Kentucky

Kentucky’s prisons are run by the Kentucky Department of Corrections (KY DOC). The agency refers to a person in its custody as an inmate, identified by a Kentucky DOC number, and located through KOOL (the Kentucky Offender Online Lookup).

This section details all 14 adult institutions. Thirteen are state-operated: the Kentucky State Penitentiary (Eddyville), the only maximum-security prison; the Kentucky State Reformatory, Luther Luckett Correctional Complex, and Roederer Correctional Complex (which houses the statewide men’s assessment and reception center), all near La Grange; the Northpoint Training Center (Burgin); the Green River Correctional Complex (Central City); the Little Sandy Correctional Complex (Sandy Hook); the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex (West Liberty); the Western Kentucky Correctional Complex (Fredonia), the only co-ed state facility; the Blackburn Correctional Complex (Lexington); the Bell County Forestry Camp; the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women (Pewee Valley); and the Southeast State Correctional Complex (Wheelwright), which the state runs in a building it leases from CoreCivic. The 14th, the Lee Adjustment Center (Beattyville), is the one prison operated by a private company — CoreCivic — under contract.

A defining feature of Kentucky is its heavy use of county jails. Under a 1992 law, most people convicted of lower-level (Class D) felonies serve their “state time” in a county jail rather than a state prison — about a third of all state-sentenced people were held in county jails as of late 2024. A person sentenced in Kentucky may therefore be held in a county jail, often run by an elected jailer with its own visiting, phone, mail, and deposit rules rather than the DOC’s. The KOOL locator shows where a person is actually held, so it is the first place to check. County jails are a separate tier and are not individually covered here.

Where a newly sentenced person enters the state system depends on sex. Men are received at the Roederer Correctional Complex near La Grange, the statewide assessment and classification center. Women are received at the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Pewee Valley, the only dedicated women’s prison (a women’s unit at the Western Kentucky Correctional Complex also holds women).

Kentucky keeps the death penalty in law, but executions have been under a court-ordered hold since 2009, and the most recent execution was in 2008. Men under a death sentence and the execution chamber are at the Kentucky State Penitentiary; the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women is the designated facility for any woman under a death sentence.

A few features shape how families stay in touch. Incoming personal mail goes to the facility (Kentucky does not use an off-site mail vendor), where it is inspected before delivery; books and magazines must come directly from a publisher or approved retailer. Phone service is provided through Securus, and money is deposited through JPay. Health care is provided under a contracted medical provider. Use the guides below for the statewide rules, or go straight to a specific facility.