Tygart Valley Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Inmate Lookup

Tygart Valley Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Overview

Tygart Valley Regional Jail and Correctional Facility is operated by the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Bureau of Prisons and Jails. The official WVDCR facility page places it at 400 Abbey Road, Belington, WV 26250, with the main phone number 304-637-0382 and fax 304-637-0289. Although Preston County's courthouse and sheriff's office are in Kingwood, local jail custody is handled through this regional system. That distinction is important because the Preston County Sheriff may hold arrest reports or deputy-generated incident records, while WVDCR controls the jail roster, facility rules, visitation, and regional jail custody information.

The facility serves Preston County and nearby counties. WVDCR's current facility page lists Barbour, Pocahontas, Preston, Randolph, Taylor, Tucker, and Upshur among the counties served, while the WVDCR FY2025 annual report lists Randolph, Tucker, Barbour, Preston, and Pocahontas for detention service. Preston service is confirmed in both sources. Tygart Valley holds pretrial felons and misdemeanants and sentenced felons and misdemeanants in regional jail custody. The facility page also says it houses the majority of West Virginia's female inmates who are awaiting transfer to prison. It is not a long-term state prison in the usual sentenced-prison sense, and it is not the same as the federal Hazelton institutions in Bruceton Mills.

The official Tygart Valley facility page is the best starting point for facility-level contact, directions, and visiting rules. WVDCR's page at dcr.wv.gov/facilities/Pages/prisons-and-jails/tvrjcf.aspx shows the facility contact block and regional-jail details.

Use that source for facility-specific changes before traveling, especially because public pages do not publish every lobby, parking, holiday, or program detail.

Tygart Valley Capacity and Population

The WVDCR FY2025 annual report lists Tygart Valley's rated population as 368. A current public daily population count for Tygart Valley was not located in the WVDCR facility page or the research source set, so an occupancy rate should not be calculated from public material here. The WV Daily Incarcerations page showed 5 admissions by institution for Tygart Valley on July 2, 2026, but that is a dated admissions figure, not the same thing as the number of people housed in the jail.

Preston County also has federal prison population inside the county at FCC Hazelton, but those people are in Federal Bureau of Prisons custody and do not make up the Preston County regional jail count. A person arrested on local Preston County charges usually appears through WVDCR regional jail channels unless released before entry, transferred, or held under another custody authority.

How to Look Up an Inmate at Tygart Valley

For a current Preston County jail inmate, start with the official West Virginia Regional Jail Offender Search. This is the correct public lookup for Tygart Valley regional jail custody. It is not a Preston-only roster, and it is different from the WVDCR prison/supervision search and the BOP locator used for federal inmates at Hazelton. For a broader Preston custody overview, the jail inmate records page explains how the local, state, and federal systems split custody records.

1. Open the WV Regional Jail Offender Search for jail inmates.
2. Enter at least the first three letters of the person's last name. Add a first name when the last name is common.
3. Complete the captcha and submit the search.
4. Review the result for current facility and status. For Preston County jail custody, Tygart Valley is the expected regional jail facility when the person is held there.
5. Use court records, not the jail search alone, to verify the formal criminal case and court status.

The official search page warns that regional jail information is public and updated regularly, but it can change quickly and may not reflect the true current location, release date, or status. It also warns that sentencing information in the jail search is not the underlying court record. Call Tygart Valley at 304-637-0382 when a same-day transport, recent release, or facility transfer may not yet be clear online.

The WV Regional Jail search form is available at apps.wv.gov/OIS/OffenderSearch/RJA/Offender/Search and shows last-name, optional first-name, captcha, and search fields.

For very recent bookings, use the separate WV Daily Incarcerations page and select Preston County if the captcha-gated county search can be completed. West Virginia VINE can also be used for custody notifications when a one-time roster check is not enough.

Tygart Valley Address and Contact

Use the Belington facility contact for current custody, visitation, property, mail, phone, and money questions. Use the Preston County Sheriff's Department for sheriff-generated arrest reports or local law-enforcement records. These are separate custodians, and asking the wrong office can slow down a request.

