Run a free South Dakota inmate search today. Online tools can help uncover relevant facts about anyone currently incarcerated in the state and reveal details about their crimes and sentences.
An inmate can be incarcerated at a county, state, or federal facility; they’ve been arrested for a crime they’ve committed, and information about them is made available under the South Dakota Sunshine Law, which opens access to certain public records.
In South Dakota, citizens can learn more about any inmate in the state and gain insight into the offenses they committed, when their court dates are, how long their sentence is, and more.
This concise resource ensures that anyone interested in an offender within the state can access information promptly and conveniently.
How To Differentiate Between Prison & Jail Inmates
Criminals can be incarcerated in different facilities, depending on many factors. More commonly, they can be held at a county (or city) jail or a state prison. There’s a difference between them, and understanding it will help locate someone when needed.
Usually, local law enforcement agencies run jails and keep inmates who’ve been recently arrested (and often haven’t been tried yet) and those who are serving short sentences of one year or so.
Those facilities are under the sheriff’s office or the city’s police department jurisdiction. Consequently, anyone looking for an individual arrested in a recent incident will benefit from contacting those agencies.
State prisons, on the other hand, keep offenders who are serving longer sentences and, therefore, have already had their day in court. Those inmates are convicted felons serving their time until they can be released on probation or parole or until their sentence is completed.
To obtain information about those inmates, the State’s Department of Corrections (DOC) is frequently the best source.
Last but not least, individuals who committed federal crimes are kept in federal prisons. How to search and find valuable information at all of those places in South Dakota will be addressed in this resource below.
How To Execute a South Dakota Inmate Search for Individuals Incarcerated in Jails
Whenever someone needs to run a South Dakota inmate lookup, searching the cities or counties’ facilities tends to be the most effective first step.
People are arrested and booked in whenever an incident leads the police to believe they should be arrested; those incidents are usually handled by the local law enforcement agencies, who take those new prisoners to their facilities.
Being booked at a county jail doesn’t mean the arrestee will be charged by the State Attorney or convicted in a court of law. When looking for individuals who may have been arrested recently, contacting the local law enforcement agencies is usually very helpful.
Those local correctional facilities also often hold offenders who are serving short sentences.1
In South Dakota, it seems simpler to obtain information about inmates with the counties’ agencies. For example, Minnehaha County, the largest in the state, allows citizens to search who’s been recently booked in their local jail facility. The roster is updated every 15 minutes, and people can either look it up by name or search the full list of inmates.
The Minnehaha County Jail can be visited or contacted in person using the following information:
Minnehaha County Jail
305 W 4th St
Sioux Falls, SD 57104
Phone: 605.367.4321
Fax: 605.978.5647
Pennington County also allows citizens to look up the inmates currently held in their jail facility, providing valuable information to those who are interested. The Inmate Charge & Bond Information tool can be searched by name or by looking at the full list of names of current inmates (which is in alphabetical order).
They offer detailed information on the charges against each prisoner, as well as bond requirements when that’s an available option, among other things. If visiting the inmate or contacting the correctional facility in person is preferred, citizens can do so using the following information:
Pennington County Jail
307 St. Joseph St.
Rapid City, SD 57701
Phone: 605.394.6116
In general, in South Dakota, citizens are encouraged to search for information about arrestees and booked individuals with the counties’ correctional facilities. When a municipality is searched or contacted, they refer people to the county.
Considering that there are many counties and, in some instances, the searcher may not know exactly where to look for information, the Records Page South Dakota search guide is a helpful tool. Also, when an inmate has been tried and is serving their sentence, they may be more conveniently found looking at the state’s facilities, as shown below.
How To Determine Whether Someone Is in a South Dakota State Prison
The South Dakota Offender Locator will provide people with reliable information about all the inmates currently incarcerated in one of the state’s facilities.4 Every time a statewide inmate search is needed, they have free tools that can be searched for details about an inmate’s status.
This system will permit searches using only the offender’s last name, but searching without a first name may lead to a long list of potential matches (which can be laborious to go over). Therefore, knowing the first name of the inmate is helpful.
