Find an Inmate at Lakin Correctional Center

It depends on her status. If she has been sentenced and moved to state prison, use the WVDCR Offender Search for Prisons at apps.wv.gov/ois/offendersearch/doc. If she is being held before trial or serving a short jail sentence, use the Offender Search for Jails at apps.wv.gov/OIS/OffenderSearch/RJA/Offender. These are two separate databases. A name in one will not appear in the other.

For the prison search, enter either the first four digits of her Offender ID (OID) number, or the first three letters of both her first and last name. You do not need the full name, and three letters of each works better when you are unsure of the spelling.

Women arrested in West Virginia go to a regional jail first, not to Lakin. She stays there through her case. Only after sentencing to state prison does she transfer to Lakin, and that can take weeks. Until then, check the jails search or the Daily Incarcerations list at apps.wv.gov/OIS/OffenderSearch/RJA/Daily.

WVDCR states this message means the person is no longer in their custody, either discharged or moved out of the system. The prison search only covers people currently in prison or on active parole. It is not a historical record.

Yes. Lakin is the only all-female prison WVDCR operates. If you know she received a state prison sentence in West Virginia, you can be confident about the facility before the database catches up. Custody levels at Lakin run minimum through maximum, so her classification does not change the facility.

The WVDCR prison search result includes a photo when one is on file. Booking photos from her original arrest are held by the arresting county, not by Lakin, and West Virginia does not publish a statewide mugshot database. Sites that charge to show you a mugshot are not official and are often working from old records.

Lakin received its first inmates on January 29, 2003. Before that West Virginia had no single women's prison and women in state custody were spread across several facilities. Records predating 2003 will show a different location.

Call (304) 674-2440 and ask for the records office. Lakin runs as both a correctional center and a jail, which is unusual in the WVDCR system, and staff can tell you which population she is in.

Search the name on her official ID, which is what WVDCR has on file. That may be a maiden name or a former married name. The three-letter minimum helps here: try three letters of each version, or call (304) 674-2440 and ask records to check both.