Washington County Jail Overview
Washington County Jail is a sheriff-operated county jail at 2185 Lexington Boulevard, Washington, IA 52353. The Washington County Sheriff's Office operates the jail, and the official sheriff page lists Jared M. Schneider as County Sheriff. The correctional facility directory identifies Gina Greiner as Jail Administrator. For custody questions, the jail's direct phone is 319-653-5902. The separate Sheriff's Office and Records Division address is 2181 Lexington Boulevard, PO Box 6, Washington, IA 52353, with the records phone listed as 319-653-2107.
The facility map for this county has one detention facility: Washington County Jail. No state prison, BOP prison, ICE detention center, or separate regional jail was verified as physically located in Washington County. That matters for inmate lookup because most local arrests start with the jail, while sentenced Iowa prison custody moves to the Iowa Department of Corrections, federal custody uses U.S. Marshals or Bureau of Prisons channels, and immigration custody uses ICE's locator.
The official jail page is more historical than procedural. It explains that the older Washington County Public Safety Center was built in the 1960s as both a jail and sheriff residence, then partly converted to office space in the 1970s. The State of Iowa Jail Inspector closed the jail portion of that older facility on July 1, 2000. The county later received a temporary approval to reopen in March 2005 while pursuing a modern jail project. Construction on the current Washington County Jail at 2185 Lexington Boulevard began in September 2006.
The county's official jail-history page is the source for the local facility background: Washington County Jail history.
The screenshot reflects why this facility page relies on several access channels. The county jail page documents the building history, but it does not publish a current roster, visitation schedule, mail format, or commissary instructions.
Washington County Jail Capacity and Population
Washington County does not publish a current daily jail dashboard, current average daily population, current annual booking count, or current demographic report on the official county pages inspected for this build. The best sourced local jail capacity and population figures in the research are from Vera Institute's Incarceration Trends county dataset. For Washington County, Iowa, the 2019 row reports a jail rated capacity of 74 and a jail population of 55. The same row reports 45 people in pretrial custody and 10 in sentenced custody. Those are historical dataset figures, not a live count for today's jail population.
The Vera 2019 row also reports 389.75 jail admissions as a raw dataset value, a jail population rate of 405.6, and a prison population attributed to Washington County of 51. The research warns that some raw demographic subtotals in the Vera row exceed the total jail population, so those figures should not be forced into percentages. Use the Vera data for trend context, then call the jail for present custody confirmation.
| Measure | Figure | Source / Year |
|---|---|---|
| Rated capacity | 74 | Vera Incarceration Trends county CSV, 2019 row |
| Total jail population | 55 | Vera Incarceration Trends county CSV, 2019 row |
| Pretrial custody | 45 | Vera Incarceration Trends county CSV, 2019 row |
| Sentenced custody | 10 | Vera Incarceration Trends county CSV, 2019 row |
For the historical data source, see the Vera Incarceration Trends repository.
Vera is useful for long-term capacity and population context, but it does not replace a current custody check with Washington County Jail.
How to Look Up an Inmate at Washington County Jail
No official Washington County web jail roster, current inmate list, recent-booking feed, roster PDF, or sample inmate profile was found on the official county site. The practical lookup path is therefore a fallback chain. Start with the jail for current custody, then use Sheriff's Records for written arrest or booking information, then check court, DOC, victim-notification, federal, or immigration systems when the person may have moved out of county jail custody.
- Call Washington County Jail at 319-653-5902 and ask whether the person is currently held there. Have the person's full name, date of birth if known, arrest date, and charge or warrant information ready.
- For a written booking, arrest, incident, call-for-service, or charging record, contact the Washington County Sheriff's Office Records Division at 319-653-2107 during Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
- Check the official Washington County Sheriff Iowa mobile app for any app-based jail information. The Apple and Google listings confirm the app, but they do not expose current roster fields or mugshot screens on the web.
- Search Iowa Courts Online for criminal case information after the arrest. The court charge may differ from the booking charge, and a new case may take one business day to appear after entry in the court system.
- Use the Iowa DOC offender search if the person may have been sentenced to prison, work release, parole, probation, or other IDOC supervision.
- Use Iowa VINELink or 888-742-8463 for custody-status notification when available.
- Use the BOP inmate locator for sentenced federal prison custody and the ICE detainee locator for immigration custody. No BOP or ICE detention facility was verified in Washington County.
Washington County Jail Address and Contact
Use the jail phone for current custody and facility questions. Use Sheriff's Records for records that may need to be reviewed, copied, or released under Iowa public-record rules. The county FAQ says calls for service, arrests, and charging information are public records under Iowa Code chapters 22.1 and 22.2, while police investigative reports are typically not released under Iowa Code chapter 22.7 and juvenile information is not released to the public.
Washington County Jail
2185 Lexington Boulevard
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-5902
Direct jail information line
Sheriff's Records Division
2181 Lexington Boulevard, PO Box 6
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2107
Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Published records fees in the sheriff FAQ include $4 for an accident report, $13 per surname requested for Iowa criminal-history checks through DCI, and $6.50 for a driving record. The research did not locate a specific fee table for jail booking records, roster copies, mugshots, or inmate-account information.
