenced to more than a year, they will be placed in state prisons. And if they commit misdemeanors and are sentenced to less than a year, usually they are placed in city or county jails.
Besides the inmate locator in the state’s website or department of correction of the state’s site, you are also able to search an inmate in the Inmates Plus site. This is a website where you are able to search for an inmate. To use this inmate locator, you have to access the site and scroll down to find the state. After clicking on the state, you have to enter the last name and the first name of the inmate. Hit the Go purple button and then you will be given the results. Click on the name of the inmate that you are looking for and then you will be given the details of the inmate. In the details, it is also mentioned about the offense that the inmate committed.
Contacting the Jail
If you know where the inmate is housed and when you search in an inmate locator you cannot find them, or in the inmate locator it is not informed about their offenses, you are able to contact the jail. You are able to talk with the officer and ask about the inmate including about the crime that they commit. To know the contacts of a jail, you are able to search on Google. Just type the name of the jail or you are able to access the department of corrections of the state.
A bookworm and researcher especially related to law and citizenship education. I spend time every day in front of the internet and the campus library.
