Union County Jail Inmate Records and Custody Search

A Union County jail roster search works differently from counties that publish a current-inmates list. Official Union County sources provide jail operations, visitation, and records-request information, but they do not provide a public online roster with names, charges, bond, or booking photos. To look up Union County inmates, start with direct jail contact, then use statewide custody, court, prison, federal, and immigration systems when the person is not in local pretrial custody.

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Is There a Union County Online Inmate Roster?

No official Union County online jail roster, current-inmates page, recent-bookings feed, booking report, or mugshot gallery was located on the county or sheriff website. The local custody facility is the Union County Jail at the Union County Law Enforcement Center in Creston, operated by the Union County Sheriff's Office under Sheriff Brian Bolton. The jail page identifies Josh Christensen as Jail Administrator and publishes jail rules, not a searchable inmate database.

Key local source paths are the Union County Jail page, the Sheriff's Office page, and the sheriff reports page.

That matters because how do I find someone in the Union County jail is usually answered by phone, in-person contact, and records requests rather than by waiting for a web roster to update. The jail holds local arrestees, pretrial detainees, and short county sentences. State-prison sentences move to the Iowa Department of Corrections, federal custody moves to BOP or the U.S. Marshals path, and immigration detention is searched through ICE ODLS.


How to Check Current Custody Without a Roster

Use the access channels in this order when a person may have been arrested in Union County by the sheriff, Creston Police Department, Afton police, Iowa State Patrol, or another local agency:

  1. Call the Union County Sheriff's Office or jail at (641) 782-7717 and ask whether the person is currently held locally or temporarily housed elsewhere.
  2. For jail-related appointment routing published by the sheriff, call (641) 782-8402 and dial 2 during the stated weekday jail appointment window. Use the main sheriff number for custody confirmation unless staff directs otherwise.
  3. Visit or contact the sheriff's office at 302 N Pine St, Creston, IA 50801 during regular business hours, and confirm hours before appearing because county pages list more than one office-hours block.
  4. Request the arrest, booking, or report record through the sheriff records path. The civil clerk and records fallback is (641) 782-7322, and fax is (641) 782-8404.
  5. Check Iowa VINE for custody notifications and possible custody-status lookup when the jail or sheriff page does not give a public roster result.
  6. Search Iowa Courts Online when the arrest has produced formal court charges, bond orders, or case events.
  7. Search the Iowa Department of Corrections Offender Search when the person has been sentenced to prison, paroled, placed on probation, or moved into DOC supervision.
  8. Use the BOP locator for federal custody and ICE ODLS for immigration custody. Those systems do not replace a Union County jail roster.

Union County Roster Search Fields

There is no official Union County jail search form to describe field by field. The negative inventory is still useful because it keeps users from entering personal information into unofficial pages while looking for a county roster that was not located in official sources.

Field LabelTypeRequiredNotes
Not availableNot availableNot availableNo official Union County jail roster search form was located.
Name searchNot available locallyNot available locallyCall the jail or sheriff for current local custody, then use Iowa Courts Online or DOC when the case has moved beyond jail intake.
Booking numberNot available onlineNot available onlineAsk the sheriff or civil clerk whether a booking or report record can be released.
Facility filterNot neededNot availableOnly Union County Jail was identified as an official detention facility inside Union County.

What the County Jail Page Publishes Instead

The official jail page is a facility-information page. It does not publish names, booking dates, charges, bond amounts, mugshots, detainers, housing beyond the public bunk schedule, or release status. For what does a roster record show in Union County, the answer is that no official public roster profile was found. The county does publish operational details that help verify the correct facility and request channel.

FieldWhat It Shows
Facility nameUnion County Jail.
Address302 N Pine St, Creston, IA 50801.
Capacity11 inmates, with 3 single cells and 2 four-person cells.
StaffingSix full-time jail employees.
Housing authorityThe jail meets standards to house male and female prisoners.
Jail administratorJosh Christensen is listed by the county jail page.
SheriffBrian Bolton is listed as Union County Sheriff.
Mail and callsMail format, prohibited items, no incoming calls, and daily outgoing calls.
Visitation prerequisiteVisitors must show photo ID and be on the list provided by the inmate.

How to Request Booking Records and Reports

For a booking record, arrest report, or related sheriff report, identify the person, approximate arrest or booking date, arresting agency if known, and court case number if one exists. Contact the Union County Sheriff's Office at 302 N Pine St, Creston, IA 50801, call (641) 782-7717, use the civil clerk and records fallback at (641) 782-7322, or fax (641) 782-8404.

The sheriff reports page lists accident reports at no charge for involved parties and $5.00 for attorneys, insurance companies, and others. Other reports cost $15.00 plus $25.00 per hour. Iowa Code chapter 22 is the open-records framework, while Iowa Code 22.7(9) treats records of current and prior arrests and criminal-history data as public records, subject to exemptions and redactions for confidential material.

Source material for the local fees appears on the official sheriff reports page. The report-fee screenshot in the project image set is a relevant visual reference, but the amounts should still be confirmed with the sheriff before payment because the county controls the current fee schedule.

Union County Sheriff's Office reports fee page for inmate records requests
Official Union County Sheriff's Office reports page for accident-report and other-report fees.

