Find Mills County Jail Inmates

Mills County Jail Custody

The Mills County Sheriff page identifies the sheriff as custodian of the county jail and responsible for prisoners committed to the sheriff until discharged by law. Sheriff Greg Schultz operates the jail through the Mills County Sheriff's Office. The same county record set places the jail and sheriff's office at 600 Industrial Road in Glenwood, with the jail line and sheriff office listed separately. This matters for record access because the sheriff, not the court clerk or a private site, is the local custodian for jail custody and booking records.

The jail is a county jail and local detention facility. The sheriff history page gives the local custody rule in plain terms: people arrested by sheriff's deputies, city police officers, or the Iowa State Patrol all end up in the county jail when Mills County local custody is used. People serving simple or serious misdemeanor jail sentences may also be held there. Aggravated misdemeanor and felony sentences can move a person to the Iowa Department of Corrections, so a missing county jail result may mean the person has been released, transferred, or moved into another custody system.

The manifest screenshot from the official sheriff page shows the jail custodian language, the sheriff contact block, and the office hours used for direct custody questions.

That official page is the source for the jail's local role, but it does not provide a public inmate search form or booking list.

Mills County Jail Population

The best high-authority county-level jail population source located for Mills County is the Vera Institute Incarceration Trends county CSV, repository version 3.1 released in March 2026. For Mills County, the most recent filled county jail row in the extracted data is 2019. Vera lists a rated capacity of 47 and a total jail population of 24 for that year. The same row lists 209.25 admissions, a jail population rate of 262.38 per 100,000, and an admissions rate of 2,287.64 per 100,000.

Those figures are useful for scale, but they are not a live jail count. The official county site did not publish a current daily roster, current bed count, or jail-population dashboard in the located sources. For same-day custody status, call the jail. For historic data, use the Vera figures with their year attached.

Mills County Jail Lookup

No official Mills County online jail roster, booking report, mugshot gallery, or recent-release list was located on the sheriff page, jail FAQ, staff directory, county public-information page, or official site search. That means the correct Mills County Jail lookup block is a fallback chain, not a roster link. Start with the jail for current custody, then use a sheriff records request for booking material, Iowa Courts Online for charges and court events, Iowa DOC Offender Search after a state-prison transfer, BOP Inmate Locator for federal sentenced custody, and ICE ODLS for immigration detention.

1. Call the Mills County Jail at 712-527-4275 for current custody, same-day release status, bond questions, and visit eligibility.
2. If the question is about a non-emergency message, use the jail voicemail number, 712-800-0887, because inmates cannot receive incoming calls.
3. For a booking record, mugshot, jail log, or older custody entry, contact the Mills County Sheriff's Office records channel at 600 Industrial Road or 712-527-4871.
4. Search Iowa Courts Online separately when the need is charges, case number, disposition, fines, or court hearing history after arrest.
5. If sentencing or transfer has occurred, search Iowa DOC by name, offender number, location, offense, or county of commitment.

Mills County Jail Contact

The jail line is the main direct path for current custody questions. The sheriff office line is the broader agency contact for records, jail administration, and open-records routing. The official staff directory also lists a records clerk, which supports the sheriff-records request path when a person needs a jail log, booking record, or photo rather than a verbal custody check.

The county public-information page says requests should go to the department that has the information. For jail custody records, that points to the Sheriff's Office. If the requester is not sure which county office holds the record, the Mills County public-information page gives the Auditor's office as the fallback contact at 712-527-3146.

Mills County Jail Visits

The Mills County Jail FAQ says regular visitation uses a video visitation system. Regular visits are on Thursdays unless the day falls on a holiday, when visitation may move to the day before or after. Visitors should call before Thursday to set a time. A person who waits until the visit day may not get a slot. Visits are 15 minutes, and visitors must be approved by jail administration.

Jail administration can restrict visits for discipline. A visitor may visit only one inmate per day and may not switch booths to communicate with more than one inmate. A minor child may visit only if accompanied by an adult and approved by jail administration. Everyone entering jail premises is subject to search, and children must be supervised. The FAQ also bars food, drinks, disruptive conduct, intoxication, and clothing that is see-through, low cut, midriff-baring, offensive, or otherwise outside the conservative dress rule.

The jail FAQ screenshot from the official FAQ page captures the local rules for visits, calls, mail, commissary, and communication services.

Those FAQ details are more useful for visitors than a roster because they explain how to schedule contact once custody is confirmed.

