Southwestern Regional Jail Release Paths
Southwestern is a regional jail operated by the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or WVDCR. It serves Mingo County even though it is physically located in Holden, Logan County. A person can leave the facility through community release, conditional release, or transfer. Only the first two end confinement at that point. A move to a state prison, another regional jail, federal custody, or immigration custody continues physical custody elsewhere.
Community release may follow bond, dismissal, time served, sentence expiration, or another lawful court action. Conditional release can include parole, probation, home-confinement terms, or mandatory supervision. Those labels mean the person is outside Southwestern, but they do not mean every legal duty has ended. A Mingo court order supplies the authority, while the WVDCR release or movement transaction records the physical custody change.
| Path from Southwestern | What to confirm | Best official record |
|---|---|---|
| Community release | The actual processing time and stated reason | WVDCR release transaction plus Mingo order |
| Conditional release | Whether parole, probation, or other terms apply | Release event plus supervising-office record |
| State-prison transfer | The receiving institution and continued custody | WVDCR movement record and DOC search |
| Other-custodian transfer | Which jail or agency received the person | Movement record and receiving locator |
Confirm Southwestern Regional Jail Release
The official RJA jail search is an active-custody lead. It may show identity, OID or booking data, Southwestern as the facility, charge or case information, status, and an image. WVDCR warns that information changes quickly and may not reflect the true current location, release date, or status. An empty result therefore begins the confirmation process rather than ending it.
- Search the WVDCR regional-jail system using at least the first three letters of the last name, then add the first name and compare identity details.
- If the person was previously at Southwestern but no longer appears, check the WVDCR prison search for a state-prison transfer.
- Check the person in VINELink and record the event, location, status, and update language exactly as displayed.
- Use the Mingo case number to obtain the signed bond, dismissal, judgment, sentence, or other controlling order.
- Request the WVDCR release or movement transaction for a precise date, time, reason, or destination.
The complete Mingo County search and records path appears on the Mingo County released inmates home page. It explains how the WVDCR event and Mingo court record support each other.
Southwestern Regional Jail Contact
Call the facility for current logistics and navigation. A phone response can help identify the correct office, but a dated written record is stronger proof of a past release. The official facility page does not publish general release-processing hours, an exit door, a property-return procedure, or a fixed pickup schedule. Confirm those details directly before travel.
1300 Gaston Caperton Drive
Holden, WV 25625
Telephone: 304-239-3032
Fax: 304-239-3079
General release-processing hours are not published.
The official WVDCR facility page is the source for the name, location, phone, fax, service area, and current agency details. At the research date, it named Toby Allen as superintendent. Verify current officials before addressing correspondence to a person rather than the agency.
Request Southwestern Release Records
WVDCR is the probable custodian for Southwestern booking, movement, intake-photo, sentence-calculation, and release transactions. The Mingo County Sheriff may hold its own arrest report or photo, but the Sheriff does not operate Southwestern. Directing each request to the record's creator prevents delay and avoids asking one office for a file it never held.
A focused West Virginia FOIA request should identify the person, OID if known, facility, and narrow booking period. Ask for the admission date and time; release or movement date and time; event type or reason; destination custodian if transferred; authority, order, or case number; and any segregable public sentence-calculation field. Electronic copies can reduce reproduction cost. Ask for the retention-schedule citation because no public retention term was located for Southwestern release records.
Under West Virginia Code §29B-1-3, the custodian must act within five days, excluding weekends and legal holidays, by producing records, setting an inspection time, or giving a written denial. Only actual reproduction cost may be charged under that section, not search or staff-time fees. This deadline does not promise that all requested material is public.
Note: Ask for segregable fields and a cited exemption for each withheld portion because WVDCR treats the broader offender file as confidential.
Southwestern Booking File Evidence
WVDCR Policy Directive 151.00 documents a legal or booking file for every new booking. The file may contain the document that legally holds the person, such as a court or magistrate order, federal remand, parole-revocation order, or jail-credit memo. It also includes time sheets and sentence calculations when those apply. This establishes that WVDCR keeps records capable of explaining custody and release, but it does not make the full offender file open without restriction.
Policy Directive 400.01 links the jail admission process to an Inmate Recap and sentence-staff release-date calculations. Request the smallest set that answers the release question. The physical event, court authority, and continued supervision may appear in different records. If a denial cites confidentiality, ask the custodian to redact protected matter and produce the nonexempt release fields that can be separated.
- OID
- The WVDCR offender identifier used to distinguish people with similar names.
- Legal or booking file
- The agency file containing the holding authority and related booking documents.
- Movement record
- A custody transaction that may show a transfer rather than community release.
- Minimum discharge
- A calculated sentence endpoint under the applicable order, credit, and good-time rules.
Southwestern Release Photo Records
Policy 151.00 states that three adult intake photographs are created and that the front view is used for the OIS header. Policy 400.01 also ties admission to mugshot and OIS processing. Creation and agency possession do not promise permanent public display. No official released-person gallery or photo-retention period was found for Southwestern.
When the booking image is needed, request the front-view photograph tied to the named Southwestern booking. Ask for it separately from the release sheet. One disputed item should not obscure the other. A photo in a current OIS record proves that an intake image exists and helps match identity, but it does not show a release event. The event type, date, and destination must come from the custody record and court authority.
Southwestern Regional Jail History
Southwestern began receiving inmates on April 8, 1998. The official WVDCR description says the complex has three pods and serves Boone, Logan, McDowell, and Mingo counties. Its regional role explains why a search for a separately operated “Mingo County Jail” leads readers toward the wrong institution. No separate county-run adult jail or adult state prison physically in Mingo was identified in the reviewed official directory.
The Sheriff in Williamson remains a law-enforcement office, not the adult jail shown by the facility map. An arresting agency may create an arrest report while Southwestern creates the jail booking and movement event. The Mingo judiciary creates the bond, dismissal, sentence, and later disposition orders. This administrative split is not a technicality. It determines where a useful release request must go.
Leaving Southwestern After Release
The facility is in Logan County, so a return to Williamson or another Mingo community can require cross-county planning. No official source established a public-transit stop at the jail. Tri River Transit serves Mingo and publishes Monday through Saturday routes, but its route material does not verify a Southwestern stop. Sunday service is not advertised.
Tri River offers advance route deviations of up to three-quarters of a mile for a stated $2 deviation fare. That fact still does not establish that a requested deviation can serve the facility. Call Tri River at 304-824-2944 or 877-212-0815 and call Southwestern before relying on transit. Confirm the actual release event first, then confirm pickup time, property needs, and a safe meeting point with the facility.
Southwestern Release Search Limits
No official 24-hour list, 72-hour list, released-person archive, mobile app, fixed release schedule, weekend rule, property-return procedure, or verified transit stop was located for Southwestern. The absence of a published feature is important. Daily Incarcerations and the active RJA view must not be relabeled as release feeds, and a commercial mirror must not be used as official proof.
For a fresh event, record the time of each official check. Report only what the source showed. If the name no longer returns, check DOC, VINE, and the Mingo court before describing the person as released. For an older event, begin with the case number and submit a narrow WVDCR request. That method is slower than a feed, but it preserves the difference between leaving Southwestern and leaving custody altogether.