The Offender Locator will show all inmates in South Dakota, both present and past. In other words, the database includes not only those currently incarcerated but also those who have completed their sentences or have deceased.
For current inmates, the Offender Locator will show which crimes were committed, how long their sentence is, if they are on probation or parole, and more details.
It’s also possible to uncover where the inmate is serving their sentence. South Dakota has six different state facilities that can be contacted (or visited) in person. The table below shows their contact information:
| South Dakota Adult Correction Centers | ||
| Facility | Address | Phone numbers |
| South Dakota State Penitentiary | 1600 N. Drive Sioux Falls, SD 57117 |
Phone: 605.367.5051 Fax: 605.367.5038 |
| Jameson Annex (disciplinary unit) |
1600 N. Drive Sioux Falls, SD 57117 |
Phone: 605.367.5120 Fax: 605.367.5585 |
| Mike Durfee State Prison | 1412 Wood Street Springfield, SD 57062 |
Phone: 605.369.2201 Fax: 605.369.2813 |
| South Dakota Women’s Prison | 3200 E Highway 34 ℅ 500 E. Capitol Ave. Pierre, SD 57501 |
Phone: 605.773.6636 Fax: 605.773.3194 |
| Rapid City Minimum Center | 2725 Creek Dr. Rapid City, SD 57703 |
Phone: 605.394.5294 Fax: 605.394.5295 |
| Yankton Minimum Facility | 178 Mickelson Dr. Yankton, SD 57078 |
Phone: 605.668.3355 Fax: 605.668.3358 |
When a prisoner can be found at any of the state’s facilities, it’s possible that they may be at a federal prison. Below, it’ll be shown how to look for those individuals at the federal level.
How To Review Information on Any Federal Prisoner
In South Dakota, inmate searches may lead a concerned citizen to search federal prisons. It’s less common to find that an offender is incarcerated at those places simply because it’d require them to have committed a federal crime. Still, it’s important to know how to search for them.
Federal prisoners are held all over the country at federal facilities and can be located using the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Inmate Search.5
The BOP tool is free to use and only shows information about prisoners currently held at federal facilities, and with a caveat: it only contains information about prisoners who’ve been released after 1982.6 Information about federal prisoners released before that date may be available with the National Archives when it’s necessary to look for it.
The BOP Inmate Search allows for searches to be performed by name or identification number (in cases when that number is known) and will show information about the inmate’s crimes and where they’re being held.
When more detail is needed, citizens can also utilize the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system. This tool isn’t free, and people should know they charge a fee whenever someone uses it to search for information.7 Usually, the charges are per page, but a full fee schedule can be accessed for more details.
The PACER system contains valuable information for citizens wanting to learn more about federal arrests and search warrants. They can do so by searching the offender’s name.
There are many tools for citizens to need to determine if someone is currently incarcerated in South Dakota. Concerned individuals should feel free to seek out information by running a South Dakota inmate search, accessing all the details that are available to them, as long as that information is used responsibly.
References
1South Dakota Department of Corrections. (n.d.). Facilities : SD Dept. of Corrections. Retrieved November 28, 2023, from <https://doc.sd.gov/adult/facilities/>
2Minnehaha County, South Dakota. (n.d.). Minnehaha County Who’s Behind Bars. Retrieved November 28, 2023, from <https://web.minnehahacounty.gov/dept/so/jailInmateInfo/browseJailInmate.php>
3Pennington County, South Dakota. (2023, November 28). Current Inmates. Retrieved November 28, 2023, from <https://www.pennco.org/currentinmates>
4South Dakota Department of Corrections. (n.d.). Offender Locator : SD Dept of Corrections. Retrieved November 28, 2023, from <https://doc.sd.gov/adult/lookup/>
5Federal Bureau of Prisons. (n.d.). Federal Inmates By Number. Retrieved November 28, 2023, from <https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/>
6Federal Bureau of Prisons. (n.d.). About Federal Inmate Records. Retrieved November 28, 2023, from <https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/about_records.jsp>
7Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. (n.d.). PACER Pricing: How fees work | PACER: Federal Court Records. PACER. Retrieved November 28, 2023, from <https://pacer.uscourts.gov/pacer-pricing-how-fees-work>