Transfers & Finding Someone in Alabama (ADOC)

State prison or county jail

Whether someone is in an ADOC state prison or a county jail depends on their case. County jails (run by the county sheriff, not ADOC) hold people awaiting trial and people serving short misdemeanor sentences. ADOC holds people serving felony sentences. Each county jail sets its own visiting, mail, phone, and money rules — this guide and the Alabama guides cover the ADOC state system.

A complication specific to Alabama: because the state prisons are crowded, a person who has been sentenced to ADOC may remain physically in the county jail for weeks or months before a bed opens and they are transferred. During that time they may not yet appear in the ADOC system.

Reception and classification

A newly sentenced person enters ADOC through a reception center, where they are assessed and assigned a custody level and a facility:

• Men: Kilby Correctional Facility (Mt. Meigs, near Montgomery).
• Women: Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women (Wetumpka).

A person often appears at the reception center first and is transferred to a long-term facility afterward, so the assigned prison can change in the first weeks.

Finding someone

Use the ADOC Inmate Search at doc.alabama.gov, which looks people up by name or AIS number and shows the current facility. The search lists people currently in ADOC custody; someone not found there may be in a county jail (check the county sheriff’s roster), in reception, or recently released. ADOC does not publish exact release dates for everyone, so confirm status directly when it matters.

Custody notifications

AlaVINE, Alabama’s version of the VINE victim-notification service, can send automated alerts about an inmate’s custody status and transfers. Register at vinelink.com or by phone at 1-877-846-3425. This service is available to anyone, not only registered victims.

Verify Before Acting

For the general, nationwide overview of this topic, see the national guide: Know Your Rights.