Five quick steps:

1. Go to the official inmate lookup.
2. Start with the last name. No luck? Swap in a nickname, hyphenated surname or new spelling.
3. Check the record for custody status and which jail has the person.
4. Note any ID number. Mitchell's jail calls it a PIN, and you'll need it for mail and deposits.
5. Double-check with the Sheriff's Office, 401 N. Main St., Howard, SD 57349, 605-772-4501, where dispatchers answer 24 hours a day.

The state's free SAVIN portal shares offender information and status changes, so it makes a good second look.

Common reasons for an empty search in this county:

• Booking isn't done. Deputies first have to drive the person to Mitchell or Ipswich.
• They already left. Many Class 2 misdemeanors end with a signed promise and quick release.
• They went to the second host jail. Some Miner prisoners land in Edmunds County.
• A different agency booked them. A trooper or a nearby county may have used its own jail.
• They are a minor. A detained teen goes to a juvenile center in Sioux Falls, not an adult jail.

Dispatch at 605-772-4501 is the fastest fix. The jails answer too: Davison at 605-995-8639, Edmunds at 605-426-6002. Callers should have the legal name and birth date.

South Dakota lets a county with no jail pay another county to house its prisoners under a written deal (SDCL 24-11-3). County bills from October 2026 show payments for prisoner care to two sheriffs:

• Davison County Jail, in the Public Safety Center at 1015 S. Miller Avenue, Mitchell, SD 57301, 605-995-8639. Adults from Miner are held here.
• Edmunds County Jail, 221 2nd Street, Ipswich, SD 57451, 605-426-6002. Some Miner prisoners may be held by Edmunds County.

Either way, Miner deputies made the arrest and the case belongs to the courthouse at 401 N. Main St., Howard, SD 57349. Visits, letters and deposits follow the host jail's rules. Phone the Sheriff's Office at 605-772-4501 to learn the right jail before any trip.

The state search online comes without pictures. Requests for a booking photo go through the Sheriff's Office, 605-772-4501. Members of the press use that number as well.

• Pictures from an immigration arrest: use the ICE records request page.
• Federal arrest photos are generally withheld. Still, a Marshals Service wanted notice for a fugitive may show one.

SAVIN, offered by the Attorney General, is free and runs all day and night. Register at savin.sd.gov to be told about a release or other custody change. Its call center, 844-299-4608, takes calls 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Central on weekdays.

• Nobody is enrolled for you. Sign up for each person yourself.
• Youth cases are outside SAVIN.
• Victims have a constitutional right to quick news of a release or escape (S.D. Const. art. VI, § 29).

For news today, phoning the jail beats waiting for an alert.

Miner follows Third Circuit procedure. Judges field bond calls from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., so a midnight arrest waits for morning. Felonies, plus a few Class 1 misdemeanors such as stalking and simple assault, need a judge to set bond. For Class 2 misdemeanors, a signed promise to return is enough.

• If the person sits in the Davison jail, its website points bond payers to JailATM.
• Twice-a-day 24/7 testing may be a bond term on a DUI or drug charge (SDCL 1-11-20).
• A domestic arrest means no contact of any kind, by the person or anyone acting for them, with the alleged victim or the people living there before the first hearing. A violation is a Class 1 misdemeanor (SDCL 25-10-43), so relatives shouldn't pass along notes.

Our bail page walks through amounts, payments and refunds.

Dispatch at 605-772-4501 can share the booking charges. After the State files the case, court tools show the formal counts:

• Find a Court Date, free, by name or case number.
• eCourts docket entries for public cases.
• PARS summaries at $20 per search.

Final charging choices rest with the State's Attorney, PO Box 189, Howard, SD 57349-0189, 605-772-4488. South Dakota sorts misdemeanors into two classes and felonies into nine, Class 6 being lightest and Class A the most serious (SDCL 22-6-1, 22-6-2).

The judge at the first appearance covers the right to ask for a free lawyer (SDCL 23A-4-3). Anyone without money for counsel can request one then (SDCL 23A-40-6). Miner has no public defender's office, so a private attorney is appointed and paid by the county (SDCL 23A-40-8).

• The Clerk of Courts, 401 N. Main St., Howard, SD 57349, 605-772-4612, can name the appointed lawyer. Hours are 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
• Repayment of the lawyer's fee may be ordered at the end (SDCL 23A-40-10).
• Attorneys book their own visits with the Davison jail.

A retained private attorney can step in at any point.

The jail at 1015 S. Miller Avenue, Mitchell, SD 57301, sets this schedule:

• Tuesday evenings, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
• Monday, Thursday and Friday have no visiting.
• Visits run 30 minutes. Up to two visitors share the booth, and a prisoner may have one visit per day when time allows.
• Show a photo ID. Under-18 visitors must be immediate family; under-16 visitors come with a parent or guardian.
• Bring no food, drinks or packages. Visitors under the influence are refused.
• Any no-contact order from a judge, bond or supervision rules out the visit.

Requests for a special visit go to supervisors in writing. Questions: 605-995-8639. For Edmunds County's schedule, phone 605-426-6002. Our visitation guide adds general advice.

The Davison jail's own page sends depositors to JailATM online. Keep the PIN and full name handy, and look at the fee shown before paying. The jail answers deposit questions at 605-995-8639.

Edmunds County sets its own options; call 605-426-6002. Cash should never travel by mail. See our deposits guide, and our commissary page for what an account can buy.

