South Dakota Inmate Search

South Dakota holds state prisoners under the South Dakota Department of Corrections at the South Dakota State Penitentiary and its Jameson Annex in Sioux Falls, the Mike Durfee State Prison in Springfield, the South Dakota Women's Prison in Pierre and minimum units in Rapid City, Yankton and Sioux Falls. County jails run by the 66 sheriffs hold pretrial detainees and sentences of up to a year, and the Minnehaha County Jail in Sioux Falls and the Pennington County Jail in Rapid City are the largest.

The DOC Offender Locator is the state lookup. It covers people in state custody and people on parole supervised by the Department, keyed to the name or the DOC number.

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

The South Dakota Offender Locator returns the DOC number, name, date of birth, race and sex, the facility or the parole office, the status, the parole eligibility date and each offense with the county and sentence. Photographs are not shown. A search by last name works statewide; the DOC number narrows a common name. Probation in South Dakota belongs to the courts, so probationers are not in the locator.

• South Dakota DOC Offender LocatorSearch South Dakota prisoners and parolees by name or DOC number, checked September 25, 2026
• South Dakota Department of CorrectionsFacilities, visiting, mail, phone and money deposits, checked September 25, 2026
• South Dakota Board of Pardons and ParolesParole hearing schedules, decisions and clemency, checked September 25, 2026
• VINELink South DakotaCustody alerts for South Dakota county jails and state prisons, checked September 25, 2026

The Minnehaha County Jail in Sioux Falls posts an inmate roster with booking dates, charges and bond, as do the Pennington County Jail in Rapid City, the Brown County Jail in Aberdeen, the Codington County Detention Center in Watertown, the Hughes County Jail in Pierre, the Lincoln County Jail in Canton and the Brookings County Detention Center. Sioux Falls Police, Rapid City Police and the South Dakota Highway Patrol book into the county jail of the arrest.

• South Dakota County Sheriff DirectorySheriff offices and jail rosters for all 66 counties
• South Dakota Police DepartmentsCity police and Highway Patrol records
• South Dakota Criminal RecordsCriminal history through the Division of Criminal Investigation
• South Dakota Most WantedWanted persons and outstanding warrants

South Dakota's open records law, chapter 1-27 of the South Dakota Codified Laws, makes the custody record public: name, DOC number, facility, offenses, sentence and parole date. The Department does not post photographs, and sheriffs decide locally whether to release booking photos. Medical and mental health records, the pre-sentence investigation, classification and disciplinary files and Board of Pardons and Paroles case files are exempt. Criminal history from the Division of Criminal Investigation requires fingerprints and goes to the subject or authorized employers; the public uses the Unified Judicial System's record search, which charges a fee per search.

The Board of Pardons and Paroles hears prisoners at the parole eligibility date and reviews clemency, and the Department's parole services agents supervise releases from offices in Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Pierre, Aberdeen and other towns. Probation is run by court services officers of the Unified Judicial System, so probationers appear in court records. South Dakota's presumptive parole rules release many prisoners at the eligibility date without a hearing if they have complied with their program. The judgment sits with the clerk of courts of the convicting county.

• South Dakota Court RecordsUnified Judicial System record searches by county
• South Dakota ExpungementsExpungement of arrests and certain convictions under SDCL 23A-3-26

If the South Dakota locator returns nothing, check the Minnehaha County Jail roster for a Sioux Falls arrest, the Pennington County Jail for Rapid City or the roster for the county of arrest, since pending cases and sentences of up to a year stay in the jail. A probationer is supervised by court services and appears in court records. Check the Unified Judicial System record search 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 South Dakota's state-level records. They are the authoritative sources you should cross-check when South Dakota 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).