Old Colony Inmate Overview
Old Colony Correctional Center, usually shortened to OCCC, is operated by the Massachusetts Department of Correction. It is not a Plymouth County Sheriff's Department jail, and it should not be searched through the county jail record path. The facility sits in the Bridgewater correctional cluster in Plymouth County and holds male prisoners in medium and minimum security custody. The official Mass.gov facility page describes OCCC as a mental-health-focused prison, with service delivery, rehabilitation, and reentry as stated objectives.
OCCC has a different public-record profile from the Plymouth County jail inmate records route. A person held at OCCC is generally in the state correctional system, while the county jail route is used for Plymouth County pretrial custody, county sentences, and local detention questions. The distinction matters because a name may disappear from a county custody channel after sentencing or transfer, then appear in a DOC/VINELink path instead. Facility contact, visiting approval, mail, phone, and money rules should be checked against DOC instructions and the official OCCC page before travel or mailing.
Old Colony Population Stats
The DOC FY2023 annual report gives the strongest sourced OCCC population figures available from the assigned official materials. It lists Old Colony Correctional Center as a medium and minimum security facility with operational capacity of 818, split between 658 medium-security beds and 160 minimum-security beds. The same annual report gives an average daily population of 509 and a January 1, 2024 population of 493. The report also notes that OCCC was initially ACA-accredited in 1989, opened in 1987, and expanded in 1990 with a modular unit.
Cost and custody figures should be read as DOC annual-report data, not as a live roster. The report lists FY2023 annual cost per person as $136,495 for medium security and $124,538 for minimum security. It also states that OCCC's January 1, 2024 count was mostly medium security, with 436 medium and 57 minimum commitments. A 2024 news item says Massachusetts planned to close the Old Colony minimum-security unit, while the official Mass.gov page and the FY2023 report still support OCCC as an active facility. Treat that as an operations note, not a separate facility page.
Old Colony Inmate Lookup
The correct public lookup route for Old Colony Correctional Center is the state prison path. Mass.gov's Find an inmate in a Massachusetts prison page directs searchers to Massachusetts VINELink or a phone lookup option. VINELink can show custody status and notification options, but it is not a full criminal-history report, full sentence-computation sheet, mental-health record, or court docket. A Plymouth County court case may explain the conviction or order, while DOC and VINE show the custody side.
- Open the Mass.gov inmate lookup instructions and follow the Massachusetts VINELink custody-search route.
- Search by exact name or available identifier. Spelling, middle initials, and suffixes can affect results.
- Confirm the facility field before assuming the person is at Old Colony Correctional Center.
- Use the official facility phone line if a visit, transfer, release, or housing question is time-sensitive.
The DOC/VINELink search path requires the Massachusetts state selection, a person search to locate a record, and optional registration for custody-status notifications. Release dates can change because of credits, parole, court orders, or recalculation. If the issue is a Plymouth County arrest before sentencing, check county jail and court channels instead. If the person is in federal or immigration custody, the BOP locator or ICE ODLS is the more fitting search route.
Old Colony Facility Page
The official Mass.gov Old Colony Correctional Center page is the source matched to this facility in the image manifest.
The Mass.gov facility listing is useful for checking the DOC identity of OCCC, the state facility name, and the official contact channel before relying on a roster result or older facility note.
Old Colony Contact Card
Use the facility contact information for OCCC-specific questions such as visiting approval, mail format, accepted property, or a recent transfer. Do not use the Plymouth County Sheriff's Department to confirm ordinary OCCC state-prison custody unless the question concerns a separate county-jail case or a transfer from the county jail. For formal public records, Massachusetts law points requesters toward the agency that created or received the record, and DOC records are not the same file as a county sheriff record.
Old Colony Correctional Center
1 Administration Road
Bridgewater, MA 02324
(508) 279-6000
Call the facility or check DOC instructions for current visiting and mail procedures.