Do not treat the sheriff's AllPaid civil and weapon-permit payment warning as an inmate bond or deposit portal. The sheriff page says not to pay online without prior approval from the sheriff's office by calling (641) 782-7322 during regular business hours.


County Jail, Iowa DOC, Federal, and ICE Custody

Union County Jail is the local pretrial and short-sentence facility. The Iowa Department of Corrections Offender Search is for sentenced prisoners, parolees, probationers, and people under district supervision. No Iowa DOC prison, federal prison, ICE detention center, regional jail, or work-release annex was identified inside Union County.

Custody TypeWhere to LookUse It For
Union County pretrial or short county sentenceUnion County Jail phone, in person, records request, and Iowa VINECurrent local custody, booking, report, and notification questions.
Iowa prison, parole, probation, or district supervisionIowa Department of Corrections Offender SearchSentenced or supervised offenders, including county-of-commitment searches for Union.
Federal custodyFederal Bureau of Prisons locator or U.S. Marshals Southern District of IowaFederal inmates from 1982 forward and federal pretrial custody paths.
Immigration custodyICE Online Detainee Locator SystemPeople currently held by ICE, searched by A-number or by name, country of birth, and birth date.

VINE, DOC Search, and the Sheriff App

Iowa VINE is available for custody and criminal-case notifications and is linked from the sheriff page. It is useful when no county roster is published, but it is still a notification and lookup tool, not an official Union County booking database.

The Iowa DOC locator accepts name fields, offender number, sex, location, offense, county of commitment, and name-search style. DOC public information includes name, age, sex, status, location except a home street address, duration of supervision, offenses, and county of commitment. DOC also cautions that information updates weekly and should be verified for current decisions.

Union County Sheriff IA mobile apps were located in Google Play and the Apple App Store. The store listings describe crime reporting, submitting tips, interactive features, public-safety news, and information. They do not verify an app-only inmate roster, warrant search, booking search, or mugshot gallery, so the app should be treated as a communication channel rather than a custody-search replacement.


Union County Jail Facility Contact

The county's only official detention facility for this project is the sheriff-operated Union County Jail. Because the jail has only 11 beds and the county says it is generally full to capacity, staff may tell callers that a Union County inmate is temporarily housed in another county jail.

Union County Jail

302 N Pine St

Creston, IA 50801

(641) 782-7717

Jail/dispatch appointment route: (641) 782-8402, then dial 2. Records fallback: (641) 782-7322.


Booking and Intake in Union County

Union County does not publish a step-by-step booking manual. A careful local pathway is arrest, transport to the Law Enforcement Center, identification, booking record creation, property handling, search, fingerprints and photograph, screening, classification, bunk assignment, phone access, and bond or first-appearance routing. Those are general jail-intake concepts; the county-published facts are the 11-inmate jail, male and female housing authority, daily outgoing calls, visitor-list requirement, and mail/property limits.

The law enforcement center is attached to the Union County Courthouse, and the sheriff history material says the jail has direct access to courtrooms on the top floor. Once charges reach court, the Union County Attorney prosecutes the case and the Union County Clerk of Court maintains court records under the Iowa Judicial Branch.


Visitation Hours and Rules

Union County publishes 15-minute visitation windows by bunk number on Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday. All visitors must present photo ID and be on a list provided by the inmate. The county does not publish remote/video visitation, dress code, child-visitor rules, maximum visitor counts, attorney-visit procedures, or cancellation rules in the researched pages.

BunkSaturdaySundayWednesday
19:30-9:45 am2:15-2:30 pm6:00-6:15 pm
29:45-10:00 am2:00-2:15 pm6:15-6:30 pm
310:00-10:15 am1:45-2:00 pm6:30-6:45 pm
410:15-10:30 am1:30-1:45 pm6:45-7:00 pm
510:30-10:45 am1:15-1:30 pm7:00-7:15 pm
61:00-1:15 pm1:00-1:15 pm7:15-7:30 pm
71:15-1:30 pm10:30-10:45 am7:30-7:45 pm
81:30-1:45 pm10:15-10:30 am7:45-8:00 pm
91:45-2:00 pm10:00-10:15 am8:00-8:15 pm
102:00-2:15 pm9:45-10:00 am8:15-8:30 pm
112:15-2:30 pm9:30-9:45 am8:30-8:45 pm

Mail, Phone, and Inmate Contact Rules

Use the inmate's name, Union County Jail, 302 N. Pine St., Creston, IA 50801 for jail mail. The jail refuses packages, obscene or pornographic materials, personal checks, stamped envelopes, food, and periodicals unless they come directly from the publisher.

Inmates cannot receive incoming calls. Outgoing calls are allowed daily, but the researched county pages do not publish a phone vendor, account setup process, or rate table. Confirm phone account details with jail staff before adding funds through any third party.


Commissary, Money, and Bond Cautions

No official Union County jail commissary vendor, kiosk, online deposit URL, phone deposit route, commissary schedule, or fee table was located. For bond or release questions, call the jail first and ask whether the person is held locally, whether bond has been set by the court, and whether another hold prevents release.

Note: Confirm custody, location, release eligibility, and accepted payment methods directly with Union County Jail before sending money or scheduling a visit.

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