Jefferson City Correctional Center

The Jefferson City Correctional Center is a medium/maximum-security state prison for male inmates located in Jefferson City, Missouri. It can house a capacity of 1,996 inmates. This facility opened in 2004 and replaced the Missouri State Penitentiary, which was built in 1836 and was also located in Jefferson City. 

The institution is composed of 1,440 general population offenders, 144 offenders in protective custody, and 340 offenders in administrative segregation status.

Overcrowding relief, better staff training, and the introduction of innovative programs for inmates all contributed to the improvements in the Missouri State Penitentiary making it safer for staff and inmates. The levels of violence steadily reduced and with the move into JCCC in 2004, it has further improved the level of safety for everyone inside the prison and the public.

After being labeled as the greatest prison in the world in its early years and then as one of the worst and most violent prisons in the nation, the Jefferson City Correctional Center is once again considered one of the best of its kind in the nation. Its innovative programs and state-of-the-art technology help staff ensure the mission of the Missouri Department of Corrections.

As a medium/maximum security facility there are a total of eight housing units, the majority with a sustained population of 288 offenders per unit. The complex is divided into A and B sides, with four housing units located on each side, divided in the middle by a large central services building.

The central services complex contains the following services sections: medical unit (29-bed infirmary), library, education classrooms, institution activities office, chapel, offender property room, offender canteen, clothing issue, offender barber shop, two gymnasiums, food services (including three dining rooms), staff dining room, and the laundry. Additionally, the vast complex is the site for Information Technology and offenders working for the Department of Social Services.

The 42-acre prison complex also includes an administration building housing administrative offices, training rooms, and the institution’s control center; a multipurpose building containing two visiting rooms, and a parole hearing room.

A large industrial building is located at the northeast corner of the site. Industries operated at JCCC include: a clothing factory, furniture factory, license plate manufacturing, recycled ink cartridges, and a graphic arts products operation.

The perimeter of the institution is protected by several high security fences which include a lethal fence. There are also additional state-of-the-art security technologies in place to protect public safety.

A maintenance building, powerhouse, and garage complex are located outside the main perimeter. In the same area is the main warehouse and a regional cook-chill operation which provides meals for seven institutions in the central part of the state.

Prison Insights

Visiting Hours and Rules

Visiting hours at the Jefferson City Correctional Center are on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 9:30 am — 1:30 pm and 2:30 pm — 6:30 pm. 

Visiting Applications

Before you can visit an inmate at JCCC, you must fill out a visiting application and be approved by the Missouri Department of Corrections. You can access the online visiting application by clicking here. If you prefer a paper application, you will have to ask your inmate to mail you one.

General Visiting Rules

All adult visitors are required to bring a photo ID, like a current driver’s license or Department of Revenue identification card. Visitors 13 years and older are required to show a current school photo identification card that includes their name, or a valid federal or state government-issued identification card before admission to the visiting area. 

Visitors under 18 years old, unless married to the offender, must be accompanied by an authorized adult visitor.

All visitors are subject to a search. A metal detector may be used to detect weapons or other contraband. This may be completed by a walk-through metal detector or a hand-held wand.

Allowed Items at Visit

Visitors are allowed to bring in enough change to purchase sodas and snacks from the visiting room vending machines.

Specific medical and infant supplies are also allowed during visits. However, gum, wallets, purses, electronics, and other items must be left in your vehicle or put in a locker.

Coins must be brought in a clear sandwich bag or transparent plastic pouch for use in the vending machines. 

Medications or medical equipment needed to maintain life may be taken into the facility in their original container and only in the necessary dosage for the visiting period. You should notify staff upon your arrival of the need for medication during visitation.

When you bring a small infant or child, one clear carry-all for infant supplies is allowed. This bag may contain:

• Up to six diapers
• One blanket
• Three clear, plastic bottles of prepared infant beverage
• One clear, plastic, no-spill toddler cup
• Three unopened vendor containers of baby food
• One plastic pacifier, teether, and/or rattle
• One small, plastic spoon 
• One unopened package of baby wipes

Inmates may be approved for special “food visits” once or twice a year where the family may bring food from outside vendors so that an inmate can share a meal with their family. The food visit schedule is available from your inmate or their case worker.

Dress Code

• Clothing should not be tight, transparent, or revealing. 
• No gang, racial, inappropriate, or inflammatory language or symbols are allowed and clothing may not have a camouflage design. 
• Skirts, dresses, and shorts may be no shorter than two inches above the top of the kneecap. 
• Wrap-around or slit skirts or dresses are not permitted. 
• Holes or slits are not permitted in pants. 
• Shirts, blouses, and tops must cover the chest and stomach and have sleeves that cover the shoulders, without display of cleavage or midriff. 
• Appropriate undergarments and shoes must be worn at all times. Undergarments with wire or metal supports are discouraged because you may be required to clear a metal detector. 
• No headwear is allowed except for verified religious purposes and is subject to search.

