Missouri

The Missouri Department of Corrections runs the state’s prison system — 19 adult prisons, all state-operated, holding roughly 23,000 to 24,000 people (17 institutions for men and two for women). The department’s materials generally use the word offender; this site uses neutral terms.

Where a person is held turns first on the sentence. A person sentenced to state time is held in a Missouri DOC prison; people awaiting trial or serving shorter sentences are held in a county jail run by one of Missouri’s counties, which sets its own visiting, mail, and phone rules and is not listed in the state’s offender search.

Newly committed people are processed at a reception and diagnostic center first. Men enter through one of three regional centers — the Fulton Reception and Diagnostic Center, the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center (ERDCC) in Bonne Terre, or the Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center (WRDCC) in St. Joseph — and women enter through the Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center (WERDCC) in Vandalia, before transfer to a permanent prison, so the prison shown in the locator may change. Missouri has an active death penalty and carries out executions regularly: the execution chamber is at ERDCC in Bonne Terre, men under a death sentence are housed at the Potosi Correctional Center near Mineral Point, and a woman under a death sentence would be held at WERDCC.

To find where someone is held, use the state’s offender search by name or DOC ID number; it covers people in Missouri DOC custody, not county-jail detainees. If a person is not listed, they may be in a county jail — search that county’s roster. Since July 2022, incoming personal mail no longer goes to the prison — Missouri routes it to an off-site Securus digital-mail center that scans it to the person’s tablet (see the mail guide). Use the guides below for the statewide rules at Missouri prisons, or go straight to a specific facility.