Visiting Someone at Tygart Valley

Tygart Valley visitation is scheduled, non-contact visitation. The WVDCR Tygart page says the inmate must initiate the visit by submitting TVRJ Form 5-0029, "Request for Scheduled Visitation," to the Visitation OA between 8 a.m. Monday and noon Thursday during the week before the requested visit. Visitors should not assume they can schedule independently through a public online calendar.

Each inmate is allotted one visit per month, subject to classification or security limits. Regular visits are 30 minutes. A visit longer than 30 minutes needs prior approval 24 hours in advance from the Superintendent or Chief Correctional Officer. Each visit is limited to one adult and two minor children or two adults. Holiday changes, lockdowns, staffing issues, and security restrictions can change the published schedule, so confirm with the facility before traveling.

Mail, Phone, and Money at Tygart Valley

The public HTML facility page does not publish a verified mail-address format, commissary vendor, phone-account vendor, video-visit vendor, or deposit fee schedule for Tygart Valley. The page links a Tygart Valley resource guide, and that official resource guide or a direct facility call should be used before sending mail or money. Do not assume a national jail vendor applies unless WVDCR or the facility confirms it.

This caution matters because a wrong inmate number, outdated vendor, or incomplete address can delay or reject mail and deposits. For sheriff reports, use the Preston County Sheriff's Department report request route; for regional jail custody records or facility services, use WVDCR or Tygart Valley.

Booking, Intake, and Court Records

After a Preston County arrest, the arresting agency may be the Preston County Sheriff's Department, a municipal police department, West Virginia State Police, or another law-enforcement agency. If the person is held in jail custody, the regional jail process can include transport to the proper regional facility, identity intake, search and property inventory, booking photo and fingerprints when required by agency procedure, medical or mental-health screening, classification, system entry, and housing assignment. WVDCR does not publish a Preston-specific rule saying exactly how many minutes after booking a person appears online.

The jail record and the court record are related, but they are not the same record. The regional jail search can help confirm custody location and jail status, while Magistrate Court or Circuit Court records handle the formal criminal case. West Virginia public-records law gives people a right to inspect or copy public records unless an exemption applies, but requests should go to the custodian that actually created or keeps the record. For Preston County, that can mean WVDCR for regional jail custody, the sheriff for deputy reports, or the courts for charges and case filings.

Directions and Local Notes

Tygart Valley is not in downtown Kingwood and is not at the Preston County Sheriff's Department. WVDCR places it off the Coalton/Norton exit of Route 33, about seven miles west of Elkins. From Interstate 79 at Weston Exit 99, WVDCR directs drivers to take Route 33 East about 29 miles, turn right on Old Route 151, continue about three-quarters of a mile, turn left, and continue about one mile to the jail. From Elkins, take Route 33 West about six miles, turn left on Old Route 151, continue about three-quarters of a mile, then turn left and continue about one mile.

No official public-transit route, visitor parking fee, or ADA visitor entrance detail was located in the public source set. Visitors who need accessible entry, who are traveling from Preston County, or who are relying on a tight court or release timeline should call ahead. Preston County's courthouse, sheriff, and prosecutor offices are clustered in Kingwood, while the jail custody facility is in Belington and the federal Hazelton prisons are in Bruceton Mills. For a countywide custody starting point, use the Preston County inmate population overview to separate regional jail custody from state prison and federal custody.

About Tygart Valley Regional Jail and Correctional Facility

WVDCR says Tygart Valley formally opened in June 2005. The FY2025 annual report lists Bryan Lanham as superintendent. The public facility page and research source set did not publish a detailed public program catalog, GED or vocational schedule, substance-abuse treatment schedule, property-release rule, or medical-request procedure for this facility. WVDCR statewide material includes resource guides and PREA reporting channels. The regional jail search pages include a zero-tolerance statement for sexual abuse and direct people with information about alleged sexual abuse or harassment to contact the facility administrator or the WV Regional Jail Authority central office at 304-558-2110.