Check Ventress Release Records

Ventress State Prison Releases

Ventress Correctional Facility is an ADOC state prison in Clayton. A person released from Ventress is a state-prison release even though the facility is located in Barbour County. That distinction changes the search path. The Barbour County Sheriff's current inmate roster is not the release source for Ventress prisoners unless the person later enters county jail custody on a separate matter. For Ventress, the main sources are ADOC records, ADOC release-date calculations, Alabama VNS or VINELink notifications, the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles, and the sentencing court.

Release from Ventress can happen through parole, probation or other supervision, end-of-sentence discharge, transfer to another ADOC facility, court writ, detainer, or another agency hold. A parole release does not mean unconditional discharge. It means the person left prison under supervision unless later revoked, discharged, or otherwise changed by the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. A transfer also is not a community release. It only means the person left Ventress custody for another facility or agency.

Confirm a Ventress Release

ADOC's public search helps most when the person is still incarcerated. The research found that ADOC says its database contains currently incarcerated inmates and that historical data is not available online at this time. A no-result search for a former Ventress prisoner should not be read as proof that the person was never in ADOC custody. It may mean the public current-custody search no longer displays the person after release or discharge.

1. Search ADOC by AIS number first if known, because ADOC says the AIS number takes precedence over name fields.
2. If no AIS number is available, search first and last name, then compare identity fields carefully because name searches can return partial matches.
3. If the person appears, review the current facility and release-date related fields, including minimum release date, parole status, jail credit, and sentence data when available.
4. If the person no longer appears and was known to be at Ventress, contact ADOC Central Records or use ADOC's public-records process.
5. Check ABPP hearing results, minutes, and the Clayton Field Office if the release may involve parole or supervision in Barbour County.

Ventress ADOC Facility Page

The official source for Ventress facility details is the ADOC Ventress Correctional Facility page, shown below.

The facility page matters because it places Ventress inside the state prison system. The local address and phone help identify the facility, but release research moves to ADOC records and sentence data. For a person who left Ventress, the key record is not a county booking release. It is the state custody, discharge, parole, or transfer record.

Ventress Records and Contact

Ventress can be contacted for facility identification and routing, but state release and discharge records normally run through ADOC records channels. ADOC lists Central Records and a public-records process through its contact page. The research also found ADOC Form 23-A, the Public Records Coordinator, fee prepayment, and advance fee notice. A strong request names the person, AIS number if known, facility, sentence date if known, and the specific record sought.

For parole records, use the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. The Clayton Field Office serves Barbour and Bullock counties, and the Barbour court directory lists local pardon and parole contacts in Clayton and Eufaula. For court records, use the sentencing court or Alacourt ACCESS.

Ventress Minimum Release Date

For a person still in ADOC custody, release-date research should use ADOC terminology. ADOC defines Minimum Release Date as the earliest scheduled date an inmate can be released to probation or end of sentence. It can change. ADOC says discipline, good-time loss, new cases, or sentence changes from the circuit clerk may move the date. That makes the field a calculated date, not a promise of the exact day a person will leave Ventress.

Alabama Code Section 14-9-41 controls Correctional Incentive Time, including earning classes and exclusions. Section 15-22-28 controls parole consideration timing. Those rules should not be imported into a county jail booking unless the person is serving an ADOC sentence.

Barbour State-Prison Release Landscape

Barbour County has two ADOC prisons, Ventress in Clayton and Easterling in Clio. This gives local release searches a state-prison-heavy pattern. Many searches for Barbour County released inmates are not about the county jail at all. They are about a person housed in Barbour County by ADOC. Ventress opened in August 1990 and has a treatment mission, including substance-abuse programming and education through technical college partners. Easterling opened in March 1990 and has its own treatment and vocational programs.

This local angle changes how records should be read. A Ventress release is tied to ADOC sentence computation, parole decisions, notification systems, and court sentence records. The county's current roster can still matter if a person is separately booked into Barbour County Jail before or after state custody, but it does not replace ADOC records for the prison sentence.

Ventress VNS and Parole Checks

Alabama's Victim Notification System and VINELink can help track custody changes for qualifying Alabama offenders. The research found that Alabama VNS is for offenders convicted in Alabama and sentenced to prison, which points to ADOC custody. For a Ventress prisoner, that state-notification path is more relevant than it would be for a pretrial county-jail detainee. Still, VNS or VINE is an alert and status tool. It does not replace the ADOC discharge record, parole record, or court disposition.

ABPP records are important when release involves parole. The agency posts scheduled parole hearings, current-year parole results, previous-year results, hearing minutes, public-records request information, and field office contacts. A result entry may need the hearing minutes for special conditions. A reset date is not the same as a new release date. For a Barbour County reporting point, use the Clayton Field Office if supervision applies locally.

Note: A parole grant is a prison release under supervision, not the same thing as an unconditional ADOC discharge.

Ventress Transfers and Detainers

Ventress release research should also ask whether the person left to another custody system. A court writ, detainer, or transfer can move a person away from Ventress without ending all custody. If the destination is another ADOC facility, ADOC records remain the main source. If the person moves to federal custody, the BOP locator and federal court records may become relevant. If immigration custody is involved, the ICE Online Detainee Locator may help for current ICE custody.

Barbour County Jail appears in historical TRAC ICE detainer data, but that local jail point should not be stretched to Ventress or used as proof of current ICE custody. For any transfer, ask the source agency for the release type and receiving agency, then verify with the receiving system.

For a Ventress prisoner, detainer research starts with ADOC because the person is in state prison custody. ADOC can identify whether the state custody record ended by discharge, parole, transfer, writ, or hold-related movement. After that, the next inquiry follows the destination. That may be another ADOC facility, a court, BOP, ICE, or a local agency listed in the transfer record.