California Inmate Search

California holds tens of thousands of people in state prisons run by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and tens of thousands more in county jails. Since the 2011 realignment law, many people convicted of lower level felonies serve their full sentence in a county jail rather than in prison, so a felony conviction no longer means the person is in the CDCR system. Check both.

The CDCR search tool is CIRIS, the California Incarcerated Records and Information Search, which replaced the older Inmate Locator. It runs on the CDCR number or the last name and covers every state prison, fire camp and contract facility.

Official sources on this page were checked on September 25, 2026.

CIRIS returns the incarcerated person's name, CDCR number, age, admission date, current location and, for people with an indeterminate or long sentence, the parole eligible date and the next Board of Parole Hearings date. It does not show the offense or the sentence length; those come from the county court file. Names are common in a system this size, so use the CDCR number whenever you have it. People in county jail under realignment, in federal custody, or on parole are not in CIRIS.

• CIRIS, California Incarcerated Records and Information SearchSearch CDCR prisons by CDCR number or last name, checked September 25, 2026
• California Department of Corrections and RehabilitationPrison list, visiting, mail, money and phone rules, checked September 25, 2026
• Board of Parole HearingsHearing schedules, results and victim notification, checked September 25, 2026
• VINELink CaliforniaCustody alerts for participating California county jails, checked September 25, 2026

County sheriffs run the jails, and the largest publish detailed online lookups. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Inmate Information Center covers Men's Central Jail, Twin Towers and the Century Regional Detention Facility. The San Diego County Sheriff's Who Is In Jail search, the Orange County Sheriff's inmate locator, the San Bernardino County inmate locator, the Riverside County jail information search, the Sacramento County inmate search and the Santa Clara and Alameda County lookups work the same way, by name or booking number, with charges, bail and court dates. San Francisco's sheriff runs the city jails.

• California County Sheriff DirectorySheriff offices and jail lookups for all 58 counties
• California Police DepartmentsCity police records and arrest logs
• California Criminal RecordsCriminal history through the California Department of Justice
• California Most WantedFugitives and outstanding warrants

The California Public Records Act, Government Code section 7920.000 and following, keeps the basic custody record open, and Penal Code section 832.7 and related rules limit what law enforcement releases beyond booking information. CDCR does not post photographs in CIRIS. Booking photos are handled by each sheriff, and since 2022 California restricts police from posting booking photos of people arrested for nonviolent offenses on social media. Medical, mental health, classification, gang validation and disciplinary records are confidential. Criminal history reports come only from the Department of Justice for the subject and authorized employers.

The Board of Parole Hearings decides release for people serving life terms and reviews certain elderly and youth offender cases; most determinate sentences end with release to parole supervised by the CDCR Division of Adult Parole Operations, or to post release community supervision run by the county probation department under realignment. Court records for the conviction are held by the superior court of the county, most of which offer an online case index.

• California Court RecordsSuperior court case searches by county
• California ExpungementsDismissals under Penal Code 1203.4 and automatic record relief

If CIRIS returns nothing, the person may be serving a felony sentence in a county jail under realignment or may be on probation: check the sheriff's inmate lookup for the county of conviction, starting with Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino or Riverside, and the superior court case index. Check the federal Bureau of Prisons locator for a federal case and VINELink for a recent release from a participating county.

These federal and national sources complement California's state-level records. They are the authoritative sources you should cross-check when California state records are incomplete or out-of-state activity matters.

Federal BOP, Inmate Locator The Federal Bureau of Prisons locator returns federal inmates held since 1982 in any BOP facility, contract facility, or community corrections center.

VINELink, Victim Notification Operated by Appriss for the U.S. Department of Justice's victim-notification program. Free, anonymous registration for custody-change alerts across participating states.

U.S. Marshals, Prisoner Tracking The USMS Prisoner Tracking System is the authoritative source for federal detainees in pre-trial custody (before BOP designation).