Visiting Someone at Washington County Jail
Washington County's official pages do not publish a current visitation schedule, visitor approval process, dress code, child-visitor rule, attorney-visit rule, lobby hours, parking instructions, or entrance-property rule. Reliance Telephone lists video calls, video visitation, wireless video calls, and wireless video visitations for Washington County Jail, but the research did not verify a public schedule from the county site. Confirm the visit type, required ID, arrival time, and any remote-video process with the jail before traveling or creating an account.
| Visit Type | Published Schedule | How to Confirm |
|---|---|---|
| In-person or on-site video | Not published in official county sources | Call the jail at 319-653-5902 |
| Remote video | Not published in official county sources | Check Reliance tools and confirm with the jail |
| Attorney visits | Not published in official county sources | Attorneys should call 319-653-5902 |
Mail, Phone, and Money at Washington County Jail
The official county pages inspected do not publish a complete mail format, commissary vendor, property policy, package rule, or current money-deposit process for Washington County Jail. The county online-payments page covers property taxes and vehicle registration renewal, not jail bonds or inmate deposits. Before mailing anything or attempting a deposit, call the jail at 319-653-5902 to confirm the required recipient name, ID number if any, mailing restrictions, and available deposit methods.
Reliance Telephone is the verified communications source in the research. Its Washington County Jail facility record identifies facility ID 163 and lists audio calls, video calls, video visitation, wireless video visitations, texting, international texting, voicemail, inmate requests, education, law library, reference material, games, transcription, and person search. The research also records voicemail number 319-569-6050, a payment minimum of $10, a payment maximum of $200, audio rates at $0.17 per minute for several categories, and video-call wallet or audio-video wallet rates at $0.42 per minute.
| Service | Provider / Detail |
|---|---|
| Mail Address | Use 2185 Lexington Boulevard, Washington, IA 52353 only after confirming name and ID format with the jail |
| Phone / Video | Reliance Telephone facility record lists phone, video, texting, voicemail, and video visitation features |
| Money Deposit | No official county commissary or deposit schedule found; Reliance account payment limits are $10 minimum and $200 maximum |
| Historical housing fee | County jail history says sentenced inmates were charged $25 per day beginning in October 2002; current status was not located |
The communications vendor source for the facility is Reliance Telephone's Washington County Jail page.
Reliance is a communications account source, not a substitute for the jail's custody confirmation line or the Sheriff's Records Division.
Booking and Intake at Washington County Jail
Washington County does not publish a detailed intake timeline, booking appearance schedule, property-return rule, new-booking phone rule, or roster refresh schedule. A local arrest may start with the Sheriff's Office, Washington Police Department, another city or county agency, Iowa State Patrol, a warrant, a court order, or a transfer accepted by the sheriff. When the person is brought to Washington County Jail, the custody process normally includes identity verification, booking record creation, property handling, health and classification screening, and review of bond or hold status.
Iowa law and jail standards supply the broader framework. Iowa Code chapter 356 governs jails and municipal holding facilities, and Iowa Administrative Code 201 chapter 50 sets jail standards, including the jail as a sheriff-administered place designed to hold prisoners no more than one year and requiring annual inspections. Iowa Code chapter 692 defines arrest data and correctional data categories such as charge, date, time, place, warrants, filing of charges, and correctional status or location. Those laws do not create a public web roster for Washington County, but they help explain why the Sheriff's Records Division is the local fallback for releasable booking and arrest information.
Bond, Holds, and Court Routing
For release questions, call Washington County Jail before relying on a court docket or third-party search result. Iowa Code chapter 811 governs bail and pretrial release, including personal recognizance, unsecured appearance bond, release conditions, cash, and surety. The Iowa Judicial Branch Uniform Bond Schedule says some arrested people may be released pending initial appearance if the release follows pretrial-release procedures or an approved bond schedule. The Washington County pages inspected did not publish a jail bond-payment page or accepted local bond-payment methods.
A person may remain in custody even when one local bond appears payable. Holds can involve warrants, probation or parole violations, federal warrants, U.S. Marshals transfers, ICE detainers, or orders from another jurisdiction. Washington County is in the Southern District of Iowa for federal court and U.S. Marshals purposes. If a person has been sentenced to Iowa prison or released to IDOC supervision, use the Iowa DOC offender search rather than treating the county jail as the primary source.
About Washington County Jail
The jail's history is unusually important to understanding the current facility. The county's old Public Safety Center jail was closed in 2000 because Iowa jail standards addressed floor space per prisoner, classification separation, food service, exercise, and related operational details. The 2005 reopening was presented by county officials as a temporary fix, with a waiver moving the allowed count from 11 to 15 while Washington County pursued a modern jail. The current jail project began in September 2006 at the Lexington Boulevard location.
The Sheriff's Office also serves the broader county. The sheriff page says the office provides law enforcement across Washington County's rural areas and contract law enforcement services to Ainsworth, Brighton, Crawfordsville, Kalona, Riverside, Wellman, and West Chester. Primary highways named by the sheriff page include Highways 1, 22, 78, 92, and 218. That countywide role helps explain why the jail can receive local arrestees from different cities, rural calls, warrants, highway incidents, and transfers.
Current program details are limited in official county web sources. The research found no county-published GED, substance-use treatment, religious services, grievance, medical-request, mental-health, reentry, or current jail inspection detail page. Reliance lists law library, education, reference material, inmate requests, and Edovo among enabled facility features, but the jail should confirm how those services are actually available to a specific person in custody.
Note: Confirm custody, visit rules, mail format, and payment options with Washington County Jail before traveling or sending funds.