What are New Jersey Inmate Records?

New Jersey inmate records are the documents and files that follow an offender through the state’s criminal justice system. They begin with an arrest at the level of local law enforcement. They proceed through the courts and then finally jail or prison. These records are created along the way from various agencies and events.

Typically, inmate records will include the offender’s name, date of birth, gender, race, and age. They may also have things like mugshots, fingerprints, DNA samples, police reports, citations, arrest warrants, and court documents. Often each offense and the corresponding records will be included.

The New Jersey Department of Corrections is the agency in charge of all inmate records, inmates, and facilities. They make it easy for the public to access many inmate records. Others may be more difficult to locate.

New Jersey Prison and Jail System

The state of New Jersey has 12 state prisons spread across the state. It also has 14 assessment and treatment facilities for intake and rehabilitation. The New Jersey Department of Corrections manages all facilities and is responsible for the inmates.

New Jersey also has 21 local county jails that hold pretrial inmates and those serving short sentences (usually less than one year). There are roughly 19,000 people in prison in New Jersey and another 15,000 in local jails.

How to Search for Inmates in New Jersey

The New Jersey Department of Corrections has an offender locator on their website where the public can search for someone incarcerated in the state. The search criteria include SBI number, name, aliases, sex, race, hair and eye color, county, and facility. You can also designate birthdate and age to narrow down the results.

The results will show a list with a mugshot, SBI number, name, gender, race, county, facility, and admission date. You can click on the SBI number for further details.

The extra information will show more detail about the inmate, including where they are held and what security level. It also shows aliases, dates of incarceration, and other facilities and details about his or her crimes.

You can also use a tool like InfoTracer to search for inmates in New Jersey easily. Sometimes local jails provide inmate rosters so that you can find inmates that way too. 

Types of Jails in New Jersey

How to Contact, Send Money to or Visit an Inmate in New Jersey

Inmates in New Jersey are allowed to use the JPay system for email, banking, and to make purchases of books, music, and even stamps. To send money to an inmate to fund these items, you can pay with a money order and send the receipt to JPay, P.O. Box 170770, Hialeah, FL 33017.

New Jersey uses the Global Tel Link (GTL) system for inmate phone calls. Inmates may make outgoing calls only and can have up to 10 people on their call list. You can fund an inmate’s GTL account by following the instructions on this page.

To visit an inmate, you must follow all the rules and be pre-approved. Consult this list to find your loved one.

New Jersey Counties