Forsyth Correctional Overview
Forsyth Correctional Center is operated by the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction, often shortened to NCDAC or DAC. The official DAC page lists it as a male minimum custody reentry facility in Winston-Salem. It holds sentenced adult male state prisoners, not newly arrested county-jail inmates. That makes its public lookup process different from the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office P2C Inmates roster.
The facility is at 307 Craft Drive, Winston-Salem, NC 27105, and the listed phone number is 336-896-7041. The DAC page names Steven Niday as warden and gives an offender capacity of 248. Work release, community work squads, Department of Transportation road squads, study release, and reentry programs are central to the facility's role. A person who was arrested in Forsyth County may reach this facility only after a state sentence and assignment by DAC.
The official DAC Forsyth Correctional Center page is the source for the prison's capacity, location, warden listing, and program description.
The facility image belongs with state prison content because DAC, not the sheriff's office, controls the custody record for this prison.
Forsyth Correctional Capacity
The official capacity for Forsyth Correctional Center is 248 offenders. Historical correctional population data lists 246 state prisoners at the facility on June 30, 2012, but that figure is historical and should not be read as a current daily count. The current operational capacity comes from the DAC facility page.
The population served here is narrower than the county jail population. Forsyth Correctional Center is male, minimum custody, and reentry-focused. Forsyth County Law Enforcement Detention Center, by contrast, holds male and female pretrial inmates and sentenced misdemeanants in local custody.
Search Forsyth Correctional Offenders
Use the NC DAC Offender Public Information Search for Forsyth Correctional Center. DAC says its database includes current and historical state offender, probation, and parole records back to 1972. DAC also says the search does not include county jail information, so a person newly arrested and still in sheriff custody should be searched through the county jail roster instead.
- Open the NC DAC Offender Public Information Search.
- Enter a last name, first name, offender number, or other search criteria.
- Use Active Inmate when the search should focus on current state prison custody.
- Open the matching profile and confirm facility assignment, status, and identifying details.
- If the person is still in county custody, switch to the sheriff P2C Inmates route.
The DAC search form exposes specific search fields for state custody records.
The form is useful for Forsyth Correctional Center because it searches DAC records, not sheriff booking records.
DAC Search Fields
The DAC locator supports name, number, status, and demographic filters. The form requires real search criteria, and research notes say gender alone is not enough. Offender number must be numeric, birth date must use MM/DD/YYYY, and a last-name sounds-like search requires a last name.
| Field | Use | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Offender Status | All, Active Inmate, Active Probationer/Parolee, or Inactive | Use Active Inmate for current prison custody. |
| Last Name / First Name | Name-based search | Last name accepts letters or hyphen. |
| Offender Number | Exact state identifier | Numeric, with a maximum of seven characters. |
| Birth Date | Date filter | MM/DD/YYYY; date range requires a birth date. |
| Gender, Race, Ethnic Group, Age | Optional filters | Search filters, not facility demographic totals. |
Forsyth Correctional Contact
Forsyth Correctional Center should be contacted for facility-specific prison matters, while DAC public records should be used for broader prison, probation, or parole record requests. The research identifies a legal visit email for attorneys and links from the facility page to DAC visiting, mail, money, and package resources. Those resources are state prison rules, not county jail rules.
Forsyth Correctional Center
307 Craft Drive
Winston-Salem, NC 27105
336-896-7041
Male minimum custody reentry facility
Legal Visits
Forsyth Correctional Center
Email for legal visit requests
forsythvisitation@dac.nc.gov
For attorney visit coordination
Forsyth Correctional Visits
Forsyth Correctional Center uses DAC visiting procedures. The available official material does not provide a facility-specific public visiting hour table here, so use the DAC visiting resource linked from the official facility page and confirm eligibility with the prison before travel. State prison visits commonly involve approval and scheduling rules that differ from public county jail visitation by housing unit.
| Visit Type | How to Start | Important Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Public or family visit | Use DAC visiting resources linked from the facility page. | Confirm approval, schedule, ID, and dress rules before travel. |
| Legal visit | Email forsythvisitation@dac.nc.gov. | Attorney coordination is separate from public visiting. |
| Religious service | Handled through facility religious programming. | Sunday services are described by DAC as open to offenders and families. |
The prison should not be treated like the county jail for visits. Forsyth County Law Enforcement Detention Center has housing-unit public visitation and no Friday public visits. Forsyth Correctional Center follows DAC prison policy instead.
Forsyth Correctional Mail
The official Forsyth Correctional Center page links to DAC resources for sending mail, sending money, sending packages, and visiting. The available source material does not provide the exact mail address format or deposit vendor terms here. Use the DAC facility page and statewide DAC resource pages for the current prison mailing, money, and package rules.
| Service | Correct Source |
|---|---|
| DAC send-mail resource linked from the facility page. | |
| Money | DAC send-money resource linked from the facility page. |
| Packages | DAC package resource linked from the facility page. |
| County jail commissary | Not applicable to Forsyth Correctional Center. |
A county jail deposit service should not be used for a state prisoner unless DAC specifically directs it. For county jail money and commissary, use the Law Enforcement Detention Center instructions instead.
Forsyth Correctional Programs
Forsyth Correctional Center has a reentry mission. DAC says offenders are assigned to work release jobs, community work squads, Department of Transportation road squads, study release, and facility jobs such as janitors, maintenance workers, and food service. Surry Community College works with offenders to provide vocational training and educational courses at Dobson Educational Center.
On-unit programs include Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, substance-abuse treatment, Think Smart, Character Education, and Project Re-Entry. These details matter for families trying to understand why someone is at this facility instead of a higher-security prison. Minimum custody does not mean a person is free to leave. It means DAC has assigned the person to a lower custody level with reentry, work, study, or community-based programming under correctional control.
- Minimum custody
- A lower state prison custody level for eligible sentenced offenders under DAC supervision.
- Work release
- A supervised program that allows approved offenders to work in the community under prison rules.
- Study release
- An approved education path tied to prison control and facility rules.
- Reentry
- Programs and planning meant to support a person's return to the community after incarceration.
Forsyth Correctional Chapel
DAC's Forsyth Correctional Center page includes unusually local religious-program detail. It says a chapel dedicated in 1987 was built with funds donated by 100 churches in the community. Area churches provide three full-time chaplains who work with inmates and lead Sunday religious services open to offenders and families. Religious programming also includes two Bible study classes, Yokefellow, Gideons, and Muslim services.
This local context separates Forsyth Correctional Center from the county jail page. The sheriff jail has approved clergy visitation through its own policy and Forsyth Jail and Prison Ministries contact path. The state prison's chapel and chaplain program are part of DAC's facility programming.
Jail to State Prison
A Forsyth County arrest normally starts in the county custody system. If the person is held pretrial or serving a misdemeanor sentence locally, the sheriff roster and Detention Center phone line are the main tools. If the person is sentenced to state prison and transferred, custody shifts to DAC and the NC offender search becomes the better source.
VINELink and NC SAVAN can help with custody notifications because DAC says county jail inmates, state prisoners, probationers, parolees, and registered sex offenders are included. Federal sentenced inmates use the BOP locator, and immigration detainees use ICE ODLS. No official BOP prison, ICE detention facility, or separate regional jail was located inside Forsyth County in the reviewed official sources.
For the county jail side of the same custody path, see the Forsyth County Law Enforcement Detention Center facility details.
Note: Confirm facility assignment in DAC search before mailing, visiting, or sending money to a state prisoner.