To find someone in an Alabama state prison, use the Alabama Department of Corrections inmate search; to visit or arrange parole information, you’ll work through the inmate’s assigned facility and the Board of Pardons and Paroles. This guide walks through inmate search, visitation, and parole in Alabama prisons in the order most families need them: locate the person, get approved to visit, stay in contact, and understand when they can come home.
Finding Someone in an Alabama State Prison
ADOC runs a public inmate search on its website. The fastest lookup uses the Alabama Institutional Serial number, a six-digit AIS assigned to every person in state custody.1Alabama Department of Corrections. Alabama Department of Corrections – Inmate Search Without it, search by name and narrow the results using date of birth or sentencing county.
Results show the person’s current facility. Click the name for more detail. Only people currently incarcerated appear in the database; historical records are not online. Housing assignments change without notice when someone transfers, so check again right before you mail a letter or drive to a facility.
Alabama’s system holds roughly 20,500 people in facilities built for about 12,100, running at approximately 169% of designed capacity.2Alabama Department of Corrections. Monthly Statistical Report August 2025 Transfers between the state’s 28 facilities happen often, which is another reason to verify the location before every trip.3Alabama Department of Corrections. Home Page – Alabama Dept of Corrections
Getting on the Approved Visitor List
Visitation starts inside the prison, not with you. The inmate fills out ADOC Form 303-A, the Inmate Visitation Form, and submits it to the warden for approval. Each inmate can keep up to eight people on an active visitor list and can update that list once every six months.4Alabama Department of Corrections. Administrative Regulation 303 – Visitation
Newly admitted inmates may face up to a 60-day waiting period before visitation privileges begin, though the warden can waive it in some circumstances. If you have a prior felony conviction, or you’re on parole or probation, you can only be considered for the list after two years from your release date.
Bringing a child requires ADOC Form 303-B, Request for Minor Children to Visit. The non-incarcerated parent or legal guardian completes it, has it notarized, and submits it with a birth certificate or other legal document proving the inmate’s parentage.
ID and Dress Code
Every visitor presents a government-issued photo ID from a federal, state, county, or city agency. At check-in, staff collect your full name, physical address, date of birth, driver’s license number, and phone number.
The dress code is enforced at the door. Skirts, dresses, and pants must fall no higher than three inches above the knee. Tops must cover the waist and chest. Undergarments are required. Prohibited items include tan clothing of any shade, scrub-type garments, sundresses, sleeveless shirts, shorts, stretch pants or tight-fitting trousers, house shoes, shower shoes, and sheer or see-through fabrics. Show up wearing the wrong thing and you’ll be turned away.
Scheduling
All visits must be pre-scheduled and approved. Days, hours, and length vary by facility because each warden sets the schedule around the size of the visiting area, the number of visitors, and security. There is no system-wide standard visit length. Clergy and pastoral visits are capped at one hour. Call the specific facility to confirm its schedule and any local rules before you go.
A Warning About Contraband
Bringing a weapon, escape tool, or controlled substance into a facility, or passing one to an inmate, is a Class C felony under Alabama Code 13A-10-36 and 13A-10-37, punishable by one year and a day to 10 years in prison.5Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 13A-10-36 – Promoting Prison Contraband in the First Degree6Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 13A-10-37 – Promoting Prison Contraband in the Second Degree7Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 13A-5-6 – Sentences of Imprisonment for Felonies A conviction almost always brings a permanent ban from visiting any state facility.
Mail, Phone, Messaging, and Money
Between visits, families rely on mail, calls, and digital services. Each has rules and costs worth knowing.
Address every envelope with the inmate’s full name, AIS number, facility name, housing unit, bed assignment, and facility address. Staff inspect every piece of incoming mail. If a letter is suspected of containing an unknown substance, the original is copied and the inmate receives the photocopy.8Alabama Department of Corrections. Administrative Regulation 448 – Inmate Mail
The limits are tighter than most people expect. No more than four sheets of loose-leaf paper and four envelopes per week. Up to four pages of internet printouts per letter. Up to two books and four magazines or newspapers per month. Up to two books of stamps per week. Prohibited: writing pads, torn-out magazine pages, news clippings, writing instruments, checks, and anything marked “Collect on Delivery.”
If mail is rejected, the inmate gets a written notice and can appeal to the warden. If the appeal is denied, the inmate has 30 days to return the item to the sender at their own expense before it’s destroyed.
Phone Calls and Digital Contact
Inmates initiate all calls; you cannot call in. Your number has to be on the inmate’s approved list, which the inmate submits for verification through the facility. A 15-minute domestic call runs about $3.75, or roughly $0.25 per minute.
