Clicking on any of the Kentucky facilities below will direct you to an information page with Inmate Search, Visitation, Mail, Phone, Email, Most Wanted and FAQ for families and friends.
Kentucky stands out for one reason families quickly discover: a large share of its state prisoners never set foot in a state prison. Of the 19,777 people serving state sentences on July 31, 2026, about 7,190 were held in county jails under contracts with the Kentucky Department of Corrections (KDOC), mostly people convicted of lower-level Class C and D felonies. Another 12,367, including 1,007 women, were in state institutions, and a little over 200 were in halfway houses. KDOC is part of the state’s Justice and Public Safety Cabinet and also sets standards for county jails.
Kentucky’s prison history goes back to 1800, when its first state penitentiary opened in Frankfort. The best-known prison today is the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, a stone fortress on the Cumberland River that opened on Christmas Eve 1890 and is still nicknamed the “Castle on the Cumberland.” It is the state’s maximum-security and supermax prison.
Men who are sent to a state prison start at Roederer Correctional Complex in La Grange, KDOC’s male intake facility, where they are assessed and classified before being assigned to a permanent prison. Women go to the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women at Pewee Valley. People with shorter, lower-level sentences may stay in a county jail for their entire term, so it is worth checking the person’s current location before planning a visit or sending mail.
The Kentucky Offender Online Lookup (KOOL) lists people in state prisons, in county jails on state sentences, and on probation or parole. Search by name or by the person’s KDOC number. KDOC notes that records less than 120 days old may still be updating.
Kentucky has the death penalty, but courts have kept executions on hold since 2010 over the state’s lethal injection rules. Only three people have been executed since 1976: Harold McQueen in the electric chair in 1997, followed by Eddie Harper in 1999 and Marco Allen Chapman in November 2008, both by lethal injection. Lethal injection is the standard method, and people sentenced before 1998 may choose electrocution. Male death row and the execution chamber are at Eddyville; women on death row are held at Pewee Valley. Attorney General Russell Coleman said in April 2026 that 24 people were under death sentences. That month lawmakers overrode Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of Senate Bill 251, which lets KDOC set execution procedures through internal policy instead of formal regulations, a step aimed at clearing the way to resume executions. Legal challenges continue in Franklin Circuit Court.
The Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), created in 1996, runs both the state’s youth detention centers and its longer-term programs, which is unusual; in many states detention is a county job. DJJ operates eight secure regional detention centers in Columbia (Adair), Ashland (Boyd), Jackson (Breathitt), Newport (Campbell), Lexington (Fayette), Louisville (Jefferson), Paducah (McCracken) and Bowling Green (Warren). Boyd is the state’s detention center for girls, and Jefferson has been listed as temporarily closed. Youth committed by a court go to one of six youth development centers: Adair (Columbia), Lake Cumberland (Monticello), Mayfield, Morehead, Northern Kentucky (Crittenden) and Woodsbend (West Liberty).
The system has been in crisis since a 2022 riot at the Adair detention center. In 2024 the U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into eight DJJ detention centers and the Adair Youth Development Center, looking at excessive force, isolation and mental health care. Lawmakers have since pushed for a dedicated youth mental health treatment center and separate facilities for girls. Juvenile records are confidential, so families should contact DJJ or the facility directly.
To search for an inmate or juvenile, or to learn how to visit, call, write or send money to someone in the Kentucky Department of Corrections or Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, choose a facility from the list below.