The Federal Bureau of Prisons was formed in 1930. The Federal Bureau of Prisons oversees 116 federal prisons within the United States of America. People that are convicted of violating federal laws are sent to federal prison. You will also be held in a federal prison while you are awaiting trail if you are faced with federal charges; you will not be sent to a regular county jail to await trial.

An inmate must be accused of committing a federal crime to appear in the database. Therefore, it is not possible to do a federal prison inmate search on anyone that is in a county or state facility. It is also necessary to know that if a person was charged with a federal crime, but charges were dismissed they will still appear in the federal prison inmate search database.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons started making a public database available in 1982. Therefore, you can search for a federal inmate that was incarcerated from 1982 to present day. If you would like to locate an inmate released before 1983 you will need to contact the Federal Bureau of Prisons directly for information via postal mail (see address at the end of this article). You must include in your letter the inmates full name including middle initial, date of birth or approximate age at the time of incarceration, race, and estimated range of dates that they were in federal prison.

If you are searching for an inmate that was arrested after 1982, it is easiest to find out information by using an online federal prison inmate search tool. If you use an online federal prison inmate search tool, you will have the information that you are searching for within a matter of minutes.

Federal inmate searches are easier to perform than state and county inmate searches. You can search within the Federal inmate search system by one of two methods, search by ID number or search by name. When searching by ID number you will need one of the following: register number, DCDC number, FBI number, or INS number. If you search by name it is required that a first and last name is inputed. It is also helpful, but remember not necessary, if you have the inmates middle name, race, sex, or age as well.

When a search is performed on the federal inmate search tool there may be several matches. You can look at the provided information to figure out which is the inmate that you are searching for. Included in the search results will be the inmates full name, register number, age, race, sex, and release date. Keep in mind that the release date may be the actual date of release or estimated date of release. It depends on many factors such parole approval or if they incur any additional charges.

In our day and age ,there is no longer a reason to wonder where an inmate is or what their ID numbers are so that you can write them a letter, simply use a legitimate federal inmate search tool.

Request written information about inmates incarcerated before 1982 at:

Federal Bureau of Prisons

Office of Communications and Archives

Attn: Historic Inmate Locator Request

320 First St, N.W.

Washington, DC 20534.