Western Virginia Regional Jail Inmate Roster

Western Virginia Regional Jail Overview

Western Virginia Regional Jail is operated by the Western Virginia Regional Jail Authority. The authority includes Franklin County, Montgomery County, Roanoke County, and the City of Salem. The jail is outside Montgomery County, but it is a required Montgomery County facility because county inmates can be housed there and because the official public roster is tied to WVRJ's JailTracker system.

WVRJ houses male and female inmates for member agencies. It also holds federal and state-responsible inmates and contract inmates for other localities. That broad mix makes a roster search different from a small county jail call. A person from Montgomery County may appear at WVRJ because of sex, classification, capacity, sentence status, a court order, or a regional placement decision. Others in the same roster may be tied to Franklin County, Roanoke County, Salem, a federal hold, or another contract source.

The official WVRJ Inmate Name Search page sends the public to JailTracker, which is the primary online lookup channel for current regional custody. Use the name-search page first when confirming that the roster is the official route.

The source page is useful when a searcher wants the official WVRJ path before opening the public roster application.

Western Virginia Regional Jail Population

WVRJ was built as a regional response to overcrowding in member local jails. The research notes that Franklin County, Montgomery County, Roanoke County, and Salem local jails had been operating at two to three times rated capacity before the regional approach. WVRJ now covers six acres and about 265,000 square feet. Its rated capacity is 605 inmates, and it has been expanded to 805 general-population beds. Program and service areas were planned for growth, with expansion capacity for another 649 inmates.

The WVRJ Interesting Facts & Statistics page is the source for capacity, site size, and expansion details.

Those statistics help explain why WVRJ is used for Montgomery County inmate population searches even though it is not located in Montgomery County.

Western Virginia Regional Jail Contact

Use the WVRJ main phone number for custody, housing, visitation, and account questions tied to a person in regional jail custody. The facility address is also the legal-mail address, but regular non-legal mail goes to the Phoenix scanning address. FOIA requests use the regional jail's records channel, not the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office channel.

Western Virginia Regional Jail Roster

The WVRJ roster is the official public online lookup for people incarcerated at Western Virginia Regional Jail. The roster is branded as JailTracker Public Roster. The research found that it is free, requires no login, allows broad searches, enables images, and is configured for current offenders only. The agency metadata also showed a released-retention value, but the public display is current-only, so do not rely on the roster for a full archive of past Montgomery County bookings.

1. Open the official WVRJ JailTracker public roster.
2. Search by first name, last name, middle name, gender, offender ID, permanent ID, or intake date range.
3. Review the list result for first name, middle name, last name, gender, offender ID, permanent ID, and intake date.
4. Open the detail record to check active status, charges, bond entries, profile fields, and any displayed booking image.
5. Call WVRJ at 540-378-3700 before posting bond, traveling for a visit, or assuming release is available.

For Montgomery County cases that are not in WVRJ's roster, use the county jail information line, court case systems, VADOC after state transfer, BOP for federal custody, ICE for immigration custody, or Virginia VINELink for notification. The Montgomery County Jail page covers the local jail path before a regional transfer.

Western Virginia Jail Visits

WVRJ uses video visitation for non-professional visits. The research identifies GettingOut and ViaPath as the platform route. Remote video visits are from home by mobile phone or tablet, last 30 minutes, and cost $0.25 per minute. Visitors must set up a GettingOut account before a visit and must be logged into the GettingOut Visits app when the inmate starts the session.

The WVRJ Video Visitation page gives the platform, price, and remote-visit details used for public visit planning.

Use the official page before scheduling because video platforms, account steps, and visit availability can change by housing status.

Western Virginia Jail Mail

WVRJ separates regular mail from legal mail. Regular non-legal postal mail goes to the Phoenix scanning address and must include the inmate name and inmate ID number. Original documents are destroyed after scanning, so senders should not mail original birth certificates, marriage certificates, social security cards, or irreplaceable photos. Legal mail goes to the Salem facility address and must be clearly marked as legal correspondence from an attorney, court, Department of Corrections, or Parole Board.

WVRJ's mail rules page explains the scanning process, legal-mail address, page limits, and prohibited items.

The mail rules are strict enough that a missing inmate ID number, wrong paper type, or prohibited item can cause rejected mail.

Western Virginia Jail Booking

A Montgomery County inmate may reach WVRJ after local arrest, after a transfer from Montgomery County Jail, or through a court or agency hold. WVRJ's operation page says the facility provides telephone services to general housing inmates, and calls may be made to family, attorneys, parole officers, bondsmen, and others as collect calls. The same operation material says WVRJ provides medical, dental, and mental-health services in house.

The roster can show intake date, active status, identifying details, charge information, and bond fields. Bond terms can include NO BOND, SECURED, and ATTACHED. A listed bond amount is not the same as a release guarantee. A person may remain in custody because of another no-bond charge, probation violation, capias, out-of-jurisdiction warrant, federal hold, ICE detainer, VADOC hold, or court order.

State-responsible inmate

A person sentenced or classified under state correctional responsibility who may be held locally or regionally before transfer.

Secured bond

A bond that requires money or security before release, unless another hold blocks release.

Current-only roster

A public roster setting that focuses on people in active custody rather than a full released archive.

Western Virginia Jail Records

WVRJ directs Freedom of Information Act requests to FOIA Officer Deputy Superintendent Scott Booher. Use the regional jail FOIA channel for WVRJ records rather than sending WVRJ custody questions to Montgomery County's county FOIA route. Good requests identify existing records with reasonable detail, such as the person's name, booking or intake date, charge, agency, and the exact record sought.

The WVRJ FOIA page publishes the FOIA officer routing and request contact context.

For court charges after a Montgomery County arrest, use the Virginia court systems and clerk channels instead of asking WVRJ to provide a court file.

Virginia FOIA, including Code § 2.2-3704, sets request procedures for public bodies. Law-enforcement and criminal-record limits are addressed in Code § 2.2-3706. These laws can allow access to some existing records while still preserving exemptions for security, privacy, active investigations, or other protected material.

Western Virginia Jail History

WVRJ has a specific regional history tied to overcrowding. The authority was formed in 2005 because the Franklin County, Montgomery County, Roanoke County, and Salem local jails were overcrowded and potentially unsafe. The regional model also reflected state reimbursement rules that favored regional jail construction over local jail construction. The authority purchased a tract in the Dixie Caverns area of Roanoke County, broke ground in February 2007, dedicated the facility on March 6, 2009, and accepted its first inmates on April 9, 2009.

The project history includes several named construction and design participants: Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern and Thompson & Litton as architects and engineers, Branch Highways for early site work, Howard Shockey & Sons as general contractor, and Arcadis and Construction Dynamics Group for construction management. Those details help distinguish WVRJ from the smaller Montgomery County Jail in Christiansburg. WVRJ was built for regional capacity, regional housing, and regional services.

The WVRJ Project History page provides the authority formation, construction, dedication, and first-inmate timeline.

The history explains why Montgomery County inmate population work must include a facility located outside the county line.