Two separate commands share 19-19 Hazen Street, the women's jail and a male command called RESH, so the name the lookup returns matters more here than the address does. Start with the search below.
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New York City runs one Person in Custody Lookup for its whole jail system, and the answer it gives is the building. That is the useful answer at the Rose M. Singer Center, because this is the jail the Department of Correction identifies for female detainees and sentenced women, and because a second command operates out of the same street address. The result names which of the two, and that distinction is the reason to search rather than assume.
Two ways in, and both reach the same record.
By NYSID or Book and Case number. The NYSID is a New York State identification number. The Book and Case number is assigned by the Department of Correction at admission. Either one is exact.
By first name and last name. Most families start here, because in the first days nobody has been given a number yet. A common name returns a list to choose from.
What comes back is the person’s current location and basic case information, along with a Send Money button that routes through to the transfer agents.
This is the thing worth understanding before you read a result.
19-19 Hazen Street houses two separate commands. One is the Rose M. Singer Center, the city’s jail for women. The other is RESH, the Rose M. Singer Center Enhanced Supervised Housing, which the Department of Correction’s facilities page describes as holding male detainees in restrictive housing.
Same address on the envelope, different command on the record. So a lookup result showing 19-19 Hazen Street tells you less than the command name does, and the command name is the part to write down.
The department’s two sources disagree, and the newer one is on the lookup itself.
The facilities page says RESH currently houses male detainees in restrictive housing, and adds that enhanced supervision units are reserved for people found guilty of disciplinary charges while in custody.
The lookup carries a notice saying RESH currently houses both people in restrictive housing and general population, and that people housed in RESH general population are not subject to restrictive status.
A family reading only the facilities page would take a RESH result as meaning restrictive housing. The notice on the lookup says that is not necessarily so. Where two official sources conflict, the one attached to the live tool is the more current, and it is also the kinder reading.
The envelope needs three things: her full name, her Book and Case number, and the full name and address of the jail she is in. The lookup supplies two of the three.
Getting the jail name right is not a formality here. Six jails operate on Rikers Island, each with its own number on Hazen Street, and this is the only one the department names for women. If a search returns a different building, the address on your envelope changes with it.
The tool states its own limit: it is not for persons in custody in police, state, or federal custody.
Somebody arrested by the New York Police Department stays in police custody through arrest, processing and arraignment. Until the Department of Correction books her in, she is not in this system and the search returns nothing. No timing is published for how long that takes, so there is no interval to wait out, only a process still running.
That first empty result is the one that frightens people most and means the least.
A state sentence moves a woman out of city custody and into the New York State system, where a different lookup applies. Federal custody is a third system again.
So a record that disappears from this tool has usually moved rather than vanished. What changes with it is the address, the visiting rules and the deposit route, none of which carry over from the city system.
There is no notification to families when a person is moved between buildings on the island, and the department publishes nothing suggesting otherwise.
Running the search again before each letter, each deposit and each visit is the only way to catch a move, and it takes about a minute.
6 of 8 questions
Yes. The New York City Person in Custody Lookup takes a first name and a last name, which is how most families start because nobody has a Book and Case number in the first days. A common name returns a list. The result names the command, and for the women's jail that reads Rose M. Singer Center.
Inmate SearchRESH is the Rose M. Singer Center Enhanced Supervised Housing, a separate command operating at the same 19-19 Hazen Street address. The department's facilities page describes it as holding male detainees in restrictive housing. Sharing an address does not make it the same jail, and the command name on the record is the part that matters.
Inmate SearchNot necessarily. The lookup carries a notice saying RESH currently houses both people in restrictive housing and general population, and that those in RESH general population are not subject to restrictive status. That notice is newer than the facilities page description, so read it rather than assuming the worse of the two.
Inmate SearchIt is the one the Department of Correction identifies for female detainees and sentenced women in custody. The city's previous women's jail, the Correctional Institution for Women, became a men's detention centre when this building opened in 1988 and closed altogether in 2018.
Inmate SearchHer full name, her Book and Case number and the full name and address of the jail she is in. The lookup gives you the Book and Case number and the jail, so one search supplies everything the envelope needs except the name you already have.
Mail & PhotosBecause the lookup covers Department of Correction custody rather than police custody, and says so on the tool. Through arrest, processing and arraignment she is with the police and will not appear. The department publishes no booking timeline, so an early empty result means the process is still running.
Inmate SearchMost often a sentence. A state sentence moves someone out of city custody and into the New York State system, which has its own separate lookup, and federal custody is a third system again. The record has usually moved rather than disappeared, and the address, visiting rules and deposit route all change with it.
Inmate SearchNo. The department publishes nothing describing family notification for a transfer between jails on the island, so the search is the only notification available. Checking before each letter, each deposit and each visit is what keeps you from finding out the expensive way.
Inmate SearchNo application and no approved list, but the surname decides the day.
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All information on this page comes directly from official government and facility sources. How we verify information › Last verified September 16, 2026.