The Bridgeport County Inmate Population
Connecticut runs one of the few unified jail and prison systems in the country. In 1968 the state merged all county jails with its state prisons under the Connecticut Department of Correction (DOC). There is no Bridgeport County sheriff and no county jail roster. The Bridgeport County inmate population is therefore a DOC count, anchored at Bridgeport Correctional Center at 1106 North Avenue. That facility holds both accused and sentenced adult men, and it serves Superior Courts in Ansonia, Derby, Milford, Bridgeport, Danbury, Norwalk, and Stamford.
The number held is not fixed. It rises and falls each day. Arrests push it up. Bond and release pull it down. Court outcomes and transfers to other DOC sites move people in and out. On June 2, 2026, the state open data feed counted 578 people at the facility, with 481 listed as accused or other and 97 sentenced. The DOC June 1, 2026 monthly report put the count at 573, all male, none female. Federal law-enforcement and policy reports treat the data this way because Connecticut has no stand-alone county jail layer to measure.
Note: A current listing in DOC custody does not prove a conviction, because the agency also holds accused people who are still waiting for trial.
Bridgeport County Inmate Population Statistics
The headline figures come from three official sources: the DOC monthly statistics report, the Connecticut open data portal, and the 2024 federal PREA audit of the facility. Each gives a slightly different snapshot because each is measured on a different date and in a different way. The 2024 PREA audit listed a designed capacity of 925 and an average daily population of 584 over the prior 12 months. The number of detention sites that hold part of the local count is two.
Daily population data for the facility is published in a public state table, broken out by accused and sentenced status. The figures below trace to that feed, the DOC report, and the audit. Connecticut does not publish a Bridgeport County jail booking total or a city incarceration rate per 100,000, because the unified system does not measure custody that way, so those rows are left out rather than guessed.
The state's open daily count for the facility is shown in a sortable public table. You can confirm the latest figures at the Connecticut correctional facility daily population dataset.
That table updates as new daily counts post, which is why the open data figure and the monthly report figure rarely match to the person.
| Measure | Figure | Source / Year |
|---|---|---|
| Average daily population | 584 | 2024 PREA final audit |
| Designed / rated capacity | 925 | 2024 PREA final audit |
| Average permanent beds | 797 | CT open data, quarter ending 2026-03-31 |
| Daily count (total) | 578 | CT open data, 2026-06-02 |
| Monthly count (total) | 573 | DOC June 1, 2026 monthly report |
Bridgeport County Inmate Population Trends
The local count has eased over the past few years. The DOC June 1, 2026 monthly report gives a clean five-year line for the facility. May 2021 averaged 594. May 2025 averaged 688. April 2026 averaged 613, and May 2026 averaged 588. So the current average sits below last year and close to where it stood five years back. The facility held about 5.5% of the statewide confined average in May 2026.
DOC posts a fresh report at the start of each month, with files going back to 2013. The full archive sits on the Connecticut DOC monthly statistics page.
Each monthly file lists every DOC facility, so you can track the Bridgeport line month to month.
| Period | Average Daily Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| May 2021 | 594 | 6.6% of statewide confined average |
| May 2025 | 688 | 6.2% of statewide confined average |
| April 2026 | 613 | 5.7% of statewide confined average |
| May 2026 | 588 | 5.5% of statewide confined average |
All four rows come from the DOC June 1, 2026 monthly report. The quarter ending March 31, 2026 showed a 624 average population against 797 average permanent beds, a density near 78%.
Who Makes Up the Bridgeport County Inmate Population
The mix here leans heavily toward people who have not been convicted yet. The DOC June 1, 2026 report broke the facility down by legal status: 96 sentenced, or 16.75%, 464 accused, or 80.98%, and 13 held in federal status, or 2.27%. That is the reverse of the statewide picture, where the May 2026 average ran 68.2% sentenced and 31.8% accused. The flip reflects the facility's job as a pretrial and intake site for a wide court region.
