Tennessee Inmate Records

Tennessee has one of the highest imprisonment rates in the United States. With approximately 23,735 inmates in state and federal prisons and about 26,000 in local jails, the state's incarceration rate is 334 per 100,000 residents. This is slightly lower than the national average of 355 per 100,000 total United States population. Depending on the nature of the offense committed, individuals can be sentenced to state prisons, local jails, or federal prisons in Tennessee. Each level of the state's prison system has a government agency managing the correctional facilities under the jurisdiction. These agencies are responsible for keeping records of inmates housed in those correctional facilities.

Tennessee inmate records document a lot of information about individuals incarcerated in the state, some of which include the following:

• Inmate's Personal Information - This includes their name, date of birth, race, mugshot, gender, and physical descriptors like tattoos, scars, height, weight, eye color, complexion, and hair color.
• Court Details - These include court dates, trial details, case numbers, orders, fines, and court decisions.
• Arrest Record - This contains the date and time of the arrest, charges filed, arrest warrant, the location of the arrest, and information about the arresting agency.
• Sentencing Information - This shows conviction details like the length of imprisonment and the sentencing outcome.
• Incarceration Details - These include active sentences, combined sentence length, custody/supervision level, sentence imposed date, sentence type, offense, current location of incarceration, sentence begin date, and sentence end date.
• Parole and Release Information - This includes eligibility for parole, parole hearing date, parole hearing result, and release eligibility date.

Are Inmate Records Public in Tennessee?

Yes. Per Section 4-16-140(c) of the Tennessee Code, all inmate records and the information contained in them are open for public disclosure. As a result, members of the public may inspect or make copies of inmate records in the state. Nevertheless, any information contained in an inmate record that is otherwise considered confidential by Section 10-7-504 of the Tennessee Code remains confidential and restricted from public disclosure. These include medical records, investigative records of the state's Bureau of Investigation, all investigative reports and records of the state's Department of Corrections, and financial information. Also, sealed arrest records are not publicly available in the state.

What Agencies Are Responsible for Inmate Records in Tennessee?

Government agencies overseeing inmates in Tennessee corrections facilities and/or responsible for inmate records in the state include the following:

• The Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) - The Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) supervises offenders who are convicted of felonies and sentenced to over one year imprisonment in state-operated prisons. It is charged with overseeing all the 14 state prisons' facilities across the state and maintaining records of each inmate incarcerated in the correctional facilities.
• County Sheriff's Office - There are about 103 local jails across Tennessee's 95 counties, and each of these jails is managed by the county sheriff's office in each county across the state. In addition to managing the jail facilities, they keep records of all inmates incarcerated in their facility. Typically, county jails in the state hold offenders who are convicted of misdemeanors, those waiting for trial, and locally sentenced felons awaiting transfer to state-run prisons.
• Police Departments - Although police departments in Tennessee do not house offenders who are already convicted and sentenced to prison/jail terms, they keep records of arrests of such individuals for arrests executed within their jurisdiction. These records are generally a part of inmate records maintained by other relevant government agencies.
• Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) - The two federal prisons located in Tennessee hold individuals convicted of violating federal laws in the state and sentenced to prison. These prisons are managed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), which is also responsible for keeping records of all inmates incarcerated in the two federal corrections facilities.

How To Search for an Inmate's Information in Tennessee

A person needs to identify the correctional facility where an inmate whose record or information is sought is incarcerated in Tennessee to know the exact place to look for such record or information.

Find an inmate in Tennessee State Prisons

The Felony Offender Information Lookup tool (FOIL), managed by the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC), provides members of the public information about inmates who are or who have been in any of the state-run prisons. With FOIL, anyone may look up an inmate by their name (first and/or last name), TDOC ID, or State ID (SID). A TDOC ID is an 8-digit number assigned to a state prisoner by the Department of Correction. On the other hand, an SID is a unique number assigned by the state's Bureau of Investigation. Inmate information retrieved from this search typically includes their biographical information, physical characteristics, active sentences, and their current status.

Although FOIL provides ample information about individuals incarcerated in Tennessee state prisons, a person can obtain more detailed records by visiting the state correctional facility where an inmate is held. In many cases, the record custodian will ask them to provide some details like the inmate's name, date of birth, admission date, and other important information to enable them to search.

Find an Inmate in Local Jail

Generally, most local county jails in Tennessee have online inmate search resources that enable the public to view information about individuals in their custody. These resources are generally managed by the county sheriff's offices in charge of the holding facilities and are usually featured on the county sheriff's websites. Interested persons will largely be able to look up inmates in local jail facilities by their name, gender, and date of birth.