The Missouri DOC requires you to send pictures and personal correspondence in separate envelopes. If you mail both pictures and personal correspondence together in one envelope, it will be returned.

How to Call an Inmate

How to Send Money

Each inmate has a personal account that can be used to buy items from the prison canteen. You can electronically deposit funds into an inmate’s account through JPay. Your options include their website or their mobile app to deposit money, or you can call 1-800-574-5729.

You also have the option to mail a money order or cashier’s check to be deposited to an offender’s account. It must be made payable to the Missouri Department of Corrections and be accompanied by a DOC deposit slip. Each inmate has access to deposit forms and can send the slips to you at any time. All money orders must be sent to the following address:

Offender Finance Office
Missouri Department of Corrections
P.O. Box 1609
Jefferson City, MO 65102

It is important that you supply all information requested on the deposit slip in blue or black ink. If you have questions, call the Offender Finance Office at 573-526-6445. You can also deposit cash into an inmate’s account via MoneyGram. The receive code for Missouri DOC is 2439. You can learn more by clicking here.

Programs For Inmates

• Restorative Justice

This program teaches offenders to take responsibility for their criminal behavior and to realize the negative impact their behavior has had on countless citizens including their own families. The program gives offenders the skills and opportunity to give back to their community.

• Impact of Crime on Victims

Impact of Crime on Victims Class is a 40-hour class in which the objective is to help the offender recognize who their victims are and how they have impacted the victim’s life by committing their crime. The class is also to help the inmate understand how to take responsibility and be accountable for their wrong doing and to become victim conscious.

• Impact of Criminal Thinking

Impact of Criminal Thinking Class is a five chapter course ranging from, profile of a criminal, character defects, anger, violence and self-esteem. The purpose of this class is to challenge criminal thinking; to highlight the “impact” of that thinking.

• Inside Out Dads

Inside Out Dads is a twelve-week course in which the overall objective is to enhance the relationship between the offender and his children through the offender developing a deep and true commitment to being a father.

• KidSmart Program

KidSmart Program includes classroom participation and in-cell participation. Currently, the program averages 50 offenders who are involved in the classroom program which is a two-hour period to work on bookmarks, flash cards, greeting cards and other projects for elementary schools. The in-cell program has an average of 150 offenders that do the same work as classroom offenders, but all work is done in their cells. All items are shipped to the KidSmart Warehouse in St. Louis, where at no cost; teachers can shop for items to utilize in their classrooms.

• Critical Thinking Skills (CTS)

Critical Thinking Skills (CTS) – This 10-week class is designed to help the offender identify his personal use of criminal thinking errors and educate him to appropriate positive replacement thinking; with the ultimate goal of him making better behavior decisions leading to positive and healthy relationships through responsible thinking.

• Let’s Talk

This is a six-week closed peer support group, providing an open forum for participants to discuss issues that arise that he may need assistance or guidance in dealing with in a mature and positive way.

• HiSet

The Jefferson City Correctional Center’s HiSet (formally GED) program is a volunteer program in which offenders are allowed to assist each other in obtaining their education. Offender tutors range from recent HiSet recipients to those holding college degrees and the range of experience and commitment to their fellow offenders provide a positive atmosphere for offenders to learn in. Obviously, the HiSet program continues to be a positive tool among the offender population.

The program is overseen by the Institutional Activities Coordinator (IAC).

• Intensive Therapeutic Community (ITC)

Another quality program available to men who qualify is the Intensive Therapeutic Community (ITC), a drug and alcohol program that stresses a holistic approach to help change criminals into productive citizens. The ITC program at JCCC is the only known program of its kind in a maximum security prison in the country. The focus has been on re-entry effort in recent years and several new programs have been developed to address the increase of releasing offenders.

• Adult basic education (ABE)

Offenders who have not yet earned high school diplomas or equivalency certificates upon incarceration are required to participate in adult basic education classes.

• Higher Education

The Department of Corrections has partnerships with colleges and universities including Washington University, St. Louis University, Rockhurst University, and State Technical College of Missouri. Through these partnerships, offenders, and staff have the opportunity to take college courses and earn credits toward a degree.

• Puppies for Parole

Puppies for Parole began at the Jefferson City Correctional Center on February 1, 2010, and to date–has graduated and placed more than 280 dogs through the institutional program. The offender dog handlers train daily in front of Housing Unit 4 and have scheduled training day on Wednesdays in the big gym. It takes approximately 12 weeks to take a dog from a shelter environment to train them to the standards of the Canine Good Citizens of the American Kennel Club. In that time, the inmates teach basic obedience as well as a host of specialty tricks or behaviors based on the upcoming permanent placement of the dogs.

