Transfers & Finding Someone in Florida (FDC)

Florida’s prison system is run by the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC). After sentencing, a person enters FDC custody through a reception center, is assigned a custody level and an institution, and may be transferred during the sentence. Because of this, the institution where a person is held can change over time. The FDC Corrections Offender Network shows the current location.

Reception and classification

A newly committed person is first sent to a reception center, where FDC conducts intake processing and assigns a custody classification and an institution. For men, the main intake centers are the Reception and Medical Center in Lake Butler, the Central Florida Reception Center in Orlando, the South Florida Reception Center in Doral, and the Northwest Florida Reception Center in the Panhandle. For women, intake is handled at Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala.

After classification, a person is generally transferred to the institution assigned for the rest of the sentence, so the reception center is usually not where the person remains.

How to find someone

FDC maintains an online Corrections Offender Network that lists people currently in FDC custody. A search can be run by name or by DC number — the unique number FDC assigns to each incarcerated person. The DC number returns an exact match; a name search may return multiple people.

The offender search covers people in FDC custody, including those held in the state’s privately operated prisons (see below). It does not cover people held in county jails (see below). It also does not provide real-time movement details, so the listed institution reflects the most recent record FDC has published.

Why a location changes

A person’s institution can change for several reasons:

• Classification. After reception, FDC assigns a custody level and an institution, which moves the person from the reception center.
• Transfers. People are moved between institutions during a sentence for reasons including custody level, programming, medical needs, and population management.

Because of classification and transfers, the institution on an older letter, record, or memory may be out of date. The Corrections Offender Network shows the current institution.

Private prisons

Florida uses seven privately operated prisons, run by the GEO Group, MTC, and CoreCivic. These institutions are overseen by the Florida Department of Management Services, not FDC directly. People held in them are still in FDC custody and are still found through the FDC Corrections Offender Network, the same search used for state-operated institutions. A search by name or DC number returns a person in a private prison the same way it returns a person in a state-run institution.

County jails are separate

The FDC offender search covers state prison custody only. People held in county jails — run by elected sheriffs — are in a separate system and are not listed in the FDC offender search. People in those facilities are typically pretrial detainees or serving shorter sentences, and each county sheriff maintains its own records.

Verify Before Acting

For the general, nationwide overview of this topic, see the national guide: Visiting Basics.