Clinton Correctional Facility Inmate Search

The Statewide Tool

Go to nysdoccslookup.doccs.ny.gov. Two routes in.

By DIN, if you already have it. Exact, and fastest.

By name, if you do not. Last name and first name. Try the legal name before any nickname, and try alternative spellings before assuming someone is not there.

A result names the facility. It does not give a housing unit or a cell, and no New York result does, though the unit matters at Clinton for visiting times.

The DIN, and Where It Goes

The search returns a DIN, the Department Identification Number.

Needed for	Why
The envelope to P.O. Box 2001	Mail without a name and DIN cannot be sorted
The JPay deposit slip	Money is matched to the DIN, not to a name
The visiting desk	Staff work from the number
Any call to the prison	The first thing you will be asked

Write it down properly. Everything after this is easier with it in front of you.

Three Places Called Clinton

This is the part that costs people letters and journeys.

	Clinton Correctional Facility	Clinton County Jail	Clinton County Correctional Facility
Run by	New York State DOCCS	Clinton County Sheriff	Clinton County, Pennsylvania
Where	Dannemora, NY	Plattsburgh, NY	Lock Haven, PA
Address	1156 Route 374	25 McCarthy Drive	A different state entirely
Mail	P.O. Box 2001, Dannemora	25 McCarthy Drive
Phone	518-492-2511	518-565-4300

The first two are about fifteen miles apart, in the same county, and neither is a branch of the other. One is a maximum security state prison. One is the county’s own jail, holding people awaiting trial and serving short sentences. Mail, deposits, visiting rules and phone arrangements are different at each.

The third is in Pennsylvania and turns up in searches only because the words match.

Clinton County also holds a second state prison, Altona Correctional Facility, a medium security prison in the far north of the county. The same statewide lookup covers both, and our Altona inmate lookup walks through it for Altona.

The facility name on your lookup result settles it. If the result says Clinton Correctional Facility, you want Dannemora and P.O. Box 2001.

Not a County Roster

The DOCCS lookup covers state prisons only.

Someone awaiting trial, serving under a year, or recently arrested will usually be held in a county jail, and each county runs its own roster separately. If a name does not come back from the statewide tool, that is the first place to look, and in this county it is Plattsburgh rather than Dannemora.

It works in the other direction too. People move from county custody into a state prison after sentencing, so someone who was in the county jail last month may be at Clinton now.

If the Name Does Not Appear

Four ordinary explanations, in the order worth trying.

1. Spelling. Legal name first, then variants.
2. Not in state custody yet. Sentencing comes before transfer.
3. Moved. New York transfers people and the lookup follows them, so search again instead of assuming the last known prison.
4. County or federal custody. Different systems and different tools.

Results Change When People Move

New York moves people between prisons and the lookup keeps up.

At this distance that matters more than usual. Dannemora is three hours from Albany and the better part of six from New York City, so a transfer you have not noticed turns a long day into a wasted one.

Check the lookup before you post a letter, before you deposit money and before you set off. It takes under a minute.

Once You Have the Number

With the DIN written down, everything else follows. Pigeonly takes the name and the facility and handles letters and photos from your phone, addressed to P.O. Box 2001 and not the box beside it.