South Carolina Inmate Search

In South Carolina, if someone is found guilty of a crime the judges will sentence them to jail imprisonment, fine, community service, or a combination. 

Inmates in South Carolina are incarcerated in various institutions depending on the laws they break. The process usually starts with the arrest of a suspect who is sent to a detention center. Most of the detention centers in the state are county jails. There are 54 county jails spread across all counties in the states. They hold pretrial inmates and those serving short sentences for misdemeanor offenses. 

Most violent crime offenders and murder inmates are sent to the 22 state jails, while underage offenders serve time in the two county juvenile centers. Those who have committed crimes in multiple states or broken federal laws are sent to the four federal prisons in the state. The state prisons and federal jails are classified according to the security level, such as high security, medium security, minimum security, and community-based pre-release work centers. 

Different inmates are sent to the lockup facility based on the inmate’s classification and crime. Lockup status indicates that a bulk of the inmates in SC are in the state prison, that's about 21,000. At about half the state prisons, county jails hold about 11,000 inmates, more than the 4600 in federal prisons. 

Inmate Records 

South Carolina records all offenders detained and incarcerated at various facilities. Most of the data available are on the inmate's details, crime, sentence, inmate ID, and locations. All the inmate records in the state are public according to the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act and the Freedom of information Act(FOIA). 

Inmate Searches 

Despite the multiple records available on the offender, most people only search the archive to locate their loved ones in jail. All the different institutions across the state keep a detailed jail roster that you can search at any time by calling 1-866-727-2846 or visiting the jail/prison. 

The fastest way, however, is to go online and use the search tool. All the federal inmates can be found using the Federal Inmate Search on the Bureau of prisons website. The same goes for the state inmates you can find using the South Carolina Department of Corrections search tool. However, since the jails are managed independently by different sheriffs, you must search all the different jail rosters to get an inmate. All you need are first and last names to perform the searches. You cannot search a juvenile record.