- Accused vs sentenced - 464 accused and 96 sentenced on the June 1, 2026 monthly report.
- Male vs female - 573 male and 0 female; the facility is male-only in current DOC and audit sources.
- Held in federal status - 13 people listed under a federal category on June 1, 2026.
- Age range - 18 to 74, with no youthful inmates, per the 2024 PREA audit.
- Custody level - on Feb 1, 2024 the audit logged Level 1 = 10, Level 2 = 38, Level 3 = 144, Level 4 = 470.
Official sources do not publish a race or ethnicity breakdown for the facility, so none is shown. Statewide, the Vera Institute reports that Black people make up 11% of Connecticut residents but 41% of the incarcerated population; that figure is state-level, not a facility count.
Bridgeport Jail Capacity and Population Pressure
The facility has run below its rated room in recent figures. The 2024 PREA audit set the designed capacity at 925 and reported the site was not over capacity at any point in the prior 12 months. The latest quarterly open data, for the period ending March 31, 2026, listed 797 average permanent beds against a 624 average population. Daily counts in late May and early June 2026 stayed in the high 500s.
That means the recent population sat well under both the audit capacity and the quarterly bed figure. Official sources do not describe the facility as overcrowded, and no consent decree, court-ordered cap, or new-construction plan for the site was found in current state records. Capacity here should be read against the audit and open data, not against older or generic jail narratives.
Laws Governing the Bridgeport County Inmate Population
Several Connecticut statutes and one DOC directive set what is public and how the data is shared. The state Freedom of Information Act opens agency records to the public unless a specific exemption applies. Arrest records carry their own rule. A separate erasure law can pull eligible records back out of public view. The DOC directive lists the exact inmate fields the agency may release.
Key Statutes and Rules:
Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 1-210 - the state FOIA makes agency records public unless an exemption applies and lets people inspect or copy them during office hours.
Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 1-215 - arrest records are public from the time of arrest, so basic arrest information must be disclosed subject to exceptions.
DOC Administrative Directive 4.4 - lists the inmate fields DOC may release, including the inmate photo, and excludes youthful-offender and ICE-held records.
Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 54-142a - governs erasure of records after dismissals, nolles, and acquittals, so erased records are generally not disclosed.
Note: Youthful offender, sealed, and erased matters may not appear in any public lookup even when an arrest clearly took place.
Bridgeport and the Connecticut Prison Population
Because the system is unified, the local count is part of the statewide DOC count. Sentenced people from the Bridgeport region do not move to a separate county-to-state pipeline; they are already in DOC custody. After sentencing, a person's current location may shift to another DOC facility based on classification, security level, programs, or medical needs. The statewide confined average was 10,771 in May 2026, and the Bridgeport facility was about 5.5% of it.
The state's broader trend matters for context. The Office of Policy and Management reported that the July 1, 2024 DOC population was the largest in five years, up 4.4%, or 445 people, from 2023, with the pretrial group up 7%. Those are statewide numbers, not a Bridgeport-only figure, and they help explain why local averages move with statewide pressure. You can confirm sentenced custody for any person through the Connecticut DOC inmate search.
How to Search the Bridgeport County Inmate Population
The first stop for a current inmate is the Connecticut DOC inmate information search. The state correctional services page says current inmates can be searched by CT DOC number, name, and date of birth. The locator covers people held in DOC custody now, and DOC updates it daily. It does not include youthful-offender records or people held for ICE.
You need a name at a minimum. A CT DOC number makes the search faster and more exact. The lead-in image below shows the official search portal.
The official search page is the Connecticut DOC inmate information search.
From there, the steps are straightforward.
- Open the Connecticut DOC inmate information search and choose to search by name or CT DOC number.
- Enter the person's last name, or the CT DOC number if you have it.
- Add a date of birth or first name to narrow a common name.
- Open the result and read the current location and status to confirm whether the person is accused or sentenced.
