Transfers & Finding Someone in West Virginia (WV DCR)

State prison or regional jail

West Virginia’s Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation runs both the state prisons and the regional jails, but they hold different populations. Regional jails hold people awaiting trial and people serving short (usually misdemeanor) sentences. State prisons (correctional centers) hold people serving longer felony sentences.

A newly arrested person almost always starts in a regional jail. After a felony conviction, the person is supposed to be transferred to a state prison — but transfers can be slow, and state law specifically allows a felony-sentenced person to be held in a regional jail, so a sentenced person may still be in a regional jail for a while. (As of late 2025, the regional jails were over capacity while the prisons had room, which is why the jails stay crowded.) Each kind of facility has its own visiting and other rules — these guides cover the state prisons.

Reception and classification

A newly sentenced person enters the prison system through classification:

• Women are held at the Lakin Correctional Center in West Columbia, the state’s only women’s prison, which serves all custody levels.
• Men are received and classified within the prison system — the Huttonsville Correctional Center runs the main classification and intake unit, and Mount Olive handles intake for higher-security men. West Virginia does not publish a single named reception center for men.

Finding someone

Use the WVDCR Offender Search, which has separate searches for the prisons and for the regional jails — so if the person does not appear in the prison search, check the jail search (and the reverse). Search by name or by Offender ID (OID) number. For custody and release alerts, West Virginia uses VINE — call 1-866-984-8463 or use vinelink.com — which spans the system and can send alerts on a transfer or release.

A note on the death penalty

West Virginia abolished the death penalty in 1965, so there is no death row in the state system.

Outside help

Organizations that work with West Virginia families and returning citizens — independent of the DCR — include the ACLU of West Virginia, the West Virginia Council of Churches reentry councils, the Appalachian Prison Book Project, and Mountain State Justice.

Verify Before Acting

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