Cheshire Correctional Institution Inmate Roster

Cheshire Correctional Institution Overview

The Connecticut Department of Correction runs Cheshire Correctional Institution. It is a Level 4 high security prison. Level 4 means high security, one step below the top maximum tier in the state system. The institution holds adult sentenced and unsentenced offenders. A sentenced offender is a person serving a court sentence. An unsentenced offender is held while a case is still pending. Most of the population here is sentenced. The warden is Ruben Burgos. Thomas Kenny and Victoria Soley serve as deputy wardens.

Cheshire CI runs several specialized units. Protective custody houses people who need to be kept apart for their safety. Restrictive housing separates people from the general population for safety or discipline reasons. The TRUE Program is a named unit built around mentoring and structured rehabilitation for younger adults. Together these units make Cheshire CI more than a standard prison block. The facility employs 473 staff.

This prison sits inside New Haven County, but it is not the county's intake facility. People arrested in the New Haven area and held before trial are far more likely to pass through New Haven Correctional Center, the area's primary pretrial center. Cheshire CI usually receives people later, after sentencing or classification. You can read the official profile for the prison on the state site. The lead-in below points to that page before the screenshot.

The Department of Correction publishes a profile for the prison with its address, visiting links, and history. That source is shown here as a Cheshire Correctional Institution facility page on the state portal.

The state profile is the best starting point for confirming current contact details, visit schedules, and program notes for this New Haven County prison.

Cheshire Correctional Institution Population

On June 2, 2026, Cheshire CI held 1,214 people in the official Connecticut Data daily count. Of those, 1,001 were sentenced and 213 were accused or other status. That makes the sentenced share about 82.5 percent. Cheshire CI is the largest of the three Department of Correction facilities physically in New Haven County. Its population profile reads like a sentenced adult institution, not a pretrial jail.

The same-date trend shows a fairly steady count over five years. The numbers below come from the state population dataset for the same June date each year. They move within a narrow band. Cheshire CI has stayed the largest county facility across the whole stretch.

You can review the underlying figures in the official Connecticut Data facility population dataset. Read these counts with one caveat in mind.

How to Find an Inmate at Cheshire CI

Connecticut runs a unified prison system, so there is no separate county roster for Cheshire CI. You use the statewide Department of Correction inmate information search. It covers people in state custody, both sentenced and unsentenced. That single tool is the public path for a person held at Cheshire CI, the same as for any other state facility. The steps below walk through a basic search.

1. Open the statewide Connecticut DOC inmate information search, or reach it through the DOC inmate information page.
2. If you know the person's DOC number, enter it first. It is the most exact way to find one person in a statewide system with common names.
3. If the DOC number is unknown, search by name and date of birth. A name only search can return several people or miss a match if the spelling differs.
4. Check the facility field in the result. A listing for Cheshire CI confirms the person is held at this New Haven County prison.
5. If no result appears, do not assume the person is free, since the data updates daily and some record types are excluded.

The locator is the same unified tool used for every state facility, so it covers sentenced and unsentenced people alike. If the search does not help, call the DOC Office of Public Information at (860) 692-7780, Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You can also call the prison directly at (203) 651-6100 for facility specific questions. The locator was not confirmed to show mugshots, charges, bond, or housing, so do not count on those details appearing.

Note: The state inmate search updates once a day, so a person admitted very recently may not appear right away even after a transfer to Cheshire CI.

Cheshire Correctional Institution Address and Contact

The prison sits on Highland Avenue in Cheshire. Use the main line for general facility questions and the public information office for broader offender information. The card below lists the core contact details.

The public information office handles broad questions about people in state custody. For records that are not online, the Department of Correction also runs a Freedom of Information office that processes formal requests.

Visiting Someone at Cheshire Correctional Institution

Visiting a person at Cheshire CI follows both statewide rules and a few facility specific limits. In person visits at Cheshire CI are unscheduled, so you do not book them in advance. The prison allows three in person visits per week and one video visit per week. Video visits work differently. A video visit must be pre-scheduled, the visitor must already be approved, and the visit is not set until you receive confirmation. A maximum of three authorized adult video visitors may take part in one video visit. The table below sums up the Cheshire CI rules.