- If the person is not listed, they may be in Bridgeport Police custody, in court, in federal custody, or held for ICE; use the matching fallback search.
Note: The official DOC locator rejected automated inspection during research, so the exact live field labels and button text could not be confirmed from the portal itself.
Current Inmate Lookup in Bridgeport
The DOC locator is the live tool for a person held now in Connecticut custody. It is free and public. The state correctional services page describes the three search inputs, though the exact on-screen layout was not confirmable because the portal blocked automated review. The field table below reflects the official CT.gov description of what the search accepts.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| CT DOC Number | Text | Unspecified | CT.gov says current inmates can be searched by CT DOC number. |
| Name | Text | Unspecified | First and last split not confirmed; locator rejected automated inspection. |
| Date of Birth | Date / Text | Unspecified | CT.gov says search can use date of birth. |
| Search | Button | N/A | Exact live button label not confirmed. |
If a person was arrested very recently by Bridgeport Police, they may not appear in DOC yet. The Bridgeport Police Department holding facility holds people no more than 72 hours for booking, bond, and transfer. For those very recent arrests, the booking area at (203) 581-5141 or the bail commissioner at (203) 581-5146 are the better first calls. The custody side and the roster how-to are covered in more depth on the jail inmate records page.
Past and Released Inmate Records
The DOC locator is built for current custody, so a released person can drop off it. DOC warns that status can change quickly and that the data may not reflect the current situation. If someone vanished from the facility, search the statewide locator again before assuming release, because a transfer to another DOC site changes the listed current location without meaning the person went home.
For records that are not online, the request goes to the agency that holds them. Current DOC custody questions go to the DOC Public Information Office at (860) 692-7780. Past Bridgeport Police arrest records and reports go to the BPD Records Division and the city's public records center, under Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 1-210 and Sec. 1-215. Court charges and outcomes belong to the Connecticut Judicial Branch. Erased, sealed, juvenile, and youthful-offender matters may be unavailable to the public.
What a Bridgeport Inmate Record Shows
Connecticut uses the DOC system rather than a county roster, so the public field list comes from DOC Administrative Directive 4.4. That directive sets what the agency may disclose. The status field is the one to read first, since it tells you whether the person is accused or sentenced. The table below lists the main public fields.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Name | The inmate's committed or approved public name. |
| Inmate number | DOC identification number used to search and route mail or money. |
| Date of birth | The date of birth as recorded by DOC. |
| Status | Sentenced or accused; critical because the facility holds both. |
| Controlling offense | The main offense that controls the confinement and release calculation. |
| Current location | The DOC facility where the person is held; may read Bridgeport Correctional Center or another site. |
| Admission date | The date DOC took custody of the person. |
| Release dates | Minimum, maximum, and estimated release dates if applicable. |
| Detainer | A hold or request from another agency that can affect release. |
| Inmate photo | A DOC public photo field; this is not a county mugshot gallery. |
Booking photos and what is public about them are handled on the jail roster mugshots page. The DOC photo field is not the same thing as a daily booking-photo gallery.
Pretrial vs Sentenced Custody: Where to Look
Connecticut has no county sheriff jail, so the honest comparison is not county versus state. It is the pretrial and intake role at the facility versus full sentenced DOC custody, both run by the same state agency, alongside the separate federal and immigration systems. Accused people and sentenced people can sit in the same DOC facility, which is why the status field matters so much.
| CT DOC Custody | Federal / ICE Custody | |
|---|---|---|
| Who Is Held | Accused and sentenced adult men, including pretrial intake | Federal defendants and detainees; immigration holds |
| Run By | Connecticut Department of Correction | Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Marshals, ICE |
| Where to Look | Connecticut DOC inmate search | BOP locator, USMS, ICE detainee locator |
| Excluded | Youthful-offender and ICE-held records | People under 18 in ICE ODLS |
A single arrest can move through more than one system. A person may start in Bridgeport Police booking, move to DOC as accused, then to another DOC site after sentencing, or never reach DOC at all if they bond out fast. Federal cases can run through the U.S. Marshals before the Bureau of Prisons.
