Accessing Alabama Criminal Records

Alabama criminal records contain data on all kinds of criminal activities from all over the state. For instance, there is information on federal criminal court cases as well as public criminal records. The public criminal reports contain detailed information about arrests, convictions, sentences served, dismissals and also 'not guilty' verdicts. The Alabama criminal records also contain jail and prison records, as well as police records.

Using the Criminal Justice Information Center

The Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC) is committed to helping the citizens in more ways than one. The ACJIC maintains a directory listing of the criminal histories in the state. The ABC system or the Alabama Background Check system allows conducting a background check by employers on future and current employees. The office address is provided below:

Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center
201 South Union Street, Suite 300
Montgomery, AL 36130

The employers can carry out these checks only if the employee sanctions a “right to know” waiver for the purpose. Use of the ACJIC system without the approval letter from the employee can be subjected to criminal prosecution. The Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center works along with the Alabama Department of Public Safety. The ACJIC also assists the general public on the following:

1. To check your own criminal history- Alabama law and regulations allow an individual to check his/her own criminal records. These records are maintained by the Alabama Department of Public Safety and ACJIC. The Alabama Department of Public Safety can be contacted by calling (334) 242-4371. You can also make an appeal to review or challenge the information in case he wants to change it.
2. To obtain a fingerprint-based background check of a suspected criminal- fingerprint-based checks are known to be accurate and the group of professionals at the legal offices who can perform a fingerprint-based check can be contacted at (334) 242-4371.
3. To have your criminal history corrected- as mentioned earlier, the ACJIC allows you to view your own criminal records. If there are any errors in the records there is provision of requesting for a review of the records of even challenging them. With the challenge, the applicant must also provide them with the correct information and attach documents in support of his/her statement.

The Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center also gives an additional provision to have the search results of any criminal history authenticated by the relevant authorities. The review or “Challenge Criminal History Form”, available at http://acjic.alabama.gov/page-CriminalHistories, should be sent with either a money order or a check for $25 and the “Alabama Secretary of State’s Authentication Submittal Form." This and other instructions are available at http://www.sos.alabama.gov/AdminServices/Authentications.aspx. Along with this form, a money order ($5) should be made payable to the Alabama Secretary of State. Processing may take about 5-10days.

Sex Offender Records

Alabama criminal records also have a list of sex offenders, and this proves to be immensely helpful for the general public. The results reveal the offender’s name, date of birth, the crime he committed and his address. The following link allows you to search for sex offenders:
http://dps.alabama.gov/community/wfsexoffendersearch.aspx.

(334) 353-1172 is the number to the Alabama Bureau of Investigation. They attend to calls from 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. from Monday to Friday. People can also email their queries at sexoffenders@dps.alabama.gov.

Following Alabama’s law, the sex offenders need to be registered with the Sheriff’s Department in the respective county. The Sheriff’s department directs this information to the Alabama Department of Public Safety, or ADPS. The relevant link is http://dps.alabama.gov/community/. The U.S. Department of Justice also maintains a sex offender website, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/smart/. The sex offenders’ records are updated every week to maintain quality of the data.

The public should not only utilize Alabama criminal records to just perform checks and obtain information. They should also cooperate in maintaining them. Any unregistered sex offender must be reported to the Sheriff’s Department of that county.

The office of the Alabama Sexual Offender Registry address is:
Sexual Offender Registry
PO Box 1511
Montgomery, AL 36102-1511

Department of Corrections' Records

The Alabama Department of Corrections allows researching the records of presently incarcerated inmates. Though no historical data is available here, it is a storehouse of present data and very useful. The relevant address is given below:

PO Box 301501
Montgomery, AL 36130
p (334) 353-9500
f (334) 353-3883

The AIS number or the Alabama Institutional Serial number is a six-digit number. A unique AIS number is assigned to each inmate and searching with the AIS number is convenient. The AIS number, the first name and the last name are the data required to conduct searches of inmates. The Alabama Department of Corrections keeps organized records on escapes, inmates on a death row, execution lists and parole violators.