ADOC also contracts with a vendor for electronic messaging and video visitation. Electronic messages cost about $0.15 each, photos $0.30, remote video visits about $0.16 per minute, and voicemails around $0.25 per message. Personal mail, including letters, pictures, and drawings, may be digitally delivered to inmate tablets. Rates are set by the vendor and can change; confirm current prices before funding an account.
Money
Deposits to an inmate’s trust fund go through Access Secure Deposits.9Alabama Department of Corrections. Send Money To An Inmate Internet deposit fees range from $2.95 for amounts under $25 to $7.95 for amounts between $300 and $900. Phone deposits run $3.95 to $9.95 depending on the amount. Walk-in deposits carry a flat $3.95 fee. Money orders have no fee. Credit card companies may add a cash advance charge on top of the vendor fee, which ADOC does not control. If you want the full amount to reach the inmate, a money order is the only free option.
When Can Someone Be Paroled?
Alabama releases people early through two main paths: discretionary parole granted by the Board of Pardons and Paroles, and mandatory supervised release calculated automatically by ADOC. Which one applies depends on the offense date and the sentence.
Parole Eligibility Dates
For inmates earning good time (called incentive time in Alabama), the Board sets initial consideration as follows:
- Sentences of five years or less: scheduled for the current parole docket.
- Over five up to 10 years: considered approximately 18 months before the minimum release date.
- Over 10 up to 15 years: considered approximately two and a half years before the minimum release date.
People convicted of certain Class A felonies, including murder, first-degree rape, kidnapping, and first-degree sodomy, cannot be considered until they have served 85% of their sentence or 15 years, whichever is less.10Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 15-22-28 – Investigation for Parole For everyone else outside the incentive time schedule, the initial parole date is set at one-third of the sentence or 10 years, whichever comes first.
An eligibility date is not a hearing, and a hearing is not a grant. After a denial, the Board can reset the next consideration up to two years out for nonviolent offenses with sentences of 20 years or less, or up to five years for everyone else. If no reset date is given, the person serves out the sentence with no further hearings.11Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. FAQs – Paroles
Mandatory Supervised Release
For offenses committed on or after January 30, 2016, Alabama has an automatic release that does not require a Board vote. ADOC calculates the release date by sentence length:
- Five years or less: release three to five months before the sentence ends.
- More than five but less than 10 years: six to nine months before the end.
- Ten years or more: 12 to 24 months before the end.
Child sex offenders and people serving life sentences are excluded from mandatory release entirely.12Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. Institutional Parole Services Once released, the person is supervised by the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles for the remaining time on the sentence.
Medical Parole
A separate medical parole docket exists for people who meet standard parole eligibility and are not statutorily barred. To qualify, the person must be classified as geriatric, permanently incapacitated, or terminally ill. Others may qualify if they’ve spent more than 30 days in a prison infirmary in the past year, have needed costly and frequent outside medical treatment in the past 12 months, or are suffering from a life-threatening illness with death expected within a year.
Good Time and How It Shortens a Sentence
Alabama’s Correctional Incentive Time Act lets eligible inmates earn time off based on classification level:
- Class I: 30 days of credit for every 30 days served, effectively cutting the sentence in half.
- Class II: 15 days of credit for every 30 days served.
- Class III: 5 days of credit for every 30 days served.
- Class IV: no credit earned.
A large share of the population earns nothing. People convicted of a Class A felony, anyone sentenced to life or death, anyone serving more than 15 years, those convicted of child sex offenses, and those convicted of drug distribution or most sex crimes are excluded, regardless of behavior.13Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 14-9-41 – Correctional Incentive Time Among eligible inmates, a disciplinary infraction can drop a classification from Class I to a lower level and wipe out future earning.
Why Facility Assignments Keep Changing
Overcrowding shapes daily life inside Alabama prisons and is the reason housing assignments shift so often. The centerpiece of the state’s response is the Governor Kay Ivey Correctional Complex in Elmore County, a 4,000-bed men’s prison with an estimated cost above $1.2 billion. The facility is designed with more individual cells than dorms and includes specialized medical and mental health spaces. Originally expected to open in May 2026, the project has been delayed about five months, with the current target now October 2026.
A second 4,000-bed facility in Escambia County is in planning, with the state prepared to borrow more to begin construction. Together the two would add 8,000 beds. Until those facilities open, expect transfers, roster changes, and delays in mail and visits as the department manages a system built for far fewer people than it holds.