The Caroline County Inmate Population
Caroline County does not run a stand-alone county jail. The Caroline County Sheriff's Office says the local jail closed in 1998, and Caroline then joined Pamunkey Regional Jail with Hanover County and the Town of Ashland. That local fact controls most Caroline County inmate population searches. People arrested by Caroline deputies, held on Caroline court commitments, or serving local jail time are generally housed through Pamunkey Regional Jail in Hanover. The sheriff still handles local arrests, transports, court security, and law-enforcement records, but the current jail roster is the PRJ roster.
The population picture has three separate lanes. The local and regional jail lane is Pamunkey Regional Jail, which handles adult male and female pretrial detainees and local sentenced inmates. The state lane is the Virginia Department of Corrections Inmate and Supervisee Locator, used after a person moves into state custody or supervision. The federal lane includes ICE detainees at Caroline Detention Facility, BOP sentenced-inmate records, and U.S. Marshals or federal court channels for pretrial federal matters.
Caroline County Inmate Population Statistics
The strongest Caroline-specific population source located in the research is the Pamunkey Regional Jail Authority FY2025 ACFR, archived by Hanover County. It separates Caroline from Hanover, Ashland, and other categories, so it is better for Caroline County jail population work than a statewide total. The FY2025 table reports Caroline's PRJ average daily population as 70, average length of stay as 27 days, and average monthly bookings as 73. PRJ annual-report material also reports a total jail housing capacity of 495 inmates, with a 127,000 square foot building and 14 housing units.
| Measure | Figure | Source / Year |
|---|---|---|
| Caroline average daily population at PRJ | 70 | PRJ FY2025 ACFR, Table 12 |
| Caroline average length of stay | 27 days | PRJ FY2025 ACFR, Table 12 |
| Caroline average monthly bookings | 73 | PRJ FY2025 ACFR, Table 12 |
| Estimated annual Caroline bookings | About 876 | Derived from 73 monthly bookings x 12 |
| PRJ total housing capacity | 495 inmates | PRJ annual report material |
| Caroline Detention Facility capacity | 336 beds | CDF official homepage |
Caroline County Inmate Population Trends
Caroline's PRJ population was higher before the COVID-era decline, then fell through the FY2020 to FY2023 period and rebounded by FY2025. The FY2025 ACFR table does not prove what caused the shift, so the numbers should be read as a custody trend rather than a policy finding. The lowest point in the ten-year table was FY2023, when Caroline averaged 53 people at PRJ with a 22-day average stay. FY2025 rose to 70, still below the FY2016 to FY2019 range.
| Fiscal Year | Caroline ADP | Average Stay | Average Monthly Bookings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 95 | 26 days | 87 |
| 2017 | 102 | 26 days | 87 |
| 2018 | 98 | 30 days | 89 |
| 2019 | 85 | 25 days | 87 |
| 2020 | 72 | 31 days | 56 |
| 2021 | 70 | 43 days | 46 |
| 2022 | 67 | 33 days | 55 |
| 2023 | 53 | 22 days | 68 |
| 2024 | 66 | 25 days | 70 |
| 2025 | 70 | 27 days | 73 |
Those figures are Caroline-only within the PRJ regional system. Hanover, Ashland, and other jail categories are counted separately in the same annual-report table, which keeps Caroline County inmate population analysis from being blurred with the larger Hanover regional count.
Who Makes Up Caroline County Inmates
PRJ holds adult male and female inmates for Caroline County, Hanover County, and the Town of Ashland. Caroline budget material describes PRJ as a full-service facility for pretrial and sentenced adult male and female inmates. The public roster fields show age, race, sex, arresting agency, booking date, charge lines, and amount fields, but the research did not locate a Caroline-only aggregate table by race, sex, or age. That means the roster can identify fields for individual current records, while the FY2025 ACFR supplies the better county-level count.
- Pretrial detainee
- A person held while charges are pending or bond and release terms are unresolved.
- Local sentenced inmate
- A person serving a jail sentence rather than a state-prison term.
- Detainer
- A hold or request from another agency, such as probation, ICE, another county, or federal authorities.
- Classification
- The jail's safety, housing, medical, and custody-level review after intake.
Caroline County Jail Capacity
PRJ's reported capacity is 495 inmates. The FY2025 jurisdiction figures listed in the research total about 386 average daily inmates across Hanover, Ashland, Caroline, and other categories. That simple sum sits below PRJ's rated housing capacity, but it should not be treated as an official utilization percentage because jail capacity can be affected by classification, medical housing, staffing, and separated populations. The same sources also identify PRJ's medical infirmary, central control section, general and law libraries, kitchen, laundry, and training rooms, which matters because jail capacity is more than a bed count.
