Criminal records by state
What is searchable depends entirely on what a state chooses to publish, and no two states publish the same set. Only 3 publish all four statewide layers. This is the per-state breakdown.
Every state, and what it publishes
Nationally, 51 states publish a statewide prison system, 26 a warrant system and 22 a court source. Only 16 publish three or more of the four.
| State | Jail rosters | Prison | Court | Warrants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kentucky | 71 | Yes | — | — |
| Montana | 68 | Yes | — | — |
| Colorado | 66 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pennsylvania | 65 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Texas | 65 | Yes | — | Yes |
| California | 59 | Yes | — | — |
| New York | 59 | Yes | — | — |
| Ohio | 51 | Yes | Yes | — |
| Indiana | 49 | Yes | Yes | — |
| Idaho | 46 | Yes | — | Yes |
| Georgia | 44 | Yes | Yes | — |
| New Mexico | 40 | Yes | — | Yes |
| Washington | 40 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Oregon | 38 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Missouri | 36 | Yes | — | — |
| Michigan | 35 | Yes | — | — |
| Virginia | 34 | Yes | Yes | — |
| Florida | 30 | Yes | — | — |
| Illinois | 27 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Utah | 29 | Yes | — | Yes |
| Maryland | 27 | Yes | Yes | — |
| South Carolina | 23 | Yes | — | Yes |
| Wyoming | 24 | Yes | — | — |
| Mississippi | 21 | Yes | — | Yes |
| New Jersey | 21 | Yes | Yes | — |
| South Dakota | 21 | Yes | — | Yes |
| Wisconsin | 22 | Yes | — | — |
| Minnesota | 18 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| North Carolina | 20 | Yes | — | Yes |
| Iowa | 18 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Oklahoma | 17 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Maine | 19 | Yes | — | — |
| Nevada | 17 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tennessee | 16 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Kansas | 16 | Yes | — | Yes |
| Arizona | 15 | Yes | Yes | — |
| Arkansas | 14 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Louisiana | 15 | — | — | Yes |
| Massachusetts | 15 | Yes | — | — |
| Alabama | 12 | Yes | — | Yes |
| Nebraska | 12 | Yes | — | — |
| North Dakota | 10 | Yes | — | Yes |
| New Hampshire | 11 | Yes | — | — |
| West Virginia | 9 | Yes | Yes | — |
| Connecticut | 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Hawaii | 4 | Yes | — | — |
| District of Columbia | 1 | Yes | Yes | — |
| Rhode Island | 1 | Yes | — | Yes |
| Alaska | 1 | Yes | — | — |
| Delaware | 1 | Yes | — | — |
| Vermont | 1 | Yes | — | — |
A dash means the state publishes no statewide source of that kind — not that no such records exist. Counts are a snapshot; the live list is at /v1/criminal/sources.
Five kinds of criminal record, five different claims
“Criminal record” is not one thing. Each type is published by a different authority at a different stage of a case, and each supports a different statement about a person. Reading one as though it were another is the most common and most damaging error in this data.
| Record type | Leads with | What it does and does not prove |
|---|---|---|
| County jail roster | booking date, charges and custody status | Who is in a county jail right now, or was recently booked. Leads with a booking date and the charges at booking — an arrest-stage record, not a conviction. |
| Statewide prison (DOC) | custody status, facility and admission date | A state Department of Corrections inmate system: people serving a state sentence, with facility and custody status. This is the post-conviction layer. |
| Court records | case number, court, filed date, charge and disposition | Statewide court records — the layer that carries the disposition, which is the only part of a criminal history that says how a case actually ended. |
| Warrants | offense, physical description and warrant status | A warrant or most-wanted system: people sought by a jurisdiction. Outstanding rather than resolved, and absent from most conviction-based searches. |
| Statewide registry | name, date of birth, classification and often an address | A statewide registry — the record type closest to our original registry product, carried here so one call can reach it alongside the other four. |
What the criminal records on our index contain
In a random sample of 66,154 US criminal records on our index, 50% are state prison (department of corrections) records and 49% are court cases.
41% of those records include charge detail. Among them, the most common charges are theft, larceny and stolen property (14%), drug possession (13%) and assault, battery and threats (10%).
Where a record states the level of the charge (9% of records), 60% are felonies and 34% misdemeanors.
93% of court cases on our index do not state an outcome. Among those that do, 43% ended in a conviction, guilty plea or adjudication, 14% were dismissed or found not guilty, and 43% are still open.
A jail booking records an arrest and the charges at booking. It is not a conviction.
- Theft, larceny and stolen property14%
- Drug possession13%
- Assault, battery and threats10%
- Burglary and breaking & entering9%
- Fraud, forgery and identity theft8%
- Drug sale, distribution or manufacture8%
- Traffic offenses (not DUI)7%
- Other or unclear7%
- DUI / DWI6%
- Public order, trespass and property damage6%
- State prison (department of corrections) records50%
- Court cases49%
- County jail bookings1%
- Convicted, pleaded guilty or adjudicated3%
- Dismissed, not guilty or acquitted1%
- Open or pending3%
- No outcome stated (including cases marked closed without a disposition)93%
Based on a random sample of 66,154 records on our index (2026-10-08). Categories are our grouping of the charge text each court, jail or agency publishes; a record can include charges in several categories. Percentages are rounded. See criminal charge types and what shows up on a background check.
There is no national criminal database to search
The United States has no public national criminal database. The FBI keeps a national index, and access to it is restricted to authorised agencies for authorised purposes — it is not open to employers, landlords or the public. What exists instead is thousands of separate counties and states, each deciding independently what to publish and in what form.
That is why a per-state page is a real answer rather than a template. A state that publishes a statewide court source can tell you how a case ended; one that does not cannot, at any price, from any vendor. A state with a warrant system can be searched for outstanding warrants; the rest publish none. Our roster reflects those decisions rather than papering over them.
- 51 states publish a statewide prison system; 26 publish a warrant system; 22 publish a court source
- 1,375 county jurisdictions sit beneath those — the layer where most US criminal matters begin
- Every record cites the jurisdiction holding it, so an answer can be checked at the source rather than trusted
- Coverage is published live at /v1/criminal/sources, so a page can never quietly drift from what the API actually reaches
Or search one layer across every state
Inmate search
County jail rosters and statewide prison systems — who is in custody.
Court records
Case numbers and dispositions — the only layer that says how a case ended.
Warrant search
Statewide warrant systems, with the coverage limits stated plainly.