Lookup Lincoln County Jail Inmates

Lincoln County Jail Overview

The Lincoln County Jail is part of the Lincoln County Law Enforcement Center in Ivanhoe. The official sheriff page says the building houses the Communications Center, jail facility, and staff offices, and that the center sits directly behind the Lincoln County Courthouse. The jail is operated by the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department, not by a private company, state prison agency, federal prison bureau, or immigration contractor.

The facility holds adults booked on Lincoln County arrests, pretrial detainees, people transported to and from court, and people serving local jail sentences. Minnesota DOC inspection materials classify it as a jail facility under the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office certificate. The jail was built in 2001 and replaced an older facility built in 1902, tying the modern Law Enforcement Center to a longer courthouse and custody history in Ivanhoe.

Lincoln County Jail Capacity

Lincoln County Jail is a very small local jail. The sheriff page states that the jail is designed to hold up to 15 inmates. Minnesota DOC 2023 and 2025 inspection sources list 15 secure coed approved beds and 12 operational beds at 80 percent operating capacity. The 2025 source gives authority to operate from 06/01/2025 to 05/31/2027, while the 2023 source covered 06/01/2023 to 05/31/2025. No official source reviewed showed a chronic overcrowding order or a recent crowding lawsuit.

Find Lincoln County Jail Inmates

Current Lincoln County Jail custody starts with the official Lincoln County Sheriff inmate roster. Research found a public roster with a run date/time and listing columns for JailId, Photo, Name, Charges, Current Disposition, and Total Bail. A separate name-search form was not confirmed, so the most accurate approach is to open the current roster, check its run time, and review the visible list. If a person has just been arrested, the roster may lag behind booking or release activity.

1. Open the sheriff roster and read the run date/time first.
2. Review the current roster by section, using name, JailId, charges, disposition, and bail to distinguish similar names.
3. Call the Sheriff's Department at 507-694-1664 or 507-694-1325 if the roster is unavailable, blank, stale, or missing a recent arrest.
4. Search MCRO Case Search for filed charges, hearings, and court events.
5. Use MNDOC, BOP, or ICE only if the person is in prison, federal custody, or immigration custody.

Lincoln County Jail Contact

The Sheriff's Department is the local point of contact for current custody questions, public jail-record requests, visitor-rule confirmation, mail questions, money-deposit questions, and booking-photo requests. County office hours are listed as 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday for county offices, but jail and dispatch operations are public-safety functions. Confirm public counter access before arriving.

Visiting Lincoln County Jail

Official Lincoln County sources reviewed did not publish a jail visitation schedule, video visit vendor, visitor-list rule, dress code, or property list. That gap should not be filled with assumptions. Call the jail before traveling and ask about the current schedule, whether appointments are required, whether minors may visit, what identification is needed, and which entrance visitors should use. The jail is small, and local practice may depend on staffing, court movement, safety needs, and housing status.

Lincoln County Jail Mail and Money

The county sources reviewed did not publish a detailed mail rule page, commissary vendor, phone provider, kiosk rule, online deposit link, or deposit fee schedule. Mail and money instructions should therefore be confirmed with the Sheriff's Department before anything is sent. A safe starting point is to use the inmate's full name and any JailId supplied by the jail, the jail mailing address, and a full return address. Do not send books, packages, cash, checks, money orders, photos, or other property until the jail confirms what it accepts.

Lincoln County Jail Booking

The sheriff page states that the department books inmates into and out of the jail, transports detainees to and from court, and houses people sentenced to serve jail terms. A typical local booking flow includes arrest or remand, transport to the Law Enforcement Center, identity intake, property inventory, record creation, booking photo and fingerprints when required, medical or mental-health screening, classification, phone access, bail or hold review, and court transport. Minnesota Rule 2911 describes classification as the process for assigning housing and program needs based on security and inmate needs.

Jail staff also deliver meals, manage programs, and provide access to medical care and services required by law and Minnesota DOC regulations. Minnesota Statutes 241.021 and Rule 2911 cover minimum standards such as health screening, suicide prevention, medication verification, well-being checks, discharge planning, referrals for care, rights statements, and unusual-occurrence reporting. The 2021 DOC inspection noted that Lincoln County Jail was clean, mostly free of major incidents, and had corrected prior deficiencies.

Lincoln County Jail Records

Jail records and booking photos are public only within Minnesota's data classifications. Minnesota Statutes 13.82 treats adult booking photographs as public data unless access would adversely affect an active investigation. Minnesota Statutes 13.85 limits corrections and detention data that would disclose medical, psychological, security, life-safety, informant, or investigation-sensitive information. For filed charges, hearings, and final court outcomes, use MCRO or Court Administration rather than the roster alone.

The sheriff's home page is the official local source for the jail and Law Enforcement Center description.

The page places jail functions, communications, and sheriff offices in the same Law Enforcement Center, which helps explain why custody, dispatch, and records questions route through the Sheriff's Department.

Lincoln County Jail History

Lincoln County's jail history is tied to its courthouse history. The Minnesota Judicial Branch courthouse history says Lincoln County separated from Lyon County in 1873, county-seat disputes moved records between communities, and after Ivanhoe won the 1904 county-seat election, county records moved into a newly built jail and sheriff's residence. That two-story brick building served as the courthouse for 16 years. The current courthouse was built in 1919 and later placed on the National Register of Historic Places with the former courthouse building.

The modern Law Enforcement Center replaced an older 1902 facility. It now sits behind the courthouse and houses the jail, sheriff offices, and Communications Center. That local context matters because Lincoln County Jail is not a large regional facility. It is a small county jail in the same public-safety and court-building cluster where booking, court transport, jail operations, and emergency communications intersect.