Looking for information on federal inmates?

Mar 28

Michael MorisyUncategorized , , , , No Comments

Prison Window, used under Creative Commons license. Original at http://www.flickr.com/photos/decade_null/1397903264/

An anonymous tipster writes in with  a great resource for those of you trying to look up information on federal inmates: Federal Bureau of Prisons documentation on how inmate information is stored (PDF). Knowing what documents to look for is perhaps the most critical piece of any Freedom Of Information: Request the wrong thing or make a request that’s too vague, and you’ll end up with either a rejection or thousands of dollars in handling fees, when the properly phrased request could have gotten you the exact data you’re interested in in a timely, hassle-free fashion.

This 26 page document details the organization and maintenance rules surrounding Inmate Central File System, which contains:

  • Conduct, Work and Quarters Reports for federal inmates
  • General correspondence about inmates
  • Parole materials for inmates

Download the full document from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, or if that’s down use our alternate download hosted on MuckRock’s servers.

Photo licensed under Creative Commons Share Alike from Decade_Null. See original.