Mills County Professional Visitation

Professional visitation has a different rule set. The jail FAQ recognizes confidential visits for attorneys and authorized staff, cleared clergy, mental health professionals, personal physicians or psychiatrists, law enforcement, probation and parole officers, courts, and social workers. These professional visits may occur any time of day, seven days a week, when the visitor is acting in an official capacity.

Advance setup with jail administration is still encouraged. Professional access is not the same as public Thursday video visitation. Legal or medical visitors should contact the jail before arrival so staff can confirm identity, clearance, confidentiality needs, and the best time to complete the visit without disrupting jail operations.

Mills County Jail Mail

Mail must include the inmate's full name and the Mills County Jail address. The jail FAQ lists a specific format: inmate name, Mills County Jail, 600 Industrial Rd., Glenwood, IA 51534. Mail should be written in black ink. If mail does not follow the black-ink rule, it may be denied and placed in the inmate's property. Cards are copied, with originals placed in property.

Do not send packages, obscene or pornographic material, personal checks, cashier's checks, postage stamps, stamped envelopes, food, or periodicals unless the periodical comes directly from the publisher. The official FAQ names two service vendors. JailATM is used to put money on an inmate account for money or commissary items. Reliance Telephone is used for phone cards, collect-call accounts, and texting-device funds.

Mills County Jail Records

For booking records, jail logs, arrest records held by the sheriff, or a possible mugshot, use the Sheriff's Office records path rather than a third-party roster. Iowa Code chapter 22 is the open-records starting point. It defines public records, gives the general right to inspect and copy public records unless another law makes them confidential, permits requests in person during customary office hours or by written, phone, or electronic means, and allows reasonable actual-cost fees. Law-enforcement records can still be redacted or withheld when a confidentiality rule applies.

A clear request should include the person's full legal name, date of birth if known, arrest date or approximate date, arresting agency, and the kind of record sought. For mugshots, ask for the booking photograph or booking record held by the sheriff. Do not assume the court docket will include a photo. Iowa Courts Online is best for court charges, docket entries, dispositions, fines, and case events after an arrest. The broader Mills County jail records path separates custody, booking, and court-record sources.

Mills County Transfer Searches

Mills County Jail is not the right search tool for every person with a Mills County case. If a defendant is convicted of a simple or serious misdemeanor, the sentence may be served in county jail. If the conviction is for an aggravated misdemeanor or felony, the person may move to Iowa DOC custody. Once that happens, search the Iowa DOC Offender Search by name, offender number, location, offense, or county of commitment. The DOC page states offender records are public information under Iowa Code section 904.601(1), but it also warns that the data updates weekly and may not be the latest or complete in every case.

Federal and immigration custody use different systems. The BOP locator covers federal inmates incarcerated from 1982 to present and shows fields such as name, register number, age, race, sex, release date, and location. It does not show a public mugshot field in the inspected result area. ICE ODLS searches current immigration detention by A-number and country of birth, or by name, country of birth, and date of birth. No BOP prison or ICE detention facility was located in Mills County, so those searches are fallbacks for a person moved out of the local jail path.

Mills County Jail Booking

Mills County does not publish a detailed booking procedure on its official jail page. The supported local facts are narrower. Arrested persons brought into county custody are held at the jail, and after booking most inmates have daily access to telephones in housing units. Calls after booking are the financial responsibility of the receiver or inmate. Inmates may request a texting device and video calls, and detention staff do not take routine messages.

Iowa Code chapter 804 governs the arrest-to-court path. A person arrested on a warrant or without a warrant must be taken before a magistrate without unnecessary delay under the relevant provisions. Bail and release then depend on statutory rules, a bond schedule, or a court order. Jail custody and court records diverge at this point: the jail can confirm custody, while Iowa Courts Online and the clerk show the criminal case once filed.

About Mills County Jail

The official sheriff history page connects the jail to the county's long law-enforcement history. It names W.W. Noyes as the first sheriff after Iowa statehood and James Hardy as the first elected sheriff in 1851. It also records that Sheriff Elijah W. Bushnell died after falling while inspecting scaffolding as the 1915 jail was being built, and states that he is the only Mills County officer to die in the line of duty.

Current local material is limited but specific. The sheriff history page says deputies patrol 447 square miles and that the office contracts with six Mills County communities outside Glenwood for law enforcement. Official county minutes from 2023 show jail room-and-board fees increased from $60 per day to $80 per day. Official minutes from 2024 note an Iowa Office of Ombudsman statewide investigation involving inmate complaints and jail practices, including a 2020 Mills County complaint, and say the county had already changed charging procedures to improve guidelines.