Old Colony Mental Health Custody
Old Colony Correctional Center is a prison, but its role is not just ordinary custody. The DOC annual report says OCCC houses medium- and minimum-security males with a special focus on serious mental illness and psychiatric needs. It also says OCCC has DOC's largest Residential Treatment Unit. That point matters for users who are trying to understand why a sentenced person is listed at OCCC rather than at another Massachusetts prison after classification.
The same DOC annual-report notes say OCCC houses Bridgewater State Hospital state-sentenced units for state-sentenced individuals admitted for observation, forensic evaluation, or civil commitment under Chapter 123. That does not turn OCCC into Bridgewater State Hospital, and it does not make clinical records public. It means a state-sentenced person may be in a specialized DOC setting where treatment, observation, classification, and security all shape what information can be confirmed. Custody status may be searchable, but health and clinical details are governed by privacy and facility rules.
Note: Verify custody, visit approval, and mail rules with DOC before traveling to Bridgewater or sending time-sensitive legal mail.
Old Colony Visit Rules
OCCC visitation is a DOC matter. MASAC, MTC, OCCC, and Bridgewater State Hospital are state facilities, so visitors should use DOC facility visitation procedures and visitor applications, not the PCCF five-person county visitor list. In practical terms, family and attorneys should confirm approval, scheduling, identification, dress rules, and any institution-specific limit with DOC or the facility before making plans.
| Visit Issue | What to Verify | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Approval | DOC visitor application and facility approval | State prisons use DOC procedures, not PCCF county visitor preapproval. |
| Schedule | Current OCCC visiting days and times | The research did not capture a fixed OCCC schedule, so call before travel. |
| Identification | Photo ID and any DOC visitor conditions | Entry can be denied if documentation is incomplete. |
| Legal access | Facility-specific attorney visit process | Attorney visits may use different rules from social visits. |
Old Colony Mail and Money
Mail, phone, and money rules for Old Colony Correctional Center follow DOC facility procedures. The PCCF digital mail center, Access Corrections county-jail deposit notes, and Plymouth County visitor booklet apply to the county correctional facility, not to OCCC. DOC facility pages and statewide DOC instructions are the safer source for the current mail address format, approved sender rules, phone access, and deposit process.
| Service | OCCC Route | Research Boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Mail | Use DOC and OCCC facility instructions. | No OCCC-specific mail format was captured in the assigned research sections. |
| Legal Mail | Confirm the current DOC legal-mail format before mailing. | Clinical or security screening rules may differ by institution. |
| Phone | Check DOC facility rules and approved phone access. | No OCCC phone vendor or fee table was sourced. |
| Money Deposit | Use the DOC-approved deposit route for the institution. | No sourced OCCC commissary fee schedule was located. |
Old Colony Records Limits
Massachusetts public-records rules can help with a formal records request, but they do not make every prison, medical, classification, or security file public. M.G.L. c. 66, Section 10 sets the public-records request framework. M.G.L. c. 4, Section 7 defines public records and exemptions, including privacy, investigatory, statutory, CORI, and security-sensitive material. CORI definitions and CORI access rules also shape what criminal-offender information may be released.
- DOC
- The Massachusetts Department of Correction, the state agency operating OCCC and other prisons.
- VINE
- A public custody-search and notification system used for state prison lookup in Massachusetts.
- Classification
- The DOC process that helps decide security level, placement, programming, and transfer needs.
- CORI
- Criminal offender record information, which can limit public release of some criminal justice data.
About Old Colony
OCCC opened in 1987 and expanded in 1990. The DOC annual report describes it as medium and minimum security, with a mental-health treatment emphasis and a large Residential Treatment Unit. A 2024 news item reported a planned change involving the minimum-security unit, while the current official facility page and the annual report continue to identify Old Colony Correctional Center as an active Massachusetts DOC facility in Bridgewater.
For Plymouth County residents, the main practical point is routing. A person arrested locally may start in the county jail system, appear in a court case, and later move into DOC custody after sentencing or classification. Once the person is in OCCC, use DOC/VINE and facility channels for inmate lookup, visits, mail, and custody confirmation. Use MassCourts or the court clerk for the criminal case record, because a VINE custody result is not the same thing as the full court file.