How to Find Someone Incarcerated in North Dakota
When a friend or loved one is serving time in North Dakota, the prison or jail administration encourages the family to stay in touch with the inmates throughout their incarceration. And the first step to doing this is by locating the offender within the prison system. Luckily, most holding facilities in North Dakota provide numerous ways to perform a North Dakota inmate search. Let’s check them out below: -
1. Statewide Inmate Search
North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (ND DOCR) has an elaborate statewide inmate lookup, providing access to information on all inmates incarcerated in North Dakota. Below are the steps for using the resident lookup to find someone incarcerated in North Dakota: -
- Go to https://www.docr.nd.gov/resident-lookup
- Type the offender’s last name or initials of their last names in the search box at the bottom of the page
- Click ‘Submit’
- The search query will generate details of all inmates whose last name or initials match the name you provided. The inmate details will include: -
- Name
- Mug shot
- Date of birth
- Estimated release date
- Facility
The statewide lookup excludes information about inmates in an out-of-state facility.
2. Online City and County Jail Rosters
Most North Dakota law enforcement agencies have online inmate locators on their official websites. The online link gives access to the up-to-date jail rosters for the county and city jails. Hence, anyone can click on the available link to view the current inmate listing and download or print it for further analysis. The inmate listing provides such details as the offender’s name and mug shot, booking number, date, and time, charges, arresting agency, disposition, sentencing judge, and holding facility. Most online jail rosters are updated daily.
3. In-Person Inmate Search
Even though most North Dakota police departments and Sheriff’s Offices have online jail rosters accessible to the public, some law enforcement agencies prefer to maintain their inmate listings offline. Plus, an online jail roster may not reflect the details of an offender arrested on a weekend, public holiday, or late at night. Then, if your online search for someone incarcerated in North Dakota is unsuccessful, consider booking an appointment with the arresting law enforcement agency to scrutinize the jail roster in person. Call the jail administrator during business hours to schedule the meeting.
North Dakota Jails Roster
There are 24 jails in North Dakota. Each jail has an inmate roster comprising an up-to-date list of offenders received, currently held, or recently released from North Dakota city or county jails. Still, the jail rosters exclude arrestees undergoing the booking process until they are assigned a booking number. Through them, family and friends can confirm if their loved ones arrested by local law enforcement agencies are in custody.
North Dakota Prison System
As of 2021, there were 11,000 North people behind bars or under conditional release in North Dakota. These offenders served their time in state and federal prisons, local jails, and criminal justice supervision, making up the North Dakota prison system.
1. State Prisons
The North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (ND DOCR) oversees all the state prisons in North Dakota. They include five adult facilities, one juvenile detention center, parole and probation offices, and three transitional facilities.
There were 1,689 inmates in North Dakota state prisons by the end of 2021. Most felons were violent offenders sentenced to an average of 36.32 years. Likewise, 5,859 offenders were on supervised probation, and another 641 were on parole.
2. Federal Prisons
North Dakota has no federal prisons.
3. City and County Jails
There are 53 counties in North Dakota. The counties have 24 city and county jails booking at least 13,000 persons each year. They include pretrial detainees awaiting court arraignment or bail settlement and sentenced detainees due for a transfer to state prisons or serving short sentences of less than 12 months.
4. Juvenile Justice Facilities
The Division of Juvenile Services in North Dakota operates a juvenile detention center and eight other regional community based services for the custody of delinquent youth committed to the facilities by the Juvenile Court. The juvenile facilities opt for community based correctional approach to find appropriate placement of the youth in community services.
5. Transitional Facilities
Finally, there are three transitional living facilities for alternative imprisonment programs in North Dakota. The facilities address such individual needs as individualized treatments, counseling, and social re-integration for inmates transitioning to parole or probation.
