Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution Inmates

Prairie du Chien Prison Overview

The Wisconsin DOC facility page for Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution is the state source for the institution's prison identity and DOC contact path.

The image fits this facility because it shows the DOC page for the prison, not the Crawford County Jail roster or a county sheriff page.

Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution, often shortened to PDCI, is a Wisconsin Department of Corrections adult institution in Prairie du Chien. The DOC facility page and the FY2025 annual report identify it as a medium-security adult male prison. The population is made up of sentenced state prisoners. It is not a booking site for fresh county arrests, and it is not a municipal lockup.

Crawford County has both a small county jail and this state prison in the same county seat, which causes frequent confusion. The county jail handles local booking, pretrial custody, Huber work release, short sentences, and local holds. PDCI holds sentenced adult men in DOC custody after state prison admission, classification, and assignment. A person may move from the county jail to DOC custody after sentencing, but the lookup system changes once DOC takes custody.

Prairie du Chien Prison Population

PDCI has facility-specific population figures in the DOC annual report. The FY2025 annual report lists a capacity of 538 and an average daily population of 476. Those figures are prison measures. They should not be merged with Crawford County Jail's current roster count or the county jail's rated-capacity data because the prison population is part of the statewide DOC system.

Prairie du Chien Inmate Lookup

The correct search tool for Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution is the Wisconsin DOC Offender Locator. The county roster does not show sentenced state prisoners housed at PDCI unless a separate local custody event exists. DOC profiles relate to state custody, sentence, status, institution, and public offender information rather than the booking event after a local arrest.

1. Open the Wisconsin DOC Offender Locator and pass through any disclaimer or verification gate.
2. Search by DOC number when known, or use first and last name with extra identifiers if available.
3. Open the matching public profile and check the current institution field.
4. Confirm that the institution is Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution before planning a visit or sending money.
5. Use VINELink only as a notification aid, not as a full substitute for DOC records.

DOC locator fields differ from county roster fields. A state profile may show a DOC number, name, demographic identifiers, custody status, current institution, offense or sentence information, admission or release context, and sometimes a photo. It is not a jail booking sheet and it does not replace WCCA court records.

Prairie du Chien Prison Contact

Contact PDCI for prison-specific questions about a person confirmed in DOC custody, visiting procedures, institution mail, and facility operations. Contact Crawford County Jail instead for current local bookings or local jail release questions. The phone numbers and agencies are different because the prison is operated by DOC and the county jail is operated by the sheriff.

Prairie du Chien Prison Visits

Visiting at Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution follows Wisconsin DOC adult-institution rules, not Crawford County Jail's short local visit rule. DOC prison visits generally require an approved visitor process and scheduling through the institution's current system. Visitors should confirm approval, time, identification, clothing rules, and any institution-specific restrictions with DOC before travel.

Official research did not provide a fixed PDCI day-by-day schedule table for publication. That gap matters because prison schedules can change with staffing, housing-unit controls, security status, holidays, and weather. Confirm the visit with DOC before traveling to Prairie du Chien, especially from Iowa river communities or other parts of rural southwest Wisconsin.

Prairie du Chien DOC Money

Money, electronic services, and prison mail use Wisconsin DOC channels. The research identifies DOC's money and electronic-services page, including approved vendor channels such as JPay and MoneyGram where applicable. Do not use Crawford County Jail deposit instructions, jail commissary assumptions, or local jail money rules for a PDCI prisoner.

The research did not locate a PDCI-specific public fee table suitable for listing exact deposit or phone charges. Use DOC's current money and electronic-services instructions before paying. A prisoner's DOC number is often the safer identifier for payments than a name alone because common names can lead to mistakes.

Prairie du Chien Prison Intake

PDCI intake is not street-arrest booking. A person reaches DOC custody after conviction and sentencing, or through another DOC placement process. DOC handles reception, classification, institution assignment, records, security level, program needs, health services, and custody status. PDCI's FY2025 report describes a state-prison operation with program, education, health-services, religious, food-service, security, records, and visiting functions.

DOC number

The state offender identifier used for Wisconsin DOC searches and many prison transactions.

Classification

The DOC process for custody level, placement, programs, and security needs after admission.

Institution

The assigned prison or correctional facility, such as Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution.

If a person was recently arrested in Crawford County, begin with the local county jail list and court records. If the person has been sentenced to state prison, shift to the DOC locator. The Crawford County Jail page covers local custody before a state-prison transfer.

Prairie du Chien Prison Records

Public access depends on the type of record. The DOC Offender Locator is the public search channel for basic state custody information. WCCA/CCAP is the court docket channel for the criminal case that led to conviction. DOC institution records, prison correspondence issues, visiting approvals, and money-account questions follow DOC procedures. Crawford County Sheriff records do not replace DOC prison records for sentenced prisoners housed at PDCI.

Wisconsin public-records law still matters, but prison records can include restrictions. Wisconsin Statutes section 19.35 gives the public-records access rule, while section 19.36 covers limits. Security, medical, juvenile, victim, sealed, expunged, or confidential records may be withheld or redacted. Ask the agency that maintains the record: DOC for prison custody, the court clerk for case documents, and the sheriff for local jail booking or incident material.

Prairie du Chien Facility Context

PDCI gives Crawford County an unusual custody mix. Prairie du Chien is both the county seat and the location of a state prison, while the county jail and sheriff's office operate elsewhere in the same community. Families may hear "Prairie du Chien" and assume the county jail, but a DOC institution name, DOC number, prison sentence, or state custody status points to PDCI.

No Federal Bureau of Prisons facility or ICE detention facility was located in Crawford County. Federal sentenced prisoners are searched through the BOP locator, and immigration detainees are searched through ICE ODLS. If a federal or immigration hold appears while someone is at the county jail, that hold is not the same as being housed at PDCI.