They have placed dogs in Mental Health facilities, as well as, Veteran’s Homes–for therapy and house dogs. Likewise, numerous dogs have been placed within individual homes to be companion or therapy dogs, some for the elderly, an amputee and children with autism. Through the dog program, they have been able to help many people within the community get a companion or therapy dog at a very minimal fee while saving the life of these dogs that was the overall goal of the program when it began; what they didn’t expect was the drastic effect this program would have on staff, offenders and the relationship between the two.

• Furniture Factory

The Furniture Factory manufactures a standard and custom line of furniture including kitchen cabinets. The factory builds plywood furniture, solid wood furniture, and raised panel furniture and picture frame material for the Engraving Factory. They use four main types of wood: oak, birch, walnut, and soft maple which gets finished in light oak, dark oak, fireside, mahogany or walnut finishes.

• Cartridge Recycling Factory

The Cartridge Recycling Factory recycles, builds, and repairs over seventy-five different types of ink and toner cartridges. The Cartridge Factory added several new cartridges to the line of products that is manufactured and currently building over 125 laser toner cartridges. In addition, color laser toner cartridges have been placed on the product line along with ink jet cartridges. This factory employs ten offenders.

• License Plates

The License Plate Factory manufactures license plates for the Department of Revenue and for city and county agencies across Missouri. In 2014, the Sign Shop from Moberly Correctional Center was relocated to JCCC. It manufactures standard street signs, custom signs, decals, magnetic decals, static decals, banners, and boat placards for the Department of Revenue.

• Cloth-cutting

The Cloth Cutting Factory manufactures correctional officer uniforms, ball caps, knit caps, inmate grey pants, inmate grey shirts, polo shirts, safety vests, blankets, custom embroidery and DTG (Direct to Garment, inkjet printing) designs for state agencies, employees and nonprofit organizations. Cloth Cutting has a computer-controlled fabric cutting operation that supplies pre-cut material to the Clothing Factory at JCCC, and to other MVE clothing operations.

• Engraving

The Engraving Department manufactures several types of awards, name plates, and plaques. They also design and manufacture ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant signs for use in various state government buildings throughout the State of Missouri.

The Engraving Department also includes a Hobbycraft section. Products range from oil paintings, stained glass, hand-crafted leather work, pencil drawing, scrimshawing, and wood carving. Engraving offers custom framing of paintings, certificates, and awards with many varieties of frame and matte boards available.

• Graphic Arts

The Graphic Arts Department manufactures decals of various designs for the State of Missouri Department of Revenue. This Includes:

• IFTA
• ATV
• MOTORBOAT
• BOAT MOTOR
• LICENSE PLATE VALIDATION TABS
• AUTO AND MOTORCYCLE INSPECTION STICKERS

The Graphic Arts Department also prints the Small City and County Flat License Plates, Specialty License, and the Missouri Dealers License Plates; as well as hundreds of decals, property labels and stickers for all State Agencies. They manufacture License Plate Validation Decals for the State of Arkansas.

• 4-H Life

This group encourages interaction between the offenders and their families by bridging the gap between life in prison and life on the streets. It creates a positive atmosphere for the offenders and their children and the group meets twice a month with Volunteers in Corrections (VIC) and the Offenders. Families meet with the group in the large visiting room every other month.

• Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)

This group presents a comprehensive program in regards to alcoholism and Alcoholics Anonymous. This group meets once per week.

• NAACP

This group is for individuals working toward the advancement of colored people and to offer its members an opportunity to better enhance himself for his reentry into society through motivation and positive guidance. This group meets Bi weekly.

• Offenders Offering Alternatives

This volunteer group works with and assists those on probation in Missouri through a program that presents the realities of incarceration and prison life.

• Toastmasters International

This group helps its members improve their abilities to communicate effectively by developing their speaking skills through instruction, educational materials, constructive evaluation, and speaking before audiences.

• Vietnam Veterans’ of America

This is a national organization which has made many strides toward obtaining and maintaining the rights not only of Vietnam Veterans, but of all Veterans.

• Jefftown Video Productions

Jefftown is an offender staffed cable television and production system at JCCC. It has been in operation since 1984 and is staffed by five offenders. Jefftown operates seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is one of only a handful of television stations in the United States that are completely operated with offender staffing. 

Pictures of Jefferson City Correctional Center

Careers at Jefferson City Correctional Center

If you are interested in a career with the Missouri Department of Corrections at the Jefferson City Correctional Center, you can find out more information by clicking here.