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Steele County Minnesota Sheriff's Office
Steele County - County Jail - Minnesota
Steele County Detention Center in Minnesota

The Steele County Detention Center is a county level detention center run by the Steele County Sheriff’s Office.  The Steele County Sheriff’s Office is headed by the Steele County Sheriff, Lon Thiele.  The Steele County Detention Center is located at 2500 Alexander Street in Owatonna, Minnesota.    The Steele County Detention Center is the fourth jail in Steele County; it was preceded by the first jail, which operated from 1865-1907; the second jail, which operated from 1907-1972; and the third jail, which operated from 1972-2003.  All of these jails were located at either 135 or 137 West Main Street.  The current facility opened in 2003.

The Steele County Detention Center is a larger facility than the prior facilities.  It has a capacity of 154 beds and was designed to house male and female detainees.  It holds pre-trial, pre-sentence, and sentenced detainees from Steele County, as well as detainees from other counties, state, and federal organizations. The structure is 58,575 square feet, with 50,469 square feet of jail facility.  The cells are small sized; single bed cells are 70 square feet, while double bunk cells are 90 square feet.  There are 367 doors in the Steele County Jail facility, and 52 cameras monitor both the interior and exterior of the facility.  The total building site is 18.63 acres, which hold the detention center, parking lot, and a geo-thermal field, as well as room for planned future expansion.  The jail uses a geo-thermal heating/cooling system.

For a smaller-sized county jail, the Steele County Detention Center offers a surprising amount of inmate programming.  Programs available at the detention center include: alcoholics anonymous (AA); adult basic education (ABE); anger management; chaplaincy; chemical dependency; job skills; narcotics anonymous (NA); parenting; library; recreational time; inmate worker program; work release program; and domestic violence programming.

Volunteers are essential to the detention center’s ability to offer programming.  They assist with all aspects of programming, and are the reason that the detention center is able to offer higher quality of care for inmates than at comparable facilities.  To volunteer or ask questions about volunteering, you can contact the jail at 507-446-7000.

The Steele County Detention Center also offers fingerprinting services for the public.  The cost is $20 per card.  Fingerprinting services are available on Tuesday, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm and Saturday, from 8:00am to 10:00am.

The Steele County Detention Center also handles some warrants for the county.  If you believe you may have a warrant for your arrest, you can contact the Steel County Court at 507-444-7700 and ask for court Administration or contact the Detention Center at 507-446-7000.  They will tell you if you have any outstanding warrants, and, if so, how to take care of those warrants so that a deputy or officer shows up to arrest you.   You can also check the information available on the Steele County Sheriff’s Office Warrant Log, which is online.  While you should not rely solely on this information, it can provide a heads up if you think you may have a warrant.

Steele County Detention Center Addresses

Physical Address

Steele County Detention Center
2500 Alexander Street
Owatonna, MN 55060

Mailing Address

The Steele County Detention Center mailing address for non-inmate mail is:

Steele County Detention Center
2500 Alexander Street
Owatonna, MN 55060

Inmate Mailing Address

The only authorized way to communicate in writing with inmates is to use the U.S. Postal Service.  Inmates cannot receive written messages that have been brought to the jail and cannot send outgoing mail in any other manner. To send an inmate at the Steele County Detention Center via the U.S. Postal Service, send it to this address:

Inmate Name
c/o Steele County Detention Center
2500 Alexander Street
Owatonna, MN 55060

The Steel County Detention Center does not provide any restrictions or regulations for inmate mail.  However, there are general rules that apply to inmate mail.  Generally, inmate mail should only include letters and photos, not packages. Inmate mail should not contain contraband, pornography, gang-related material, violent material, anything that could be construed as escape plans, or any other material that could incite violence or disorder in the Steele County Detention Center. Books or magazines should be sent directly from the publisher or an authorized book dealer.  All incoming and outgoing inmate mail is subject to search.  Attempting to send contraband into the jail facility may result in a restriction of mail privileges and could even result in prosecution.

Phone Numbers

The main contact number for the Steele County Detention Center is: 507-446-7000.  The fax number is: 507-446-7050.  The email address is: [email protected].  You can contact the jail during business hours, which are 8:00am to 4:00pm Monday through Friday.  The inmate message number is 507-451-0276.  To find out information about warrants or bail, you can contact the Steele County Detention Center at 507-446-7000 or the Steele County District Court to find out information about bail.

