Finding out which prison your friend is held in isn’t easy. There is no address book or Directory Enquiry style number you can search. The prison service regularly move prisoners from one jail to another. Often this will be as they progress through their sentence and their category changes from A, B, C to D, or so that they can attend specific training courses. Sometimes the prisoner is moved for breaking prison rules, or even for their own safety.
The Prison Service does not publicise these moves, historically for security reasons. In this modern world moving “Fingers Malone” from one jail to another will not necessarily stop the “Black Hand Gang” throwing knotted sheets over the fence to help break him out, but it may stop casual sightseers trying toget a picture of a notorious inmate.
If you want to find a prisoner, you should first contact the
Prisoner Location Service
PO Box 17594
Birmingham
B2 2QP
You can email them at [email protected]
The information that they will require is your full name, (or the organisation you represent), your date of birth and address, the name of the person you want to find ( including any other names they may have used), their date of birth, their prison number if known, and the reason you want to find them – for example you are a family member.
The prison service will check with your friend that he wants to be “found” before answering you, so this is not an instant or foolproof system.
If you do know their prison number, you can write to them at their last known prison showing the prison number clearly on the envelope and on in the letter itself, this will almost certainly be forwarded onto the prisoner.
It may also help if you know roughly where your friend is , e.g somewhere near Bristol, and the prison location map below should assist.