Decatur County Jail Overview
Decatur County Jail is the only confirmed local detention facility serving Decatur County in current official and high-authority sources. It is operated by the Decatur County Sheriff's Office under Sheriff Chris Lane and is located in Leon near other county government offices. The jail holds local pretrial detainees, sentenced local inmates, people arrested on warrants or probation matters, and local holds pending release or transfer when applicable.
The jail's public lookup surface is the BlueHorse current-inmates roster linked from the county sheriff page. BlueHorse jail metadata identifies the facility as DECATUR COUNTY JAIL, lists Bryson Durrow as Jail Administrator, shows ORI identifier IA0270000, and gives the public phone as 641-446-4111. The same metadata and county sources contain conflicting fax values, so fax should be confirmed before use.
Decatur County Jail Capacity and Population
The current Decatur County sheriff page does not publish a live rated capacity. The sourced capacity figure available in the research comes from Vera Institute's jail-construction dataset, which records a Decatur County, Iowa 2013 new-jail row with 24 beds and a sheriff-office call note dated June 14, 2022. That number should be treated as a dataset capacity value, not as a current county-page claim.
Current population also changes quickly. The BlueHorse current-inmate service returned six public list entries during the June 13, 2026 UTC inspection used for the research. That was a point-in-time roster count, not an average daily population. Vera's county-level trend data reported a 2019 total jail population of 8 and a 2019 rated capacity of 21, while the construction dataset records 24 beds for the newer jail project.
How to Look Up an Inmate at Decatur County Jail
Use the county-linked BlueHorse roster for current Decatur County Jail custody. The inspected public URL is http://inmates.bluhorse.com/default.aspx?ID=DECATURIA. The vendor page also has a mobile roster path, but the current-inmates interface is the main public roster link documented in the research. Public past-inmate access appears disabled for Decatur County because BlueHorse metadata returned PastInmatesPublic: 0.
Source: BlueHorse current-inmates interface linked for Decatur County Jail.
The roster image reflects the current-inmate lookup channel. If a person is not listed there, the next step is to check the jail by phone, the court docket, the Iowa DOC locator, or federal and immigration locators depending on the custody path.
- Open the BlueHorse Decatur County Jail roster and wait for the facility name to load.
- Use the First Name and Last Name boxes to filter the current list, or leave them blank to review all visible current entries.
- Select a listed person and confirm that the profile belongs to the correct person before relying on a charge or bond field.
- Review charges, detainers, bonds, incarceration information, inmate information, and court tabs when they are available.
| Roster Area | What It Can Show |
|---|---|
| Current list | Booking number, name fields, date of birth field, jacket number, housing location, release date field, and farm-out field. |
| Charges tab | Code, description, type, disposition, case number, OTN number, and offense date. |
| Bonds tab | Agency, bond type, bond amount, and bond status. |
| Detainers tab | Description, agency, bond amount, and bond type for holds or detainers. |
| Court tab | Court, date, room, and hearing type when populated. |
Decatur County Jail Address and Contact
Call the jail before relying on travel, bond, visitation, mail, or money information because several operational details are not published in current official sources. The sheriff's office public counter is separate from the jail address, and the county page directs after-hours assistance to the jail when the sheriff's office is closed.
Decatur County Jail
206 NE 2nd Street
Leon, IA 50144
641-446-4111
After-hours sheriff assistance is directed to this jail address.
Decatur County Sheriff's Office
201 NE Idaho St.
Leon, IA 50144
641-446-4111
Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Visiting Someone at Decatur County Jail
Current official sources reviewed for Decatur County do not publish a visitation schedule, visitor ID rule, dress code, child-visitor rule, attorney-visit rule, parking instruction, video-visit platform, or visitor entrance policy. Do not borrow visitor rules from Decatur County, Georgia or other counties with similar names. The local instruction supported by the research is to call Decatur County Sheriff/Jail at 641-446-4111 before visiting.
