Clicking on any of the Shelby County or city facilities below will direct you to an information page with Inmate Search, Visitation, Mail, Phone, Email, Court cases, Most Wanted, Recent Arrests, Bail/Bond and more.
When someone is arrested anywhere in the county, they are almost always taken to the Shelby County jail, run by the county sheriff. It is where people are booked, and where they stay if they aren't released at their first appearance before a magistrate or judge. It also holds people serving short local sentences, usually a year or less. In Iowa, that covers most simple and serious misdemeanors and some aggravated ones. Someone sentenced to state prison waits here until the Iowa Department of Corrections picks them up. Men usually go first to the reception center in Coralville, and women to the prison in Mitchellville. Some Iowa jails also house people for neighboring counties, the state or federal agencies under contract, and a few small counties send their arrestees to a nearby county's jail. Most people held here are still waiting for their cases to be decided, so the list of who is in custody changes every day. To see if someone is being held, use the Shelby County inmate search.
Very few Iowa cities run their own jails today. Where a city police department has a holding cell at the station, it is only meant for a few hours: long enough to book someone and then release them with a citation, or drive them to the county jail. Anyone who isn't released quickly ends up in the Shelby County jail. Outside the largest cities, police take arrested people straight to the county jail. If you can't find someone after an arrest, the county inmate search is the best place to look.
Iowa youths under 18 are normally held at a juvenile detention center, not the adult jail. Iowa has a small number of these centers, and most serve several counties, so a young person from Shelby County may be taken to a center outside the county. A juvenile court judge must hold a hearing quickly, usually within about a day (or the next business day after a weekend or holiday), to decide whether the youth stays in detention or goes home under supervision. In detention, youths are kept apart from adults and continue going to school and getting health care. Iowa's juvenile court officers, not adult probation, manage these cases. Juvenile records in Iowa are generally kept confidential, so youths won't show up in the inmate search. Parents and guardians should call the detention center or the Shelby County juvenile court office. One exception: 16- and 17-year-olds charged with certain serious violent felonies can have their cases start in adult court, and may be held separately within an adult facility. If a judge orders a placement after the case is decided, a boy may be sent to the State Training School in Eldora, or the judge may choose a group home or treatment program.