Why Your Inmate Search Might be Unsuccessful
If your loved one is incarcerated, it can be hard to locate them without a proper inmate search tool. These tools provide information such as the incarceration facility, their booking date, charges, and other relevant details. Additionally, the inmate search helps maintain contact with your loved one through visitations and mail exchanges.
However, there are some cases where inmate searches may be unsuccessful. This scenario arises when the search engine fails to generate the desired search results and instead returns wrong, inaccurate, or no results.
Read on to understand the common mistakes you make when performing inmate searches and what you can do to avoid them.
What are the Basic Requirements for an Inmate Search Process?
To locate an inmate, you’ll need to provide some information before you can use any of the available search procedures, tools, or agencies. This basic search information constitutes the foundation of prisoner records, which will be applicable across all search tools.
The essential data is the offender’s name and inmate ID number. Often, the latter option is unique in the particular state, making it the most accurate search option. For the name search option, you can combine the first and last names or use them separately; it all depends on your search tool and state.
Nonetheless, depending on your website, search tool, and approach, you may have to provide more details. The additional data contains some of the offender’s personal information, such as their date of birth, age, race, sex, and gender. For narrower results, you may have to provide specifics like hair and eye color as well as tattoos.
Why Your Inmate Search Might be Unsuccessful
There are several reasons why your attempted inmate search process was unsuccessful. The most common ones include the following:
Providing the Incorrect Name
Providing an incorrect inmate’s name will result in an unsuccessful search. This could be a mistake in spelling the inmate’s name or clicking on the wrong inmate with the same name. It is a common mistake people make, primarily if the website doesn’t provide mugshots.
How Can You Correct this Mistake?
The best way to correct this error is to utilize the option for narrowing the searches. It involves combining the inmate’s first, middle, and last names for more accurate and narrower results.
You can also combine the search with identifying information like the date of birth and county of conviction (if you know these details). Even better, aliases help identify specific inmates, so if your search tool has the option, ensure you take advantage of it!
However, searches for inmates in county jails seldom operate this way; you’ll have to contact the appropriate authorities, such as the county sheriff, for further details.
Note that you must double-check the information you provide to ensure it’s correct to prevent errors resulting from inputting the wrong information.
Providing the Wrong Inmate Number
Inmate numbers, also known as identification numbers or prisoner numbers, are unique to each inmate. Their purpose is to track inmate movement and can be important in the inmate search process. If you enter the wrong number, the search results will not be accurate. This includes leaving out some digits or inputting the wrong number in full.
However, the VINE system allows you to provide at least the first four digits of the number when conducting a partial search.
In some cases, an inmate search tool, like the BOP inmate locator, may have multiple search options. The reason is that the BOP system also houses out-of-state inmates from other agencies. These search options include the following:
- Bureau of Prisons Register Number
- Federal Bureau of Investigations Number
- District of Columbia Department of Correction Number
- Immigration and Naturalization Service’s number
How to Correct this Mistake
The best option to correct this mistake is to double-check the number before you search. Also, ensure you input the full number unless you’re searching via VINE.
For the BOP number search, pay attention to the details surrounding your loved one’s incarceration to establish which of the four search options to use. This means that even though you have the correct number, inputting it in the incorrect database or search field will yield no results.
Mistakes When Using Advanced Search Options
Lately, correctional departments have included an advanced search option on their databases. This is necessary to help victims and survivors identify offenders based on their physical description.
This option allows you to provide the following details:
- Estimated Height
- Tattoo Description
- Age
- Skin and Eye Color
- Scars
- Race
With this information, the database will narrow the search results to a particular inmate or inmates.
However, in many cases, it can be hard to be accurate when providing this information. As a result, the search engine barely returns desired search results. For example, if a physical description is incorrect, the results may include information about totally different inmates than the one you’re looking for.
How Can You Correct this Mistake?
The best way to correct this mistake is to be sure of the description you provide. You can also avoid information like height and age and instead provide details like hair color, scars, tattoos, and eye color. These are hard-to-miss details.
Alternatively, you may decide to use the advanced search option in conjunction with another option, let’s say, name search. This way, you’ll significantly reduce the error margin.
Relying on Third-Party Websites
Using third-party websites for inmate searches is common, but it can also lead to unsuccessful searches. While these websites can be convenient and easily accessible, they may not always provide accurate or up-to-date information.
Here are some of the reasons why relying on them may be problematic:
- Data Accuracy: Third-party websites rely on information from varying public sources. This information can be incomplete or incorrect. As a result, your search results will be inaccurate or may miss certain details about an inmate.
- Data Security: Some websites may be vulnerable to cyber-attacks, which can compromise offender data as well as your personal information during the search process.
- Data Quality: Usually, third-party websites lack the same resources as official government databases. This makes the search limited and, in some cases, outdated. Moreover, you may find the search algorithms for some of these sites sophisticated, which could hinder a successful inmate lookup process.
How to Correct these Mistakes
When using third-party websites, you should always verify the information you get from the incarceration facility. Alternatively, you can crosscheck the info you get between the following third-party websites:
Mistakes When Utilizing Search Engines
Sometimes, using search engines may be challenging for some people, resulting in unsuccessful searches. For instance, there are different corrections systems, each with its own database and search tool. When you search for an inmate in a state prison in the BOP’s database, the process will be unsuccessful, and vice versa.
Additionally, some people select the wrong state when conducting inmate searches, especially when using third-party websites. Most sites require the user to choose the state of interest from a list of states, and selecting the wrong one will generate incorrect information.
How to Correct this Mistake
The best way is to verify the state of interest before beginning the search process. This also applies when locating inmates in county correctional facilities.
Other Steps to Improve the Search Process
Understand the Prison and Jail Systems
If it’s your first time conducting an inmate search, the first step should be to familiarize yourself with the entire prison and jail system. This way, you’ll know which authority is responsible for your loved one’s incarceration, making the search process more straightforward. The most common mistake that searchers make is to try and locate a single inmate in the entire incarceration database.
The following are the typical detention and imprisonment jails and prisons in the United States:
- Municipal or city jails
- County or regional jails
- State prisons
- Federal prisons
- ICE detention facilities
What Types of Inmates Do These Facilities Hold?
Municipal or City Jails
These facilities are temporary holding centers for arrestees. Individuals spend a short time here, usually not exceeding one week. Afterward, the authorities transfer them to county jails for court hearings.
County Jails
County jails house individuals serving time for medium-term sentences not exceeding one year. They also accommodate individuals awaiting trial or sentencing, including those unable to make bail. Other times, the state’s Department of Corrections may contract with a particular county jail to house offenders awaiting trial or sentencing.
State Prisons
State prisons are home to inmates serving time for breaching state laws, and their sentences often exceed one year. State prisons are of three types, depending on their security level: maximum, medium, and minimum.
Federal Prisons
This is the highest incarceration level in the country. The facilities are run and managed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and house convicts of federal crimes. Such people have breached federal laws, or their security needs are impossible to meet at the state level.
ICE Detention Facilities
ICE detention facilities are under the management of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They house individuals who are awaiting deportation or those who break immigration laws.
The duration arrestees spend in these facilities varies depending on the individual’s immigration case and can range from a few days to several months or longer.
