Transfers & Finding Someone in Minnesota (MN DOC)

Finding someone

The Minnesota DOC publishes an online Offender Locator as part of the COMS Public Viewer at coms.doc.state.mn.us. It can be searched by name or by MNDOC Offender ID (the OID number assigned to each person in state custody) and covers adults under the Commissioner’s jurisdiction, whether in prison or on supervised release. The results show the person’s current facility, which is the reliable way to confirm where someone is held.

The OID number is also the identifier senders need for mail and money, so it is worth recording once it is known. Someone held in a county jail before transfer to state prison may not yet appear in the Minnesota DOC system; a person awaiting transfer from a jail can be located through that county’s sheriff’s office instead.

Reception and classification

Newly sentenced people are not sent directly to a long-term assignment. They first pass through reception, where they are evaluated — medical, mental-health, education, and security review — and assigned a custody level before being moved to a permanent facility. Where that happens depends on the person:

• Men enter through MCF-St. Cloud, the statewide men’s intake facility, where each person is assigned a custody level from 1 to 5 before transfer to a long-term facility.
• Women enter through MCF-Shakopee, Minnesota’s only women’s prison, which has its own intake unit on site, so women’s reception happens at Shakopee.

Because reception assignment is the first step, the facility shown in the Offender Locator during this early period may be an intake facility rather than the person’s eventual long-term assignment.

How transfers work

The Minnesota DOC reclassifies and moves people among its prisons based on custody level, programming, and bed space. After reception, a person is typically moved to a facility that matches the assigned custody level, and further transfers can follow over the course of a sentence.

The Minnesota DOC does not generally notify families of transfers in advance. For someone tracking where a person is held, the Offender Locator above is the practical tool — checking it again after a suspected move is how a new facility is confirmed.

The Challenge Incarceration Program

Some people serve part of a sentence in the Challenge Incarceration Program (CIP), an intensive, highly structured program often described as a “boot camp.” For men, the residential phase runs at MCF-Willow River and MCF-Togo; for women, it runs through MCF-Shakopee. Later phases of the program are served in the community rather than in a prison. A move into or out of CIP is a type of transfer, so the Offender Locator is again the way to confirm where a person is currently held.

Separately, MCF-Red Wing is primarily a juvenile facility. Juvenile facilities are outside the scope of this guide.

What a transfer means for visiting

A transfer can change visiting logistics. Every visitor must be on the person’s approved visitor list, which carries over within the system, but the days, hours, and contact level depend on the facility and the person’s custody level. A move to a different prison can therefore change when and how visits happen. After a transfer, confirm the visiting schedule and visiting status at the person’s current facility. See Visiting in Minnesota.

Verify Before Acting

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