Caroline Detention Facility is a separate 336-bed ICE contract detention facility in Bowling Green. A 2025 congressional oversight release cited in the research said CDF was at 80 percent capacity and that 78 percent of its average daily population had no criminal convictions. That population is not the Caroline County jail roster population, so it should be read as federal civil immigration detention context rather than a local criminal-jail count.
Laws Governing Caroline County Inmate Records
Virginia law controls how Caroline County inmate population records, booking data, law-enforcement records, and jail standards are released. The public PRJ roster is the first source for current jail custody, but older records or records not shown online may require a request to the agency that holds the record. That may be PRJ for jail custody data, the Caroline County Sheriff's Office for arrest records, the Clerk of Court for court files, VADOC for state custody, ICE for immigration detention, or BOP for federal sentenced custody.
Key statutes:
Virginia FOIA, Title 2.2, Chapter 37 governs public access to records held by Virginia public bodies unless an exemption applies.
Code of Virginia Section 2.2-3704 sets the request procedure for inspecting or receiving public records.
Code of Virginia Section 2.2-3706 covers law-enforcement and criminal-record disclosure and redaction limits.
Code of Virginia Section 53.1-68 supports minimum standards for local and regional jails.
Caroline County State Prison Population
When a Caroline County case becomes a state-responsible sentence, the lookup path changes. A person may start at PRJ during arrest, bond, trial, or a local jail sentence, then move into VADOC custody after conviction and sentencing. Once that transfer happens, the PRJ current roster may no longer show the person. VADOC's locator is the correct tool for incarcerated people in Virginia prisons, probationers, parolees, people in institutional hospitals, local or regional jail inmates under VADOC authority, and CCAP participants.
The Caroline Correctional Unit in Hanover is a VADOC state correctional unit with a Caroline name, but it is not a county jail. VADOC's facility directory lists it at 31285 Camp Road, Hanover, with Superintendent Chantel Thrower. The same statewide directory also lists Ashland District 41 Probation and Parole as serving Caroline and Hanover. State custody and supervision records should stay separate from local PRJ jail bookings.
The VADOC locator page is shown in the captured source image. Its daily update notice and disclaimer help explain why state custody is checked separately from the Caroline County jail roster.
The locator asks for first and last name or a DOC ID number, then allows filters for location, race, gender, and age range before the Locate button is used.
Search Caroline County Inmates
The official Caroline County jail roster path is PRJ's Who's In Jail page. It is free to view and did not require a login during the research capture. The roster has one public search field labeled Type to Search, result cards, pagination, a Read More link for each profile, and an image slot. The underlying OCV/MyOCV feed showed individual data fields such as inmate ID, age, race, sex, arresting agency, booking date, charge lines, amount fields, and sometimes a date-time after the amount.
The roster screenshot from PRJ shows the public search layout used for Caroline County inmate lookup. Start here for current local jail custody before moving to court, state, ICE, or federal tools.
The single search field matters because there are no separate first-name, booking-number, date-of-birth, charge, or facility filters in the public interface captured by the research.
- Open the PRJ Who's In Jail roster.
- Enter part or all of the person's name in the Type to Search field.
- Review cards in last-name-first format and use pagination when needed.
- Open Read More to see the public profile fields.
- If the person is not listed, call PRJ or check VADOC, ICE, BOP, court records, or VINE based on the custody type.
Caroline County Roster Fields
The PRJ roster is simpler than many jail search pages. It uses one text search box and public profile links rather than a multi-field form. That design is useful for broad name searches but less useful when a common name returns many regional results from Caroline, Hanover, Ashland, and other agencies. The arresting-agency field is one of the best clues for deciding whether a profile is tied to a Caroline County arrest.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type to Search | Text search | Optional or unspecified | Single public search box that filters current roster cards. |
| Pagination | Page buttons | Optional | Page buttons were observed, including 1 through 5 and an ellipsis to 74. |
| Login | Link/button | Not required for public viewing | The page shows Login, but public roster viewing did not require it. |
| Read More | Profile link | Not applicable | Opens the individual public inmate profile. |
Past Caroline County Inmate Records
PRJ's public roster is a current-inmate tool. The research did not locate a posted refresh interval or a rule for how long released people stay visible, so older Caroline County inmate records should not be assumed to remain online. For an older booking, start with the name, booking date, arresting agency, charge text, and inmate ID if known. Then use PRJ's FOIA page for jail authority records, Caroline County's FOIA/NextRequest route for county or sheriff records, and the Clerk of Court for criminal case records tied to the arrest.
Past custody can also move outside the jail record. A sentenced state inmate may appear in VADOC. A federal sentenced inmate may appear in the BOP inmate locator. An immigration detainee at Caroline Detention Facility should be checked through ICE's Online Detainee Locator System or the CDF/ICE phone channel, not the PRJ roster.