Alternatively, visiting the local jail where an inmate is serving their jail term to request information about the inmate can yield a good result. In most instances, requesters get more than enough information when they go to local jail facilities to obtain inmate records. However, to enable a custodian to conduct a thorough search of an inmate record, the requester may be asked to provide information such as the inmate's name, admission date, gender, and any other detail that may help facilitate the search.

Find an Inmate in Federal Prison

The BOP maintains records of inmates incarcerated in Nashville RRM and Memphis FCI from 1982 to the present and makes the records accessible through its Inmate Locator. Interested persons can search for federal inmates on the Inmate Locator using inmates' BOP register number or their names. The BOP records may also contain information about individuals awaiting trial for violating federal laws and held in federal prisons in the state.

How Can I Access Old Inmate Records?

Interested persons may access some old inmate records in Tennessee through the Felony Offender Inmate Lookup portal (FOIL). The TDOC FOIL generally has information about inmates who have been in the custody of the state's Department of Correction. In addition, the Tennessee State Library and Archives have records of some old and former inmates. For instance, it has the index to inmates of the State Penitentiary 1831 - 1850 and the index to inmates of the Tennessee State Penitentiary 1851-1870. Similarly, indexes of inmates for the years after 1870 may be accessed on microfilm from the State Library and Archives.

The National Archives also has records of inmates who were previously incarcerated in any of the federal prisons in Tennessee. Alternatively, anyone may submit a public record request to the BOP to obtain records of former inmates housed in the federal prisons operating in the state. Furthermore, old inmate records in Tennessee may be accessed on some reliable third-party sites like Tennesseepublicrecords.us. Typically, the owners of these sites collate inmate information/records periodically and upload them to their databases, where they remain accessible many years after upload, although at a small fee.

Another way to find an old inmate record in Tennessee is to visit the prison or jail where the offender was incarcerated in the state during their active sentence. However, anyone considering this option must have adequate information to enable the record custodian to perform the search. Alternatively, interested individuals may request old inmate information in the state by submitting a public record request to the TDOC online or in writing to:

Can I Find a Tennessee Inmate Record for Free?

In Tennessee, each correctional facility authority has an online database that enables the public to find records of inmates housed in the facilities under their supervision free of charge. However, the information accessible to the public through a database is limited to the records of inmates incarcerated in facilities controlled by the authority managing the database. As a result, the BOP Inmate locator will not provide information about offenders housed under the state's Department of Correction because the BOP does not keep records of such inmates.

However, trustworthy sites like Tennesseepublicrecords.us have records of all inmates in the state, including those incarcerated in state prisons, local jails, and federal prisons. They serve as centralized and one-stop databases for records maintained by the BOP, TDOC, and local jails in the state, which are typically accessible by paying a nominal fee.

Jails and Prisons in Tennessee

The categories of jails and prisons in Tennessee based on the type of authority tasked with the responsibility of managing correctional facilities are listed below:

• Federal Prisons - The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) manages two federal correctional facilities in Tennessee and oversees inmates held in those prisons.
• State Prisons - Tennessee has 14 state prisons, and 10 of these correctional facilities are run by the state's Department of Correction. The other four are privately managed.
• Local Jails - About 103 local jails operate in Tennessee, and they are all managed by the county sheriff's offices in their location.
• Private Prisons - CoreCivic manages the four private prisons in Tennessee.

State Prisons in Tennessee

Tennessee's state-controlled prisons are listed in the table below:

Private Prisons in Tennessee

The following are the four private prisons in Tennessee:

• South Central Correctional Facility
• Whiteville Correctional Facility
• Trousdale Turner Correctional Center
• Hardeman County Correctional Facility

Tennessee Inmate Statistics

• Tennessee Incarceration Rate - 334 per 100,000 residents
• Male Incarceration Rate - 617 per 100,000 males
• Female Incarceration Rate - 61 per 100,000 females
• Youth Custody Rate - 42 per 100,000 youths
• Number of Prisoners in Private Prisons - 6,828
• Black/White Imprisonment Disparity - 3.4:1
• Latino/White Imprisonment Disparity - 0.5:1
• Number of offenders under community supervision - 1,289 per 100,000 people
• Number on probation - 1,035 per 100,000 people
• Number on parole - 229 per 100,000 people
• Felony Disenfranchisement Rate - 7.7%

* Source: United States Bureau of Justice Statistics