Kentucky Inmate Search

Kentucky is unusual in two ways. Its jails are run by elected county jailers rather than by sheriffs, and the state houses a large share of its prison population in those county jails: a person sentenced to prison for a lower class felony in Kentucky often serves the whole sentence in a county detention center under contract with the Department of Corrections. State prisons include the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, the Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange, Luther Luckett, Northpoint, Green River, Eastern Kentucky, Western Kentucky and the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Pewee Valley.

The state lookup is KOOL, the Kentucky Online Offender Lookup. It covers state inmates wherever they are housed and people on probation and parole.

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

• Kentucky Department of Corrections
• Kentucky Offender Online Lookup
• Kentucky Death Row Inmates
• Kentucky Prison Escape Notification Service

KOOL returns the name, photograph, date of birth, race and sex, the current location, which may be a state prison, a county detention center or a probation and parole office, the custody status, the parole eligibility date, the minimum expiration date, the maximum expiration date and the offenses with the sentencing county and sentence. A KOOL search by name works statewide; the DOC number narrows it when the name is common. The system does not show people held in a county jail on local charges only.

• KOOL, Kentucky Online Offender LookupSearch Kentucky state inmates, probationers and parolees, checked September 25, 2026
• Kentucky Department of CorrectionsInstitutions, county jail contracts, visiting, mail and money deposits, checked September 25, 2026
• Kentucky Parole BoardParole hearing schedules, decisions and victim notification, checked September 25, 2026
• VINELink KentuckyCustody alerts for Kentucky jails and prisons, checked September 25, 2026

Louisville Metro Department of Corrections runs the Jefferson County jail and posts an inmate search with charges and bond. The Fayette County Detention Center in Lexington, the Kenton County Detention Center in Covington, the Warren County Regional Jail in Bowling Green, the Daviess County Detention Center in Owensboro and the Boone County jail all post rosters, and many smaller detention centers use a shared jail tracker system. Kentucky State Police book into the county detention center of the arrest.

• Kentucky County Sheriff DirectorySheriffs, county jailers and detention center rosters for all 120 counties
• Kentucky Police DepartmentsCity police records and arrest logs
• Kentucky Criminal RecordsCriminal history through the Administrative Office of the Courts
• Kentucky Most WantedFugitives and outstanding warrants

The Kentucky Open Records Act, KRS 61.870 and following, makes the custody record public, and KOOL posts photographs, offenses and release dates. County jailers publish booking photos. Medical and mental health files, the pre-sentence investigation, classification and disciplinary records and Parole Board case files are exempt. Kentucky's public criminal history check comes from the Administrative Office of the Courts, which sells a name based court record report online, rather than from the state police.

The Kentucky Parole Board hears every eligible prisoner when the parole eligibility date arrives, and KOOL shows that date along with the minimum and maximum expiration dates of the sentence. The DOC Division of Probation and Parole supervises releases and felony probationers from district offices statewide, and those people appear in KOOL with the office shown as the location. The judgment sits with the circuit clerk of the convicting county and the Kentucky Court of Justice posts case information through CourtNet.

• Kentucky Court RecordsCircuit and district court case searches
• Kentucky ExpungementsExpungement of misdemeanors and Class D felonies under KRS 431.073

If KOOL returns nothing, the person is held on local charges only: check the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections inmate search, the Fayette County Detention Center in Lexington or the detention center for the county of arrest, most of which use the shared jail tracker. Check CourtNet for the case, the federal Bureau of Prisons locator for a federal case and VINELink for a recent release.

These federal and national sources complement Kentucky's state-level records. They are the authoritative sources you should cross-check when Kentucky 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).