Statewide rules apply on top of these limits. A visitor must be on the inmate's approved list before any visit. Valid photo identification is required. Arrive at least 15 minutes early to check in. Cell phones and other electronic devices are not allowed inside the prison. Visits are not held on state observed holidays. Video visits use Microsoft Teams, are free of charge, and require a valid email and a spot on the approved list. The full statewide rules appear on the official lead-in shown next.

The Department of Correction publishes the rules that govern visits at every prison, including this one. They appear on the statewide DOC visiting page, captured below.

That page sets the baseline, and Cheshire CI adds its own frequency and scheduling limits on top of it. Schedules also change. The Cheshire CI page recently posted that no social visits would run from noon to 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026, a reminder that timing can shift. The full visiting policy is set out in the DOC Administrative Directive 10.6.

Mail, Phone, and Money at Cheshire CI

Sending money to a person at Cheshire CI runs through the central Inmate Trust Fund, not the prison itself. A trust fund is the state held account that holds an inmate's money. Mailed funds go to the Inmate Trust Fund, P.O. Box 290800, Wethersfield, CT 06129-0800. Send a money order or a certified or cashier's check made payable to the inmate. You no longer need to be on the visitor list to send funds. The table below lists the main money channels.

Each mailed payment must list the inmate's first name, middle initial, and last name, the inmate number, and the inmate's date of birth, plus the sender's full name and address. Do not include cards, letters, photos, or notes with a check or money order, because they will not be forwarded. For phone service, friends and family receive calls through Securus and can set up account options that include collect and direct billing. All inmate calls are subject to monitoring and recording, so avoid discussing legal strategy on a recorded line. You can read the full deposit rules on the DOC inmate accounts page and the call rules on the DOC inmate phone system page.

Programs at Cheshire Correctional Institution

Cheshire CI runs a broad slate of programs aimed at the risks and needs of its population. The prison offers offender programming, prison industries, and educational and vocational programming. People can learn a trade through prison industries, the work programs run inside the institution. Educational tracks include special education services for qualified students under age 22. The facility also provides addiction treatment and religious services.

Vocational education at Cheshire CI does more than train. The program completes projects for nonprofit and community organizations, which gives the work a practical, outside facing purpose. These services support the goal of preparing sentenced adults for release. The state ties this programming to its wider correctional initiatives.

The Department of Correction also posts conditions documentation for the prison. PREA audit reports are linked on the official facility page. PREA stands for the Prison Rape Elimination Act, the federal law that sets standards meant to prevent sexual abuse in custody. Those audit reports are the right source for anyone reviewing facility conditions rather than relying on general claims.

History of Cheshire Correctional Institution

Cheshire CI has one of the deepest histories of any New Haven County facility. It began as the Cheshire Reformatory, established in 1909 and opened in 1913. Inmate labor from the old Wethersfield State Prison helped build it. The reformatory was designed for male offenders ages 16 to 24. A reformatory was a custody facility built around reform and training for younger offenders rather than long term punishment.

One detail stands out. The north block cell galleys were reportedly purchased from Sing Sing in New York and brought to Connecticut by barge. The prison took its modern shape over several decades. It became an adult male facility in 1982. New North and South Blocks opened in 1993, and a commissary housing unit opened in 1998.

Today the physical plant includes four inmate housing units spread across 25 acres. That long arc, from a 1909 reformatory to a modern Level 4 institution, is part of what sets Cheshire CI apart from the newer facilities in the county.

Note: The early reformatory design served ages 16 to 24, but the institution shifted to an adult male role in 1982 and no longer fits that original youth purpose.

Court Records and Transfers

Because Connecticut runs a unified system, a sentenced person stays findable in the same statewide inmate locator even after a transfer between prisons. A move from Cheshire CI to another institution does not change the lookup path. The custody search still applies. Court records, however, live in a different system. Formal charges and case history go through the Connecticut Judicial Branch, not the prison.

To trace a case, use the Judicial Branch criminal and motor vehicle case lookup. It offers pending case searches, conviction searches, and docket number searches. The custody record and the court record answer different questions, so it helps to check both. For broader help matching a custody listing to a case, the jail inmate records guidance covers the search steps in more detail.

When a record is not online, route the request by who holds it. The Department of Correction holds custody and facility records and processes formal requests through its Freedom of Information office. The Judicial Branch holds court dockets and clerk files. Police arrest records come from the arresting agency. Matching the request to the right office is faster than guessing.