State and Federal Inmate Search
Different systems cover different slices of the local picture. The Connecticut DOC inmate search covers people in state custody, accused or sentenced. The federal Bureau of Prisons handles sentenced federal inmates. The U.S. Marshals Service District of Connecticut, reachable at the Bridgeport office (203) 579-5897, handles many federal pretrial prisoners. People in immigration custody are found through the ICE Online Detainee Locator System.
The federal locator search interface is shown on the official Bureau of Prisons site.
The BOP inmate locator covers federal inmates from 1982 to the present and lets you search by number or by name. The nearest federal prison is FCI Danbury, about an hour northeast. ICE ODLS needs an exact nine-digit A-number with country of birth, or an exact first and last name with country of birth, and it cannot search people under 18.
Bridgeport Detention Facilities
Two sites hold part of the local inmate population. One is the main state custody facility. The other is a short-term police lockup used only for arrest processing. There is no Bureau of Prisons prison and no ICE detention facility physically in the city.
- Bridgeport Correctional Center - Connecticut DOC facility holding pretrial and sentenced adult men; the main custody site for Bridgeport.
- Bridgeport Police Department Holding Facility - short-term police lockup for arrest processing, held no more than 72 hours.
Bridgeport County Inmate Population FAQ
How big is the Bridgeport County inmate population?
On June 2, 2026 the state open data feed counted 578 people at Bridgeport Correctional Center, with 481 accused or other and 97 sentenced. The DOC June 1, 2026 monthly report put the count at 573, all male. The facility averaged 588 in May 2026 and 584 over the 12 months before the 2024 PREA audit. The number moves daily with arrests, bond, and transfers.
Is there a Bridgeport County jail roster?
No. Connecticut has no county sheriff and no county jail roster. In 1968 the state merged all county jails into the Connecticut Department of Correction. To find someone held locally, use the Connecticut DOC inmate search, which covers accused and sentenced people in state custody and updates daily. There is no separate Bridgeport County roster to check.
How do I search the Bridgeport County inmate population?
Start at the Connecticut DOC inmate information search and look up the person by name, CT DOC number, or date of birth. Read the result's status and current location to see whether the person is accused or sentenced and where they are held. If they were just arrested, call the Bridgeport Police booking area, since brand-new arrests may not show in DOC yet.
Can I look up a released or past inmate?
The DOC locator is built for current custody, so a released person can drop off it. Search the statewide locator again first, because a transfer changes the listed location without meaning the person went home. For older records, request them from the agency that holds them: the DOC Public Information Office, the Bridgeport Police Records Division, or the Connecticut Judicial Branch for court files.
Are pretrial and sentenced inmates in the same place?
Yes. Bridgeport Correctional Center holds both accused and sentenced adult men. On June 1, 2026 it held 464 accused, 96 sentenced, and 13 in federal status. That mix is why the record's status field matters: a current listing does not prove a conviction, since many people there are still waiting for trial.
Where are federal or ICE detainees?
They are not in the DOC locator. Sentenced federal inmates appear in the federal Bureau of Prisons locator. Federal pretrial prisoners are often held through the U.S. Marshals Service District of Connecticut, with a Bridgeport office. People in immigration custody are found through the ICE Online Detainee Locator System, which needs an exact A-number or exact name with country of birth and cannot search people under 18.
Bridgeport Inmate Record Terms
A few terms come up again and again in Connecticut custody records. Knowing them helps you read a DOC result correctly.
- Accused
- A person held before conviction while charges are still pending.
- Sentenced
- A person who has been convicted and is serving a sentence.
- Controlling offense
- The main offense that controls the sentence and release calculation in DOC records.
- Detainer
- A hold or request from another agency that can affect when a person is released.
- Erasure
- The Connecticut term for records treated as erased after eligible outcomes such as a dismissal or acquittal.