Western Regional Release Destinations
Western Regional Jail and Correctional Facility, often shortened to WRJCF, is the main regional-jail route for adults held on Mason County matters. The official WVDCR facility page names Cabell, Lincoln, Mason, Putnam, and Wayne as counties served. That makes the arresting county, court county, and jail address different facts. A Mason deputy or Point Pleasant officer may create the arrest record. A Mason court may issue the bond, dismissal, commitment, or sentencing order. WVDCR creates the regional-jail admission and release event.
A lawful release may be on recognizance or bond while the case stays open. It may follow dismissal, a court order, time served, or completion of a county sentence. Yet leaving Western can also mean commitment to the state-prison population, movement to another regional jail, or a handoff caused by a federal, immigration, interstate, or other-county detainer. A detainer is a request or legal hold from another authority. It can prevent a person from walking into the community even after the Mason custody basis ends.
Confirm Western Regional Releases
The WVDCR Jail Offender Search is the right first online route for current Western Regional custody. It is not a full historical release archive. WVDCR warns that portal data changes fast and may not show the true current location, release date, or status. A missing name can reflect release, transfer, spelling, lag, another jurisdiction, or limits in the searchable record.
Use a short sequence that separates the live clue from the durable record:
- Search the person’s legal last and first name, then try known variants. Compare date of birth, booking details, facility, image, and court information when those fields appear.
- Check West Virginia VINE for the same person and reporting agency. Save the exact event wording and time, but remember that a transfer alert may occur after arrival.
- Read the Mason magistrate or circuit docket for the bond, dismissal, sentence, commitment, or other order that supplied legal authority.
- Ask WVDCR for the focused admission and release entry when the portals do not affirmatively state what happened.
The signed court order explains why custody should change. WVDCR records the physical jail event. Neither source replaces the other. An order setting bond does not prove bond was posted, while an OIS disappearance does not explain the legal basis or destination. Mason County’s broader released-inmate search and records coverage provides the same custody-type sequence for a person whose destination is not yet known.
Note: Daily Incarcerations is an admission and custody view, not an official list of people released today.
Western Regional Release Records
For an affirmative past release, send a reasonably specific written request to WVDCR. Name Western Regional Jail, Mason County as the arresting or sentencing county, a narrow date range, the person’s full name and aliases, and the date of birth or OIS number if known. Ask for admission and release date and time, booking number, release type or authority, and the destination or receiving agency if public. Identify the booking photograph separately because it is a distinct record item.
West Virginia FOIA section 29B-1-3 requires a response action within five days, excluding weekends and legal holidays. That period is not a promise of final production. WVDCR Policy 142.00 reports paper copies at fifteen cents per page plus actual estimated postage. Electronic copies may reduce cost. Personal, medical, juvenile, security, victim, sealed, or active investigative details can be redacted or withheld under applicable exemptions.
| Record field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Admission and release time | Links the departure to the correct Western booking. |
| Release type or authority | Distinguishes bond, court order, time served, discharge, or transfer. |
| Destination or receiving agency | Shows whether another authority took custody, when public. |
| Booking or OIS number | Separates people with similar names and ties later requests together. |
Ask only for the event needed. A request for an entire offender file can create avoidable privacy and security conflicts. If part is withheld, request the legal basis and all reasonably segregable portions. No official booking or release-specific public retention period was verified, so disappearance from the portal should never be described as a retention rule.
Western Regional Release Contact
Facility contact is useful for a current status check and for routing a narrow record request. Staff may limit what can be given by phone. The call is still valuable when a family member needs to learn which office holds a record or whether published directions remain current.
Western Regional Jail and Correctional Facility
One O’Hanlon Place
Barboursville, WV 25504
Phone: 304-733-6821
Fax: 304-733-6867
WRJCF is operated by the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Do not send its release-record request to an unrelated sheriff’s office. The Mason County Sheriff may hold locally created arrest, incident, transport, or court-service records, but the Sheriff is not presented by the official sources as Western’s operator or as the custodian of its release log.
Western Regional Release Geography
Mason County’s detention map has an uncommon split. Western is in Barboursville, Cabell County, but officially serves Mason County. Lakin Correctional Center and Jail is physically in Mason County and serves a statewide women’s prison population. The first question is therefore not just where an arrest occurred. It is whether the person was a regional-jail detainee or a sentenced state prisoner.
For Western, use the jail search and jail release record. For a sentenced woman at Lakin, use the prison search and state sentence record. A move from Western into prison classification can cause the jail result to change without a community release. Continue with WVDCR’s prison offender route if the court entered a state commitment or the Western record identifies a prison transfer.
- Regional-jail detainee
- A person held before trial or on a county sentence within the state regional-jail system.
- State prisoner
- A person serving a sentence committed to state corrections, even if first housed at a regional facility.
- Discharge
- The sentence or supervision endpoint stated by the responsible record, not merely a move between facilities.
Western Regional Release Scale
WVDCR states that Western began operating on December 13, 2003 and is one of West Virginia’s largest jails. Annual figures show the pace of facility-wide admissions and departures, but they are not Mason-only figures. Western serves five named counties and other covered populations. The totals must keep that scope attached.
The FY2022 annual report also lists 4,525 admissions and 4,116 releases for 2021, then 4,863 admissions and 4,860 releases for 2020. Those figures describe turnover at Western as a whole. They cannot be used to estimate how many Mason County residents left custody or whether one named person was released.
Note: Facility totals provide context only; the individual release entry and court order confirm a specific Mason County departure.
Western Regional Release Pickup
The official facility material provides visitation and driving information, but the research found no verified public release hour, exit gate, family waiting zone, property handoff rule, weekend release schedule, or transit procedure. Visitation rules should not be converted into release instructions. Call before driving to Barboursville and ask only for current, public logistical guidance.
The West Virginia Department of Transportation notice from 2010 is especially important because it says the Transit Authority discontinued the stop at Western Regional Jail and moved a park-and-ride location to Barboursville Mall Road. That old notice is not a current bus schedule. It shows why an old directory may be unsafe for planning a pickup.
The official WRJCF source is pictured below. It confirms the facility identity and service area rather than a person-specific release.
The image should be read with the live facility page because phone, driving, and operating details can change after capture.
Pickup plans also need room for a custody change. A person expected to leave Western may instead have another hold, an unresolved bond step, or a commitment that sends the person into prison classification. Facility staff may not be able to give a precise public time. Confirm the actual release event before travel, then ask for current directions and safe public waiting instructions. If the person entered the community, the court docket may still carry reporting dates and bond conditions. If another agency accepted custody, use that agency’s locator or records contact. Old transit details, estimated sentence dates, and an absent portal result are too weak to plan around by themselves.
Property, identification, and transportation practices were not verified in the official Western material. Do not assume that visitation procedures govern a release pickup or that personal property can be collected by someone else. A focused call should ask what the facility can publicly confirm and what the released person must handle directly. This keeps practical planning tied to current facility instructions without inventing a release gate, release hour, or family waiting rule that the research did not establish.