Winneshiek County Inmate Population Overview
The Winneshiek County inmate population is reported through a mix of county jail material, state corrections data, and court records. The local piece is the Winneshiek County Jail, which is operated by the Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office in Decorah. The county describes the jail as the place for people awaiting trial, people serving time for state, county, or municipal offenses, and overflow inmates for other jurisdictions. That makes the county list broader than a pretrial-only roster, but narrower than a statewide corrections locator.
Population counts move for simple reasons. A new arrest, a bench warrant, a short sentence, or another-agency hold can add a person to the Winneshiek County inmate population. Bond payment, release on recognizance, transfer to another county, or transfer to the Iowa Department of Corrections can remove a person from the local list. Court records then keep tracking the case even when the jail roster no longer shows the booking.
Winneshiek County Inmate Population Statistics
The county jail page gives the strongest current facility number: the Winneshiek County Jail is a 40-bed facility. The official current-inmates list showed 14 people when the research file was inspected on June 13, 2026. That is a point-in-time count, not an average daily population. The county's annual sheriff reports use the label "Inmates Processed," which is a throughput measure and can include repeat events.
| Measure | Figure | Source / Date |
|---|---|---|
| Jail rated capacity | 40 beds | Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office jail page, modified 2026-05-11 |
| Current official roster count | 14 people listed | Current-inmates page inspected June 13, 2026 |
| Current occupancy against capacity | About 35% | Derived from county capacity and roster count |
| County population estimate | 19,723 | U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, July 1, 2024 |
| 2025 inmates processed | 394 | Winneshiek sheriff annual reports |
Winneshiek County Inmate Population Trends
The best local multi-year series in the research is not average daily population. It is the sheriff report count for "Inmates Processed." The series rose from 280 in 2020 to 394 in 2025, with a small drop in 2024 before the 2025 increase. This trend should be read as jail-processing volume, not as the number of people housed on a typical night.
| Year | Inmates Processed | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 280 | Annual sheriff report figure |
| 2021 | 305 | Annual sheriff report figure |
| 2022 | 357 | Annual sheriff report figure |
| 2023 | 387 | Annual sheriff report figure |
| 2024 | 379 | Small decline from the prior year |
| 2025 | 394 | Highest figure in the research series |
The Vera Institute Incarceration Trends county dataset also classifies Winneshiek County as rural and gives a historical series. Those older values are useful context, but the current county-published 40-bed capacity controls present-day facility content because Vera's historical capacity values do not match the county jail page.
Winneshiek County Jail Capacity
Current research does not show an overcrowding crisis, consent decree, or new jail construction plan for Winneshiek County. The point-in-time list count was well below the 40-bed capacity when inspected. That does not mean every day has the same count. Warrants, weekend arrests, sentencing orders, state-prison transfers, and other-agency holds can change the Winneshiek County inmate population without a separate public notice.
Several useful figures were not located in official county pages or reports. No official average daily population, average length of stay, race or sex breakdown, felony and misdemeanor split, or pretrial versus sentenced percentage was found. The current roster shows individual age and custody reasons, but it does not publish a countywide demographic table.
Laws for Winneshiek County Jail Population
Iowa public-record law and jail standards shape what can be seen about the Winneshiek County inmate population. Public access does not mean every field is posted online. It means a record custodian must handle requests under the law, subject to fees, supervision, and exceptions for investigative, juvenile, medical, sealed, expunged, or security-sensitive material.
Key Statutes:
Iowa Code section 22.2 gives every person the right to examine and copy public records unless another law makes a record confidential.
Iowa Code section 22.3 allows supervision and reasonable actual-cost fees for public-record requests.
Iowa Code section 356.36 directs Iowa DOC to adopt minimum jail standards.
Iowa Admin. Code rule 201-50.3 requires annual jail inspection and reporting to the sheriff and governing body.
Death-in-custody rules also matter for public oversight. Iowa Code section 331.802 and Iowa Admin. Code rule 641-127.3 route certain jail, prison, correctional, or police-custody deaths through medical-examiner and autopsy rules when no natural disease process accounts for the death.
Winneshiek County State Prison Lookup
No Iowa DOC prison was identified inside Winneshiek County. Once a defendant is sentenced to state prison and transferred out of the local jail, the lookup path changes to Iowa DOC Offender Search. The DOC search has fields for name, offender number, sex, location, offense, county of commitment, and name-search mode. The county of commitment option can point back to Winneshiek, but it does not mean the person is physically housed in Winneshiek County.
| System | Who It Covers | Best Use |
|---|---|---|
| County current-inmates list | Current Winneshiek County Jail custody | Local booking, mugshot, hold reason, and bond check |
| Iowa DOC Offender Search | State prison and supervision records | Sentenced offender or prison-transfer lookup |
| Federal BOP locator | Federal inmates from 1982 to present | Sentenced federal custody search |
| ICE ODLS | Immigration detainees in ICE custody | A-number or biographical immigration-custody search |
Search Winneshiek County Inmates
The official current-inmates page is a free public list. It is not a search portal with filters. The practical method is to open the list, scan by last name, use the browser's find function, and call the jail if the person is not visible. No public search field, released-inmates tab, pagination, export, or click-through full profile was visible in the inspected county content.