Prisoner calls at the Davison jail work through prepaid phone accounts. Ring 605-995-8639 to ask how to set one up, the rates and the calling hours. In Ipswich, the Edmunds jail takes the same questions at 605-426-6002.

Jail calls are recorded. Questions about the charges are for the defense lawyer, in a private meeting. Domestic cases add a rule: no calls to the alleged victim's household are allowed before the first hearing. Background is in our jail calls guide, and texts or email are covered in our inmate messaging guide.

Davison sends all prisoner mail to a scanning center in Texas. Write the address exactly this way:

PIN#, Davison County Jail, PO BOX 591, Longview, Texas 75606

• Put the prisoner's actual PIN in place of "PIN#".
• Letters mailed to the Mitchell street address get sent back.
• The scanning center destroys each original after scanning, photos too, and returns nothing.
• Legal and medical papers are refused at the Texas box. Lawyers should phone the jail, 605-995-8639, to learn how to send them.

Mailing to someone in Ipswich? Check first at 605-426-6002. General tips are in our inmate mail guide.

Belongings are listed at booking and stored at the host jail until release day. To have a relative pick them up sooner, phone the jail first:

• Davison County Jail, 1015 S. Miller Avenue, Mitchell, SD 57301, 605-995-8639
• Edmunds County Jail, 221 2nd Street, Ipswich, SD 57451, 605-426-6002

Ask if the prisoner must sign a release, which ID you need and when the property room is open. Under SDCL 24-11-45, a prisoner can be charged for confinement costs, so ask about that bill as well.

Miner pays prisoner medical bills, while the host jail sets up the actual care. Call the jail at once about a health need: Davison at 605-995-8639, Edmunds at 605-426-6002. Be ready with each drug, its dose and the prescriber's number.

Jail medical care is covered by state law (SDCL 24-11-21). Lead with any worry about suicide or a breakdown. If a life is in danger now, call 911.

Deputies serve warrants throughout the county and in Howard. Phone the Sheriff's Office at 605-772-4501 to ask about one; it sits at 401 N. Main St., Howard, SD 57349. Down the hall, the Clerk of Courts, 605-772-4612, knows if a judge has signed a bench warrant. Any case on UJS ePayments displays an active warrant. Statewide pages include the DOC Most Wanted list for escapes and the sex offender registry. Clearing a warrant means calling a lawyer and, together, turning yourself in to the issuing court.

Every hearing for a local case is held at the courthouse, 401 N. Main St., Howard, SD 57349. Two easy ways to find a date:

• Online, Find a Court Date lists coming hearings at no cost when given a name or case number.
• Phone the clerk's office at 605-772-4612 on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday.

A person held in Mitchell may appear by video instead of being driven back. Our court page explains each stage of the case.

The Southern Division courthouse, 400 S. Phillips Ave., Sioux Falls, SD 57104, 605-330-6600, takes federal cases from this area.

1. Under 18 U.S.C. 3142, the judge settles detention versus release right at the first federal appearance.
2. Until a federal case ends, the U.S. Marshals choose the jail, which is often a county one. The Sioux Falls office can tell you where: 400 South Phillips Avenue, Room 216, Sioux Falls, SD 57104, 605-330-4351.
3. When the case ends in a sentence, the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator finds them by register number or name.

An immigration hold usually goes like this:

1. ICE sends the jail in Mitchell or Ipswich its detainer, Form I-247A.
2. Holding time is capped: up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released (8 CFR 287.7(d)).
3. Removal cases here are handled by ICE's St. Paul Field Office, 1 Federal Drive, Suite 1601, Fort Snelling, MN 55111, 612-843-8600.
4. ICE's list of detention sites includes, in South Dakota, the Pennington County Jail, 307 Saint Joseph St, Rapid City, SD 57701, 605-394-6116.
5. Look the person up on the ICE Online Detainee Locator. Use the A-number; lacking that, type the name and birth country.

Passed in 2025, SB 7 (SL 2025, ch 100) voids local policies limiting what officers may share about immigration status with federal agencies.

With a felony prison sentence, custody shifts from the county's host jail to the South Dakota Department of Corrections. DOC staff assess each new arrival and assign a prison.

• Search the DOC offender locator using a DOC number or name. It lists people sentenced to prison; county jail inmates and probationers are outside it.
• See our South Dakota state prisons page before a prison visit or letter.
• DOC headquarters: 3200 East Highway 34, Pierre, SD 57501, 605-773-3478.

A parent usually takes a young person home. Detention needs an intake officer's finding under SDCL 26-8C-3, and a detained youth from here rides to Sioux Falls, where Minnehaha County runs the Minnehaha County Regional Juvenile Detention Center, 4200 S. West Ave., Sioux Falls, SD 57105, 605-367-4313. Staff are on duty every hour of the week.

Circuit court decides delinquency cases for those 10 and older (SDCL 26-8C-2). Parents can call the center about visits and the next court date.

Any of these agencies can arrest someone in the county. The booking record names the agency, or dispatch can tell you.

• Sheriff's Office, 401 N. Main St., Howard, SD 57349, 605-772-4501. Deputies patrol the whole county and also serve the City of Howard through a law enforcement agreement, since the city has no police force. The office doubles as the county's 911 dispatch center.
• Carthage, Canova, Vilas and Fedora: after an arrest in one of these towns, dial the Sheriff's Office at the number listed above to learn who made it.
• South Dakota Highway Patrol, District Two, 5316 West 60th Street North, Sioux Falls, SD 57107, 605-367-5700. This district serves the Mitchell and Brookings areas near the county. Troopers patrol the state highways.