Search WVDCR Release Records

WVDCR State Release Paths

WVDCR operates regional jails and correctional institutions statewide. A Mineral County felony sentence does not tie the person to PHRJCF. Classification can place the prisoner elsewhere, and later moves between institutions continue state custody. Physical release may occur through parole or mandatory supervision. Final discharge is later and means the identified sentence or supervision term has ended.

A Parole Board grant is not the release event. Conditions must be met and WVDCR must process the departure. Mandatory supervision also places an eligible person in the community before calculated discharge under the state framework. Ask for the movement event, its effective date, supervision status, and final discharge record rather than collapsing all events into one date.

Confirm a WVDCR Release

Open the WVDCR Offender Information Search, choose the prison search, and use the most exact known identity. Compare name, offender number, birth information, photograph when available, and location. The prison detail may show the label Projected Release Date. That is a calculation, not proof that release occurred. A fully discharged person may return no result.

Check the same person in West Virginia VINE and quote the exact event. If parole is involved, obtain the Board outcome and the later WVDCR release event. Court sentencing and jail-credit orders can explain the computation. OIS warns that status, location, and release information may not be current, so a saved search result should be paired with the agency record.

1. Search statewide rather than by one prison.
2. Match the offender number and identity details.
3. Copy the displayed date label exactly.
4. Distinguish transfer, release to supervision, and discharge.
5. Request WVDCR’s computation and movement records.

Request WVDCR Discharge Records

A focused West Virginia Freedom of Information Act request should identify the person and custody episode. Give the full name, aliases, date of birth if known, approximate booking and departure dates, offender or booking number, and Mineral County as the committing or sentencing county. Ask for existing admission, movement, release, transfer, sentence-computation, and discharge records. Do not ask WVDCR to create a new account of whether the person was free.

Useful fields include booking date and time, committing agency, charges, custody location, release date and time, release authority, release type, destination, receiving custodian, property acknowledgment, and any retained booking photograph. Ask for electronic copies and reasonably segregable nonexempt fields. Under WV Code §29B-1-3, the custodian must take one of the allowed responses as soon as practicable and within five days excluding weekends and legal holidays. That period is a response deadline, not a guarantee that all records will be produced by then.

If a denial or redaction occurs, ask for the cited exemption and the nonexempt remainder. WVDCR may route jail material and offender legal records to different units. The public OIS display has no published retention period for released bookings, but an administrative record may still exist after a public result disappears.

WVDCR Release Record Contact

Use the WVDCR central site and its contact or FOIA route for offender, movement, sentence-computation, release, and discharge records. Identify the subject, offender number, Mineral County case, custody dates, and any known institution. Ask the agency to route the request if more than one WVDCR unit holds responsive records.

Request existing fields and electronic copies. If information is withheld, ask for the statutory basis and any segregable nonexempt portion. No public OIS retention window guarantees how long a discharged result remains visible.

Mineral Releases, Hampshire Location

PHRJCF is in Augusta in Hampshire County, yet it officially serves Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Mineral, and Pendleton counties. That split can cause a search error. Mineral County describes the committing court or arrest source, while Hampshire County describes the jail’s physical location. WVDCR supplies the statewide record and offender number. One person can validly have all three references.

The FY2025 annual report gives PHRJCF a rated population of 312 and describes its pretrial and sentenced felony and misdemeanor mission. Capacity is not a live population count. It also does not state how many releases involved Mineral County. Use it only to understand the facility, not to infer a county release total.

PHRJCF Federal Transfer Records

WVDCR’s FY2025 report says PHRJCF contractually houses federal detainees for the U.S. Marshals Service. That makes a federal handoff especially important in Mineral County release research. A person can leave the Augusta building but remain detained before trial, move to another contract facility, or enter BOP custody after sentence. None is community release.

Search the federal docket through PACER Case Locator for detention, release, judgment, and transfer context. For a sentenced federal prisoner, search the BOP locator by register number or full identity. ICE should enter the inquiry only when a documented immigration detainer or handoff exists. No official source in the research establishes PHRJCF as an ICE contract facility.

Note: Always ask for the receiving custodian because a PHRJCF departure can mark the start of another agency’s custody.

Historic WVDCR Release Records

Older WVDCR history shows that Eastern Regional Jail once served several eastern counties before PHRJCF opened and the counties shifted their prisoners. The year of arrest therefore matters. An old Mineral County booking should not be assigned to PHRJCF merely because PHRJCF serves the county now.

Give WVDCR the arrest year, court case number, and known dates, then ask it to route the request to the historical facility or record custodian. The court file can provide a durable second trail. A dated bond, sentence, dismissal, or jail-credit order can narrow the likely custody period even when a former jail record is no longer visible online. This historical routing issue is specific to the Potomac Highlands and can save a request from reaching the wrong records unit.

Read WVDCR Status Terms

Release labels should be copied exactly. Parole is conditional community release from a state sentence. Probation is a court-ordered community sentence or disposition. Discharge means the sentence or supervision term ended. Transfer means another custodian took charge. A projected release date is a calculation and may change. Escape is an unauthorized absence and is never a release.

Release

A recorded departure to the community under lawful authority.

Transfer

A move between custodians while confinement continues.

Detainer

A request that another authority hold or receive a person.

Discharge

Completion of the identified sentence or supervision term.

For a broader named-person search and the full Mineral County record path, use the Mineral County released inmates search. The facility record still controls the exact PHRJCF departure.