In addition to contacting the jail, crime victims in Minnesota can sign up for notification from the Minnesota VINE system.  You can sign up by calling 1-877-MN-4-VINE or 1-877-664-8463.  This will allow a victim to sign up for notifications if an offender is released, transferred, or escapes.  Victims can also contact VINE to find out information about an inmate’s incarceration information.

Steele County Jail Roster

Steele County Detention Center maintains an online jail roster, which is known as the Steele County Jail Roster.  This roster is an alphabetical list of all of the inmates that are currently detained in the Steele County Detention Center.  The results provide the inmate name, when the inmate was booked, the agency that booked them, why they are being held in the jail, and the charges against them.  In addition, it provides their booking photo.  This site is updated on a daily basis, and the date of update is listed at the top of the roster to let users know when it was updated/printed.  The roster does not contain a search function, but you can search it using the FIND function on your computer.  To access this function use CNTL + F. 

Inmate Search / Recent Arrests

The Steele County Detention Center does not maintain a dedicated list of recent bookings or arrests.  However, it does maintain the Steele County Jail Roster, which is an online roster containing an alphabetical list of all of the inmates that are currently detained in the Steele County Detention Center.  To find recent detainees or inmates who were detained on a specific date, you can use the FIND function on your computer (CNTL + F) to search for dates.   

Mugshots

While the Steele County Detention Center does not maintain a mugshot database, there are mugshots in the  Steele County Jail Roster.  You can find an inmate’s mugshot by searching for the inmate on the roster.  

Visitation

Like many other jails throughout the country, Steele County Detention Center has moved away from in-person visitation and utilizes a video visitation program for all of its visitation.  There is no face-to-face contact between the inmates and the visitors.  However, inmates can get more visits with the video visiting system than they could have if the jail used an in-person visitation system.  In fact, a detainee can have up to two 20-minute visits per day from the lobby area.  While visitors are restricted to visiting a single detainee per visiting session, they can visit the same detainee two times in one day at different sessions, for up to 40 minutes of visiting. 

In addition to lobby visitation, video visitation means that visitors can visit inmates from home.  This type of visit is similar to video calling using “Skype” or “Facetime” technology.  To set up online visits from home, visitors need to visit www.inmatecanteen.com, and follow all instructions.  While lobby visits are free, online visits are not.  Online visiting costs .39 per minute, and you must have a credit card in order to set up online visitation. 

Online visitation and lobby visitation have different hours.  On-line Visiting Hours are: Sunday-Saturday 8:00-10:00am, 1:00-4:00pm, & 6:30-9:00pm.  Like lobby visits, online visits are restricted to 20 minutes in length, but an inmate may receive multiple visits per day. 

Lobby visiting hours are much more restricted than online visitation hours.  These hours are: Monday-Friday 8:00-10:00am; Monday-Friday 2:00-4:00pm; Tuesday 6:30-8:30pm; and Saturday 8:00-10am. 

For lobby visits, you have to set up an account on a computer prior to visiting, and you will need to login to this computer account in order to schedule your visits.  If you do not have a computer at home, you may set up your account by using the computer in the visiting area at the jail. 

Inmate Phone Privileges

Steele County Jail inmates cannot receive incoming calls, but the jail does have a dedicated number for inmate messages.  The inmate message number is 507-451-0276.

Inmates may place outgoing phone calls.  You can purchase phone time for an inmate by calling 1-800-896-3201.

Inmate Trust Accounts / Commissary

Steele County Detention Center offers canteen services for inmates.  Canteen services are a way for inmates to purchase items that are not provided by the jail.  The Steele County Detention Center uses profits from the canteen program to offset programming costs at the jail.

To deposit money in an inmate trust account, you can make deposits with cash or credit card in the lobby kiosks located at the Steele County Detention Center.  You can also make deposits online at www.InmateCanteen.com.