| Topic | Decatur County Finding | Practical Step |
|---|---|---|
| In-person schedule | Not published in current official sources. | Call the jail before traveling. |
| Video visitation | Not published in current official sources. | Do not assume a vendor or remote option. |
| Visitor ID / dress code | Not published in current official sources. | Ask about ID, clothing, prohibited items, and minors. |
| Attorney visits | Not published in current official sources. | Attorneys should confirm scheduling and entry directly with the jail. |
| Visitor entrance / parking | Not published in current official sources. | Confirm visitor entrance, ADA access, and parking before arrival. |
Mail, Phone, and Money at Decatur County Jail
Decatur County's current official materials reviewed for this build do not publish a personal mail format, legal-mail rule, mail-scanning provider, commissary vendor, inmate phone provider, video provider, kiosk location, online deposit method, phone-deposit method, or deposit fee. JailATM support dropdowns showed other Decatur County jails but not Decatur County Jail, Iowa, so JailATM should not be listed as the local commissary vendor without direct confirmation.
| Service | Provider / Detail |
|---|---|
| Personal mail address | Not published in current official Decatur County sources. Call 641-446-4111 for format before mailing. |
| Legal mail rules | Not published in current official sources. Attorneys and senders should confirm direct handling rules. |
| Phone / video | No verified local vendor found in the official sources reviewed. |
| Money deposit | No verified commissary or deposit vendor published for Decatur County Jail, Iowa. |
| Bond payment method | Local accepted payment methods were not published. Confirm with the jail before attempting payment. |
Booking and Intake at Decatur County Jail
A Decatur County booking can begin with an arrest by the Sheriff's Office, Lamoni Police, Iowa State Patrol, another local agency, a warrant, or a court order. When local custody is required, the person is taken to Decatur County Jail for intake. The BlueHorse fields show a booking number, local jacket number, possible book date and time, arrest date, arresting agency, offense date, officer fields, housing fields, and profile information.
Public roster profiles can include demographic fields, housing assignment, mugshot image slot, charges, detainers, bonds, incarceration information, inmate information, and court history. Booking charges are not always the same as final court charges. A person arrested and booked in Decatur County may have a first appearance under Iowa Code section 804.21 or 804.22, and bond or release conditions may later be set by a judicial officer under section 811.2.
Holds matter. A detainer, probation issue, warrant, federal matter, immigration issue, or another agency hold can keep a person in custody even when another bond amount appears payable. The roster's Detainers and Bonds tabs should be checked together, and the jail should be called for current release logistics.
About Decatur County Jail Records, Transfers, and Directions
Jail records are public-records questions first. Iowa Code section 22.2 gives every person the right to examine and copy public records unless another law limits access, and section 22.3 allows supervised copying with reasonable actual-cost fees for copies and staff time. Section 22.7 lists confidential-record exceptions, including law-enforcement investigative limits. Decatur County's sheriff page publishes copy fees of $0.50 per page and police reports at $10, but no sheriff-specific records request form was found in the research.
If a person is transferred or sentenced, the Decatur County Jail roster may stop being the right locator. Sentenced state prisoners and DOC-supervised people should be searched through the Iowa DOC Offender Search, which updates weekly and includes county-of-commitment filtering. Iowa VINE is available for custody and case notifications. Federal inmates are searched through the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator. Immigration detainees are searched through ICE's Online Detainee Locator System. No state prison, BOP facility, ICE detention facility, or documented routine federal or ICE detention contract was found inside Decatur County.
Source: Iowa DOC Offender Search.
The DOC search is useful after a Decatur County case leaves local jail custody for state corrections. It is not a replacement for the jail's BlueHorse roster during local booking and pretrial custody.
For directions, use the jail address at 206 NE 2nd Street, Leon, IA 50144. The jail is near the Decatur County Courthouse at 207 N. Main Street and the Sheriff's Office at 201 NE Idaho St. The official site does not publish route-by-route directions, visitor parking rules, transit options, ADA entrance details, or a visitor entrance map. Confirm routing, entrance, parking, item restrictions, and visit eligibility with the jail before departure.
Note: Confirm custody, bond, visitation, mail, and money instructions directly with Decatur County Jail before traveling or sending funds.