Inmate Video Visitation in Kentucky

If someone you love is locked up in Kentucky, video can save you a long drive through the mountains. Kentucky offers video across most of the system, but the vendor, the cost, and even whether in-person is on the table all depend on where the person is being held, and Kentucky has a structural quirk that surprises people: a lot of state-sentenced inmates are actually housed in county jails, not state prisons.

Kentucky splits custody three ways, and each handles video differently. The state prison system (KDOC) runs the long-term facilities. County and city jails, run by jailers, handle people awaiting trial, serving short sentences, and a large share of state inmates under contract. And federal and immigration custody play by their own rules, with Kentucky holding several major federal prisons and a heavy ICE detention presence. Figure out which bucket your person is in first, because everything else flows from that.

Do Kentucky state prisons offer video visitation?

Yes. KDOC offers both in-person and video visits. Video runs through Securus, and once you're on the approved visiting list you register with Securus (online or through the app) to schedule. Video visits are typically 25 minutes and must be scheduled in advance, with the exact lead time and hours varying by facility, so check the page for your specific institution.

In-person visiting is also offered, usually on weekends, with up to three adult visitors plus children and a couple of hours per visit. Here's a Kentucky-specific quirk that catches families off guard: which day you can visit often depends on the last digit of the inmate's DOC number, with Saturdays and Sundays alternating, and the inmate is responsible for telling you the right day. If you're more than 150 miles away, you may be able to request an extended visit.

To get on the approved visitor list, you complete a visiting information form and mail it to the warden's office. The inmate has to send you the form and the warden's address, you can't get it from the facility directly, and you can't hand the completed form to the inmate. The visitation list is updated only at set times of the year, again keyed to the last digit of the inmate's institutional number, so plan ahead.

County and city jails

This is where most day-to-day video visiting happens, and in Kentucky it's a bigger share of the system than in most states because so many state inmates are held in county jails.

Securus is the most common vendor across Kentucky jails, but it's not the only one. Louisville Metro Corrections (Jefferson County) uses Securus and gives each inmate free onsite visits per week plus paid remote visits. Lexington (Fayette County) Community Corrections uses Securus and gives one free visit per week. Some jails run tablet-based video in the housing units, giving inmates a block of free video minutes per week with paid time after that, and others use GettingOut, Combined Public Communications, or Smart Communications.

The vendor is facility-specific, so the company that works for one jail won't necessarily be the one next door. One warning that saves people money and grief: accounts do not transfer between vendors. If your person moves from a Securus jail to a GettingOut jail, your funds and account don't follow. You set up fresh with the new vendor.

How county jail video visitation usually works

There are two flavors, and the difference is the whole ballgame for your wallet.

Onsite (or "onsite video") means you drive to the jail and sit at a video terminal in the lobby to talk to the person, who's on a screen inside. Many Kentucky jails give a weekly allotment of free onsite visits. Onsite video is frequently free, at least up to that weekly limit.

Remote video means you connect from your own phone, tablet, or computer at home. That convenience is what you pay for. Remote sessions are charged per session or per minute, you typically prepay into a vendor account, and you usually reserve a slot in advance.

Kentucky jail video rates shift around, partly because the FCC has been capping these rates through 2024 to 2026 and partly because every facility prices differently. I'm not going to print a per-minute number here, because by the time you read it, it'll be wrong. Look up the rate on your specific jail's vendor page before you pay. What's stable is the structure: onsite is often free up to a weekly limit, remote tends to cost, and there are usually advance-registration rules.

Setting up a video visit

The steps are roughly the same whichever vendor you're dealing with:

1. Find the vendor for that exact facility. For KDOC it's Securus. For a county jail, check the jail's website, since it could be Securus, GettingOut, Combined Public Communications, or something else. Don't guess.

2. Get on the approved list, then create your account. For KDOC, mail the visiting information form to the warden first, then register with Securus. For a county jail, request approval and register with the listed vendor.

3. Add your inmate using the correct name and ID number. For KDOC, your information must match exactly what's in the Kentucky Offender Management System (KOMS), or Securus won't approve you to schedule.

4. Schedule your visit, choosing onsite or remote, and pay if it's a paid remote session. Watch the required lead time, some facilities want 24 to 48 hours' notice.

5. Test your device and log in early. Get on about 15 minutes ahead. Check your camera, microphone, speakers, and internet. A failed connection on your end usually still burns the visit slot.

Federal and immigration custody

If your person is in federal Bureau of Prisons custody, Kentucky has a heavy federal footprint, mostly in the eastern and southern parts of the state. The major facilities include USP Big Sandy (high-security, near Inez), USP McCreary (Pine Knot), FCI Ashland, FCI Manchester, and FMC Lexington (a medical facility), most with adjacent minimum-security camps. The BOP runs primarily in-person visiting with only limited video, so use the BOP inmate locator to find the institution and check its specific visiting rules. If someone was recently arrested on a federal charge and isn't in the BOP locator yet, they're likely still in U.S. Marshals custody during the designation period.

Immigration custody is a significant and active issue in Kentucky. The Boone County Detention Center in Burlington (near Cincinnati) is the dedicated full-time ICE detention facility in the state. Beyond that, ICE contracts with a number of Kentucky county jails to hold detainees, and the total number of people held for ICE in Kentucky jails has climbed sharply, with detainees spread across facilities including Campbell, Christian, Grayson, Hopkins, Kenton, and others. Because people are frequently moved between these jails, don't assume someone is where you were first told. To locate someone in ICE custody, use the ICE Online Detainee Locator, which needs the person's A-Number (the nine-digit alien registration number) or their name plus country of birth, and confirm the current visiting rules with the facility directly, since ICE facilities set their own (Boone County, for instance, runs visits by the detainee's last name with short time limits).

A note on staying connected

Video is good for one thing money can't really replace: seeing a face, watching a kid wave, reading an expression. When your person is hours away in the mountains, in a federal prison, or in ICE custody, that matters.

But be honest with yourself about what carries the weight day to day. Mail is the steadiest line there is. It doesn't drop the call, doesn't need a scheduled slot, and the person can hold it and read it again at 2 a.m. when the walls close in. Phone calls are the backbone of staying in touch, the thing you'll actually do most weeks. Video is the bonus on top, the face-to-face when you can get it. Build your routine around mail and calls, and treat video as the thing that makes the distance feel a little smaller.

Related pages:

/prisons/kentucky

FCC 2026 call and video rate caps guide

Arrest Record Search (affiliate)