Search Southern Regional Jail Inmates

Southern Regional Jail Overview

Southern Regional Jail and Correctional Facility is operated by the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It sits in Beaver in Raleigh County, but it is the primary regional jail serving Mercer County arrestees after they move beyond sheriff, police, or court holding. WVDCR identifies the served counties as Fayette, Greenbrier, Mercer, Monroe, Raleigh, Summers, and Wyoming. That regional role is the key fact for a Mercer County jail search: the facility is not in Mercer County, but it is the jail system Mercer County users normally need for current regional jail custody.

The WVDCR FY2025 Annual Report describes Southern Regional Jail as a regional jail and correctional facility for pretrial felonies, pretrial misdemeanors, sentenced felons, and sentenced misdemeanants from the served counties. The same report states that the facility contractually houses federal detainees for the U.S. Marshals Service. That mix can make a roster result look confusing. A person may be waiting on a Mercer County magistrate matter, serving a shorter jail sentence, held for another county, or held on a federal pre-sentence case while still appearing in the regional jail system.

The facility was built in 1994. WVDCR listed Curtis Dixon as superintendent in 2025. Its official facility page gives the main jail phone, visitation scheduling line, fax number, counties served, directions, and non-contact visitation rules. Local sheriff or city police contacts still matter for very recent arrests, but after transfer the Southern Regional Jail records path becomes the practical lookup channel.

Southern Regional Jail Capacity

The best sourced capacity number in the Mercer County research is from the WVDCR FY2025 Annual Report, which lists Southern Regional Jail with a rated population of 468. That figure should not be read as the Mercer County inmate population by itself. Southern Regional Jail is a seven-county regional facility, so the total includes people from several counties and can include U.S. Marshals detainees under contract.

Southern Regional Jail Inmate Lookup

The correct public lookup channel for most Mercer County inmates at Southern Regional Jail is the WV Regional Jail Authority offender search. The portal is free and public. It requires at least the first three letters of the last name, with first name as an optional narrowing field. WVDCR warns that roster data is updated regularly but may change fast, so a record may not show the true current location, release date, or status at the moment it is viewed.

1. Open the WV Regional Jail Authority offender search.
2. Enter at least the first three letters of the last name, then add a first name when the surname is common.
3. Review matches and confirm whether the facility field points to Southern Regional Jail.
4. If no match appears after a recent Mercer County arrest, call Southern Regional Jail or the arresting agency before assuming the person is not in custody.
5. For sentenced state prison custody, use the WVDCR offender-search landing page instead of relying only on the regional jail roster.

Daily admissions can also be checked through the WV daily incarcerations page. For victim notification, West Virginia VINE provides custody-status alerts. Federal pre-sentence detainees may be housed at Southern Regional Jail under the Marshals contract, while sentenced federal inmates are usually searched through the BOP inmate locator.

Southern Regional Jail Contact

Use the facility phone line for practical custody questions such as whether a person is currently housed there, whether a visit has been scheduled, or whether a transfer has occurred. Use the court clerk for official court status, bond records, and copies of case documents. Use WVDCR or the proper record custodian for a formal public-record request.

Mercer County users often start with the sheriff or city police when an arrest just happened. Once the person is moved to Southern Regional Jail, the regional jail roster and facility phone line become the better channels. Court records after a jail arrest are separate from custody status and should be checked through magistrate or circuit court systems.

Southern Regional Jail Visits

Southern Regional Jail uses non-contact visitation. The official facility page says the inmate must submit a request using SRJ form 5-0029. Visits are limited in both people and frequency, and they must be scheduled before the visitation day. Families should not travel from Mercer County to Beaver without confirmation from the visitation scheduling line.

Longer visits need prior approval from the superintendent or chief correctional officer at least 24 hours in advance. Special-visit requests for unusual circumstances go to the chief correctional officer and may require proof. These limits are different from the Mercer County Sheriff's Department temporary holding facility, which does not allow public visits at all.

Southern Regional Jail Phone and Money

WVDCR offender banking uses ConnectNetwork for deposits by phone, web, and mobile app. The research did not locate an official fee table for Southern Regional Jail deposit transactions, so exact deposit fees should be checked with the vendor before money is sent. WVDCR calling and video services are tied to GettingOut. Facility-specific call pricing and video-visit schedules were not published in the captured official text.

Do not mail funds unless WVDCR or the vendor confirms that method. The research notes that jail handbook material found in search results says mailed funds are not deposited and may be returned or destroyed. Legal mail rules may differ from social mail because staff inspect legal mail for contraband but should not open it outside the inmate's presence.

Southern Regional Jail Booking

Mercer County custody can begin with the sheriff, Princeton Police, Bluefield Police, West Virginia State Police, or another agency. A person may first pass through local short-term holding, then appear for court or bond, then transfer to Southern Regional Jail. Intake can include identification, property handling, medical screening, classification, and record creation. Classification means the security and housing assignment inside the jail.

Roster timing is not guaranteed. WVDCR says public data changes quickly, and a very new arrest may still be in a local holding point or in transport. If the roster search fails, call the arresting agency, Southern Regional Jail, or the Mercer E-911 non-emergency number when appropriate. For court charges, search the magistrate or circuit court records rather than treating roster charge text as the final court record.

Southern Regional Jail Records

Public-record access depends on which agency holds the record. WVDCR is the practical source for regional jail custody records. The Mercer County Sheriff's Department may hold sheriff incident reports, accident reports, and closed-case criminal investigation reports. Princeton or Bluefield police may hold municipal arrest or incident records. WV Code section 29B-1-3 gives custodians up to five business days, excluding weekends and legal holidays, to provide records, set an inspection time, or deny a request with reasons.

A good request names the person, date, arresting agency, case or incident number if known, and the exact records sought. Some material may be withheld for sealed, expunged, juvenile, medical, privacy, security, or open-investigation reasons. Booking photos have a separate West Virginia law for law-enforcement social-media sharing and removal after certain favorable case outcomes, but that law does not make every photo available in every context.

About Southern Regional Jail

Southern Regional Jail has drawn public attention because of conditions reporting, death investigations, and litigation. AP reporting in 2023 connected the facility to broader scrutiny, investigations, officer guilty pleas in the Quantez Burks case, and a class-action settlement over alleged jail conditions. That history does not change the roster process, but it is part of the facility context families may encounter when searching for Mercer County custody information.

Mercer County also has a local budget connection to the regional jail system. Reporting in 2026 described concern over rising regional jail bills and noted that Mercer County has no full county jail. That local fact explains why Southern Regional Jail appears so often in Mercer County inmate lookup, visitation, bond, and records questions.