Bail Information

In Steele County, Minnesota, bail information is not provided online.  However, the county does maintain an online database for arrest information.  In Steele County, arrest warrants are issued by the District Court and forwarded to the Sheriff for enforcement.  While warrants may be issued for a variety of reasons, they are frequently related to bail, because they are issued for failure to appear in court or failure to carry out one of the court’s orders.  In addition, arrest warrants may be Arrest and Detention orders issued by a Probation Officer for one of their probationers.  The online warrant site makes every effort to be current, but information contained in it should be verified by contacting the Steele County Detention Center at 507-446-7000 or the Steele County District Court before taking any action on a listed warrant.

You may also contact the Steele County Detention Center at 507-446-7000 or the Steele County District Court to find out information about bail.

The purpose of bail is not to punish an accused, but to ensure that a criminal defendant appears for trial.  In Minnesota, your bail conditions depend on whether you are being detained by the state or by the federal government.

For federal criminal cases, bail is governed by federal law, not state law.  The Bail Reform Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 3141–3156, governs release or detention determinations in federal court.  Under this Act, the court is limited to four alternatives for bail: personal recognizance, conditional release, temporary detention, or detention pending trial.  If the court does not grant bail to a federal defendant, it must find that the government has proved by a preponderance of the evidence that no conditions of release will reasonably assure that defendant’s presence at future court proceedings.  Minnesota’s state laws have very similar conditions to federal bail.  The main exception is that, if an inmate is charged with First Degree Murder, there is no right to unconditional bail.  In Minnesota, unless a defendant is charged with First Degree Murder, they have a constitutional right to unconditional bail.  Therefore, for most state misdemeanor cases, inmates are entitled to non-monetary bail release, whether it is unconditional release or conditional release.

For those who are detained at the time of their first appearance in court, there will be a bail hearing.  At that hearing, the judge has the option of releasing an inmate on his own recognizance, setting unconditional bail, setting conditional bail, or denying bail.  What type of conditions the court imposes are dependent upon the nature of the crime charged, criminal history, and flight risk.  The court usually looks at several factors when setting bail: community connections, ability to flee, and likelihood of flight. If you have a history of failure to appear, you probably will not qualify for bail.

DWI cases are treated differently from some types of cases, with a presumptive $12,000 bail or conditional release that requires a defendant to wear an alcohol monitor.

If bail is assigned, you may post it in different ways.  Furthermore, the court may give you two choices in bail: conditional bail, which is a lower dollar amount, and unconditional bail.  Depending on the conditions of conditional bail, you may choose to post the higher dollar amount, because not complying with the conditions of conditional bail can subject you to bail revocation and mean that you have to serve your pre-trial detention time in the jail.   Bail is refundable at the conclusion of your criminal case.  However, if you need to use the services of a bondsman, which usually charges 10% of the total bail as a fee, those fees are not responded.

To arrange bail, you can contact the court, a bail bondsman, or a criminal defense attorney.  The Steele County Detention Center does not recommend individual bail bondsmen or criminal defense attorneys, but you can locate one in the Yellow Pages or online.

Conclusion

The Steele County Detention Center is Steele County’s local jail facility.  It does not only hold Steele County detainees; it also holds detainees from other counties, the state, and federal organizations.  It holds male and female detainees and can house up to 154 beds in its current design.   The Steele County Detention Center is run by the Steele County Sheriff, Lon Thiele.  It is located at 2500 Alexander Street in Owatonna, Minnesota.

The Steele County Detention Center prides itself on being able to offer a wider range of jail programming than is usually found at a small jail facility.  They are able to do this because of a robust community of volunteers.  For information about volunteering, you can contact the jail at 507-446-7000.

In addition to the pre-trial, pre-sentencing, and post-sentencing detention of inmates, the Steele County Detention Center offers some community services, including fingerprinting services and maintaining a warrant log so that people can search online to see if there are any arrest warrants for them.

 


Year Built or Opened: 2003 Warden or Supervisor: Sheriff Lon Thiele Daily Inmate Count: 110 Total Capacity: 154 Security Level(s): minimum - medium

“The Inmates Name”
c/o The Steele County Detention Center
2500 Alexander Street
Owatonna, MN 55060

Phone Number(s): 507-446-7000
Fax Number: 507-446-7050
Email Address: [email protected]
[email protected]

2500 Alexander Street
Owatonna, MN 55060