Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC)

The Arkansas Division of Correction (ADC), part of the Arkansas Department of Corrections, operates the state's prisons and is the agency whose rules decide how families find a loved one, visit, write, call, and send money. Arkansas has moved aggressively to digital systems — scanning mail to tablets and handling deposits electronically — so understanding those changes is key to staying connected. This guide brings the essentials together for families.

About the Arkansas prison system

Arkansas operates a set of correctional units across the state, holding people at every custody level, with intake and classification handled as people enter the system. The Pine Bluff headquarters is an administrative office where policy questions go, while mail and money are handled through the specific unit or its designated providers. Every incarcerated person is assigned an ADC number that identifies them throughout the system and is required for visits, mail, and deposits.

People are moved between units as their classification changes, so confirming exactly where your person is held before acting is the habit that saves the most frustration. If you are not sure which unit holds them, our guide on how to find someone in jail or prison explains how to trace an incarcerated person through official records, and you can search their name directly on AllRecentArrests.us to see their unit and status.

Visitation process and timings

Getting on an Arkansas inmate's visiting list starts with the visitation form, which must be completed legibly and in full and returned to the inmate's assigned unit, addressed to the attention of the unit visitation clerk. Once you are approved, the days, hours, and number of visitors are set by each unit, so the schedule that matters is the one for the facility holding your person. Arkansas is also specific about what you can bring in: visitors are generally limited to a clear plastic bag with a small amount of cash for refreshments, prescription medication in the visitor's own name and original container, a government-issued ID, and baby-care items.

Because those rules are enforced and dress codes apply, it pays to prepare before your first trip. Our complete prison visitation guide covers getting approved, dress codes, and what to expect at the checkpoint, and if the unit offers video sessions our walkthrough on setting up a video visit with an inmate explains how to register and connect. Always confirm the current visiting schedule with the specific unit before you travel.

How to send money to an inmate in Arkansas

Arkansas has moved deposits online through Access Corrections, and paper money orders are no longer accepted. You can send money at accesscorrections.com, through the Access Corrections mobile app, by calling a live agent at 866-345-1884, or in cash at walk-in retailers including CVS, Dollar General, Family Dollar, 7-Eleven, and Walgreens, using the inmate's full name and ADC number. One advantage of the electronic system is speed — deposits are generally available for the inmate to spend within about 30 minutes.

That balance is what the inmate draws on for phone time, tablet services, and commissary, so it is worth understanding the fees before you send. Our overview of how to send money to an inmate compares the common deposit methods and posting times, and because Arkansas uses Access Corrections, our dedicated Access Corrections guide walks through the app, online deposits, and retail cash options in detail.

How to send mail and care packages

Arkansas changed its mail system on September 15, 2025: non-legal mail is no longer delivered to the unit on paper. Instead, your letter is scanned in color, front and back — both the envelope and its contents — and delivered straight to your loved one's personal tablet. To make sure your mail comes through clearly, write in dark ink only and avoid pencils and yellow markers, which reduce image quality, and keep the contents plain. Address mail to the inmate's full name and ADC number. Our breakdown of how to send mail to an inmate covers the address format and common rejection triggers.

No food or care packages may be mailed to an Arkansas inmate; the accepted substitute is to fund the account so they can buy approved items, or to order through approved channels when a unit offers a package program. Our guide to sending a care package to an inmate explains how approved-vendor programs typically work, and our explainer on how prison commissary works shows what a funded account actually buys inside.

Phone calls, staying connected, and preparing for release

Phone service in Arkansas lets the incarcerated person place calls to numbers on their approved list, so the practical first step is to set up and fund a prepaid account tied to your number. Under the FCC rate caps that took effect in 2026, per-minute rates have dropped sharply, and our guide to calling an inmate explains account setup and how to keep the cost down. Tablets have also become central to daily contact in Arkansas, handling scanned mail, messaging, and media, and setting up those services early is often the fastest way to reach someone after intake, as our provider guide explains for the systems that power them.

Contact matters most as release approaches. Arkansas returns many people to the community each year, most under supervision, and the months before release are the time to line up identification, housing, and income. Our reentry guide for life after prison walks through those steps so the transition home is smoother for everyone involved.

Your first steps

If someone you love has just entered the Arkansas system, focus first on the essentials: confirm which unit holds them and write down their ADC number, complete and return the visiting form to the unit visitation clerk, and set up an Access Corrections deposit so calls, tablet services, and commissary are possible. From there, the digital-mail rules and release planning get easier. When a policy you read online conflicts with what the unit says, trust the unit, and confirm anything important directly before you rely on it.

Property, tablets, and the digital shift

Arkansas has leaned further into digital systems than many states, with mail scanned to tablets and deposits handled electronically, so a tablet is increasingly the center of an inmate's contact with the outside world — carrying scanned letters, messages, and media. Setting up messaging and a funded account early is often the fastest way to reach someone after intake, before a visit can be arranged. Pairing tablet messaging with regular phone calls gives most families a practical rhythm even across long distances.

Property is still limited by policy, with caps on clothing and personal items, and quantities beyond the allowance can be confiscated or sent home. The store list and the unit's own guidance are the authorities to trust, since helping someone keep what the rules permit is more useful than sending more than they can hold.