What Caroline County Inmate Records Show
A PRJ public profile gives enough detail to confirm a current booking, but it is not a full criminal-history file. The profile fields seen in the research included the inmate name, a profile URL hash, PRJ inmate ID, age, race, sex, arresting agency, booking date, charge lines, amount fields, and an image field. It did not show date of birth, housing unit, cell, booking officer, warrant number, magistrate, attorney, projected release date, or court case number in the inspected entries.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Title/Name | Name in all caps, displayed last name first. |
| Inmate ID | PRJ internal numeric ID, with examples beginning in 2026. |
| Age, race, sex | Basic identity fields; date of birth was not shown. |
| Arresting Agency | The agency tied to the booking, such as Caroline Sheriff's Office or another regional agency. |
| Booking Date | Date and time of jail intake in MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS format. |
| Charge(s) | Charge category and plain-language description, sometimes with felony or misdemeanor wording. |
| Amount | Decimal value on the charge line; the feed did not label it as bond. |
| Image | Image slot was present, but inspected entries used a PRJ badge image. |
Jail Roster vs State Locator
Search failures often happen because the wrong custody system is being checked. The PRJ roster is the local and regional jail route for most Caroline County arrests. VADOC is for state custody and supervision. ICE and BOP are federal systems. Virginia VINE is a notification service that can help track custody status, but it does not replace the official jail, prison, or detainee locator.
| Custody Type | Where to Look | What It Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Local jail | PRJ Who's In Jail | Current regional jail inmates tied to Caroline, Hanover, Ashland, and other agencies PRJ holds. |
| State prison or supervision | VADOC locator | Sentenced state inmates, supervisees, CCAP participants, and VADOC-authority records. |
| ICE detention | ICE ODLS and CDF phone | Immigration detainees at Caroline Detention Facility and other ICE custody. |
| Federal sentenced custody | BOP locator | Federal sentenced inmates and many historical federal records. |
| Status notifications | Virginia VINE | Custody notification and status alerts where available. |
Caroline County Detention Facilities
Three facility pages matter for Caroline County inmate population searches, but they do not all serve the same kind of custody. PRJ is the county-jail-equivalent roster. CDF is an ICE civil immigration detention facility in Bowling Green. Caroline Correctional Unit is a VADOC state facility in Hanover. Mixing those systems can send a search to the wrong office.
- Pamunkey Regional Jail holds adult local and regional jail inmates for Caroline County, Hanover County, and the Town of Ashland.
- Caroline Detention Facility holds federal immigration detainees through a DHS/ICE contract and is not the Caroline jail roster.
- Caroline Correctional Unit is a VADOC state correctional unit for sentenced state-responsible custody, not local jail booking.
The PRJ homepage screenshot shows the local roster ecosystem, including Who's In Jail, VINE, visits, mail, commissary, app, FOIA, and related jail services.
Those PRJ tools are the right starting point for Caroline local jail custody, while CDF and VADOC pages should be checked only for their separate custody tracks.
Caroline County Notifications and Apps
Virginia VINE is available for custody status and notification service. It can be useful when a person is already in a covered custody system and a victim, family member, or public user needs alert options. PRJ also advertises the Pamunkey Regional Jail (VA) app through the OCV/MyOCV platform. The app ecosystem includes Who's In Jail, VINE, Visit An Inmate, Submit A Tip, Inmate Mail & Commissary, Legal/Professional Visits, FOIA, accreditation, and facility contact items. No app-only Caroline warrant search was confirmed in the research.
The official Virginia VINE page provides the statewide custody notification entry point for Virginia users.
VINE should be treated as a notification channel. It is not a substitute for PRJ, VADOC, ICE, BOP, court records, or direct facility confirmation.
Caroline County Inmate Population FAQ
How big is the Caroline County inmate population at PRJ? The FY2025 PRJ ACFR reports Caroline's average daily population as 70, with a 27-day average stay and 73 average monthly bookings.
Where does a Caroline County inmate search start? Start with PRJ's Who's In Jail roster for current local custody because Caroline's local jail closed in 1998 and Caroline uses Pamunkey Regional Jail.
Why is someone not on the PRJ roster? The person may have been released, transferred to VADOC, held by ICE, held federally, listed under another agency, or not yet published in the current roster.
Does the roster show mugshots? PRJ has an image slot, but inspected entries used a PRJ badge image rather than personal booking photos. Use FOIA or the originating agency for a photo request when needed.
Which court record follows a jail arrest? Caroline General District Court handles misdemeanors, traffic, local ordinance cases, and felony preliminary hearings. Circuit Court handles felony trials and related criminal actions.
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