- Open the official current-inmates list published by the Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office.
- Scan the last-name-first entries and use browser find if the list is long.
- Read the booking date, hold reason, and bond line before assuming the case status.
- Call the jail when a recent arrest is not listed, because no roster refresh rate is published.
- Check Iowa DOC, BOP, ICE, VINE, or Iowa Courts Online when local custody is not confirmed.
Winneshiek County Roster Fields
Because the county roster is a list, the search-field table is short. The stronger field inventory is the sample record layout itself. Each inspected entry showed a photo, name, age, booking date and time, hold reason or charges, and bond information. It did not show a booking number, full date of birth, housing unit, or release date.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search field | N/A | N/A | No public county search form was located. |
| Inmate name | Roster display | N/A | Displayed in last-name-first format. |
| Mugshot | Image | N/A | Visible beside inspected current-inmate entries. |
| Booking date/time | Roster display | N/A | Short numeric date and time format. |
| Hold reason / charges | Roster display | N/A | May show charge, warrant, sentence, or other-agency hold. |
| Bond | Roster display | N/A | Can include cash, surety, 10%, OR, unknown, or see-first-charge wording. |
What Winneshiek County Inmate Records Show
A current roster entry is a custody snapshot, not a full criminal-history report. The hold reason field may include an Iowa Code citation, a warrant case number, a sentence note, or a hold for another agency. The bond field can be useful but should be checked against the jail or clerk before money is paid, especially when several charges have separate bond entries.
The research found public entries showing bench warrants, new charges, short sentenced jail stays, and a hold for Howard County Sheriff's Office. That proves the list can include different custody reasons side by side. It does not prove the final court charge, the conviction status, or the release date. For charges after booking, use Iowa Courts Online and the Winneshiek Clerk of Court.
- Booking
- The jail intake event that creates the custody record, photo, date, hold reason, and bond line.
- Hold reason
- The roster line explaining why the person is held, such as charge, warrant, sentence, or other-agency hold.
- Detainer
- A request or hold from another agency that can affect release even when local bond is posted.
- OR bond
- Own-recognizance release, shown on some roster lines as OR with a zero-dollar amount.
Past Winneshiek County Inmate Records
No released-inmates archive was visible on the county current-inmates page. Once a person drops from the current list, the next step is a public-records request to the Sheriff's Office or a court search if the need is formal charge history. A request should identify the person, approximate booking date, case number if known, and whether the request is for the booking record, booking photo, incident report, or jail report.
Iowa Code chapter 22 allows written, phone, and electronic requests, but it also allows fees and redactions. Older records may be limited by investigative confidentiality, juvenile rules, sealed records, expungement, medical data, or jail security concerns.
Winneshiek County Detention Facility
Winneshiek County has one local detention facility in the resolved facility map. No separate state prison, BOP prison, ICE detention center, regional jail, annex, or city jail was located from official sources for this county.
- Winneshiek County Jail - the county jail in Decorah for pretrial detainees, short sentenced stays, state/county/municipal offenders, and overflow inmates for other jurisdictions.
Winneshiek County Jail Updates
The jail page has one operational detail that affects future custody planning. It states that after July 1, 2026, the Winneshiek County Jail will no longer accommodate work release. That is a program-status change inside the county jail, not a separate work-release facility. People reporting for jail time should call the jail for scheduling and should not assume work release remains available after that date.
Recent public reporting also involved immigration-detainer cooperation. AP coverage in March 2025 described a dispute over a sheriff post about ICE detainers. On July 18, 2025, the Iowa Attorney General announced the lawsuit would be dismissed and said Winneshiek County and Sheriff Dan Marx were in full compliance with Iowa Code chapter 27A. That item belongs to federal or immigration routing, not routine jail conditions.
Winneshiek County Roster Screenshot
The county's official current-inmates page is the source for the roster screenshot below.
The screenshot reinforces the main lookup point: the Winneshiek County inmate population appears as a current list with booking photos and hold details, not as a searchable database.
Winneshiek County Inmate Population FAQ
How big is the Winneshiek County inmate population?
The current-inmates list showed 14 people when inspected on June 13, 2026. The jail's county-published capacity is 40 beds. Use those as current roster and capacity facts, not as average daily population.
How do I search the Winneshiek County inmate population?
Use the county current-inmates list first, then scan by name. If the person is not listed, call the jail or check state, federal, immigration, VINE, and court systems based on the custody stage.
Can I see released inmates?
No released-inmate tab was visible in the inspected roster. For past booking records, request records from the Sheriff's Office or use Iowa Courts Online for filed charges and case outcomes.
Does the roster prove conviction?
No. A charge, warrant, or booking line is not the same as a conviction. Court records control formal filings, amendments, dismissals, pleas, verdicts, and sentencing.