Legal mail, emergencies, and avoiding scams

Legal or privileged mail is handled separately from the digital-mail scanning process and is generally opened only in the inmate's presence, provided it is properly marked as coming from an attorney or a court, so keep legal documents out of ordinary letters. For emergencies such as a death, serious illness, or birth in the family, call the unit and ask how to get an urgent message to the inmate or their caseworker rather than trying to reach them directly.

Be careful about where you get information and send money. The ADC inmate search and the unit's own lines are free and authoritative, and deposits should go through Access Corrections as the department directs. Third-party sites that charge to "locate" an inmate or promise faster deposits are a frequent way families lose cash for something the state provides directly, so keep to the official channels for anything that matters.

How Arkansas splits custody from supervision

Because this record is not itself a custody facility, the numbers worth knowing belong to the two that are. The most recent federal jail census, covering 2022, counted them separately:

• Division of Correction — 20 prison facilities across 12 counties
• Division of Community Correction — probation, parole and community placements

The two divisions sit under the same department but are separate operations with separate staff and separate records. If your family member moves from a prison to community supervision, the people you deal with change entirely, and a question the prison could answer may be one the supervising officer now owns. Ask which division has the case before chasing an answer.

Those are census figures for a single reporting year and are now several years old, so treat them as the scale of each facility rather than a current count. Neither figure describes this record — this address is the hospital, and it holds no one on its own authority.

What records still exist for the Arkansas Division of Correction

Closing a prison does not erase its statistical record. The department continues to publish pre-closure reports for this institution, including monthly population reports published by the Division's research and planning office, board reports covering the Division of Correction and accreditation material for individual units.

These are worth knowing about if you are reconstructing a timeline — confirming when someone was held here, what the conditions and population were at the time, or supporting a claim that depends on how the institution was operating. They are statistical rather than individual, so they will not contain a named person's file; for that you need a records request to the department rather than a published report.

The system the Arkansas Division of Correction belongs to

the Arkansas Division of Correction is one institution inside a much larger system. As of October 31, 2022 the department held 17,480 people across all of its facilities, in the Division of Correction's jurisdictional population on that date.

That figure had risen by 457 people since the start of that year, so the system was growing rather than contracting.

With 20 facilities across only 12 counties, several counties host more than one prison — which means a transfer sometimes moves someone only a short distance, and sometimes across the state.

System size is not trivia when you are trying to plan. A department this large moves people to wherever a suitable bed exists, which is why a transfer can be announced with little notice and can put hundreds of miles between a family and a visiting room. It is also why program and education waitlists are measured in months: the queue is set by system-wide demand, not by how helpful the staff at one institution are willing to be.

What this department operates

The department lists 20 adult institutions. This record is the department itself rather than any one prison, so it has no beds, no visiting room and no warden of its own — which is why the practical details you need always belong to a specific institution, not to headquarters.

Arkansas separates custody from community supervision: the Division of Correction runs the prisons, while a separate Division of Community Correction handles probation, parole and community placements. Which division someone falls under decides who you deal with.

The Division of Correction maintains 20 prison facilities spread across 12 Arkansas counties. Knowing the list is more useful than it looks: a transfer is announced by institution name, often with no explanation of where that is or how far you will now have to travel.

That distinction matters when you are chasing an answer. Department policy sets the framework — visiting eligibility, approved vendors, grievance procedure — but the schedule, the phone number, and the person who can actually help are all at the institution holding your family member. Start by confirming which prison that is, then work with that facility directly.

How to find someone in this department's custody

The department's official search tool is the state's inmate search, at apps.ark.org/inmate_info/index.php. The search covers people held by the Division of Correction. Someone on probation or parole falls under the separate Division of Community Correction, and someone held before sentencing is usually in a county jail — Arkansas had 69 jail facilities in the federal census, so the county of arrest is the place to start in that case.

Staying consistent and where to get help

Whatever mix of tablet messages, calls, mail, and visits you settle into, consistency matters more than any single grand gesture. A predictable call, a message answered promptly, and an occasional visit give someone inside something reliable to count on, and they keep you informed about how your loved one is doing as their sentence progresses.

Supporting a person through incarceration takes a toll on families, and there is no need to carry it alone. Our overview of financial help for families of incarcerated people lists benefits and nonprofits that may help while your person is away, and our guide to funding an inmate phone account explains how to keep contact affordable.

Above all, keep your own records — the ADC number, the current unit, and deposit receipts — because a few organized notes prevent most of the confusion families run into. When guidance you find online conflicts with what the unit tells you, the unit is the authority to follow.

Health, safety, and raising concerns

If you are worried about a loved one's medical care, mental health, or physical safety inside, the right channel is to contact the unit's staff or the unit team directly rather than assuming word will reach the right person informally. Ask who handles medical or safety concerns, explain the situation clearly, and write down who you spoke with and when, because a simple record of your calls makes follow-up far easier if the problem is not resolved the first time. Most systems also have a formal grievance process the inmate can use from the inside, and encouraging them to document issues in writing protects them.

Incarceration is hard on mental health for the person inside and for the family outside, and reaching out for support is a sign of strength rather than weakness. Keep the ADC number and current location handy whenever you call about a concern, since staff will ask for it to locate your person quickly, and stay calm and specific on the phone — a clear, factual account of what you are worried about gets a faster response than an angry one. Steady, informed advocacy is one of the most valuable things a family can offer.