About Correctional Atlas

Where the information comes from

Facility details (names, addresses, phone numbers, capacity) come from government records and open public datasets; see data sources. Booking listings come from rosters that county sheriffs and jails publish for the public. We currently show 355 live rosters and list 160,116 facilities and agencies in total. Rosters are checked several times a day; when a person no longer appears on an agency's current roster, their page is marked as released and removed from our sitemap.

How the atlas is organised

The atlas covers 160,116 prisons, jails, detention centres and police agencies in 223 countries. Each facility is placed by its map coordinates inside the official administrative boundaries of its country, its first-level region (a state, province or county) and, where the country has them, its district. Countries are grouped by continent and sub-region following the United Nations geoscheme.

Where a national prison service publishes an official register, its addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses take precedence over open map data. Elsewhere, entries come from OpenStreetMap and Wikidata and are checked for closed, historic or duplicate sites before they are published. Missing street addresses, landline numbers and official websites are completed from the Overture Maps Places data only when the place matches by position and name.

Names in other scripts

The atlas is written in English. When a facility has an English name, that name is used. Otherwise, institution types are translated (for example, a Chinese 监狱 becomes "Prison" and a Russian ИК-5 becomes "Penal Colony No. 5") and place names are written in Latin letters. The original name is always shown on the facility page, so you can match it with local signs and documents.

What a booking means

A booking records that a person was taken into custody and processed at a jail. It is not a finding of guilt. Charges listed at booking are allegations and often change: they can be reduced, combined or dismissed. Everyone is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Our standards

• No booking photos, ever.
• Every record page links to the official agency source.
• Records that disappear from the agency data disappear here too.
• Removal requests are free and take effect immediately.

Accuracy

We reproduce what agencies publish and do not edit charges or dates. If something looks wrong, the agency is the authority; you can also ask us to remove the page.