New Jersey

The New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) runs the state’s nine adult state prisons and holds about 12,500 people, as of early 2026. The system has shrunk by more than half since 2011, and several prisons have closed over that time. The agency refers to people in its custody as incarcerated persons.

The line between a state prison and a county jail is sentence length. A sentence of more than one year is served in an NJDOC state prison; a sentence of 364 days or less, and almost all detention before trial, is served in a county jail run by that county. So a person awaiting trial or serving a short sentence is held in a county jail, not a state prison — and that county sets its own rules.

Men are held across eight prisons: New Jersey State Prison in Trenton (the state’s maximum-security prison and its oldest), East Jersey State Prison in Rahway, Northern State Prison in Newark, South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton (the largest), Bayside State Prison near Leesburg, Mid-State Correctional Facility (a substance-use treatment prison on the Fort Dix grounds), the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility (for younger adults), and the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel (for men in court-ordered sex-offender treatment). Women are held at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Hunterdon County — the state’s only women’s prison, which New Jersey is in the process of replacing: some women have been moved to a nearby satellite unit, and a new women’s prison is under construction. New Jersey abolished the death penalty in 2007, so there is no death row.

To find where a person is held in state custody, search the NJDOC Offender Search by name or SBI number — New Jersey identifies each person by an SBI number (a State Bureau of Identification number) — and New Jersey also takes part in VINELink for custody and release notifications. If a person does not appear in the NJDOC search, they are likely in a county jail (awaiting trial or serving a short sentence), so contact that county’s jail. Use the guides below for the statewide rules at NJDOC prisons, or go straight to a specific facility.