Each entry lists inmate's name, register (inmate) number, county of admission (where the trial was held and sentence imposed), date of admission (in some early records this may be the sentencing date instead), crime, age, state or country of birth, and date of discharge. Later entries were expanded to include occupation, religion, education, nationality of parents, and names of other prisons where the inmate had served time. In cases where the county of admission is blank, the majority were sentenced from federal or military court.

The initial entries in volumes 2 through 4 have been carried over from the previous volume. When one register volume was filled, the complete entries for the inmates still in prison were transferred to the new volume. Inmates retained their register numbers when carried over to a new volume, and an inmate may appear in several volumes. If an inmate was readmitted under a new sentence, however, a new number was assigned. The convict register was discontinued in November 1902; registration information was then recorded in the convict record (cataloged separately).