Find Steele County Detention Center Releases

Steele County Detention Center Destinations

A release from the Steele County Detention Center describes the end of this facility's physical custody. It does not name one fixed destination. A pretrial detainee may leave after posting bond, a recognizance order, or another court action. A sentenced detainee may finish the local jail term and return to the community, sometimes with probation. Probation is court-supervised community status and does not itself prove a state-prison term.

Other exits are not community releases. A person held for another county, the Minnesota Department of Corrections, a federal agency, or another organization may be transferred directly to that authority. A work-release participant enters an approved custodial program and has not reached final discharge. Ask for the actual release or transfer date, the disposition, and the destination or receiving agency. Pair those fields with the court or supervision record when one applies.

Confirm Steele County Detention Center Releases

The official current roster is a PDF with the fields Inmate, Booked, Agency, Hold Reasons, and Charges. It has no released tab, release date, release reason, 24-hour control, 72-hour control, or public archive. No update cadence or post-release retention period is stated. A missing name can reflect a release, transfer, timing difference, or identity mismatch.

1. Check the current roster only to see whether the person remains listed. Save the date and time of the check.
2. Call the Steele County Detention Center at 507-446-7000. Ask whether public information identifies community release or transfer to another agency.
3. Give the booked date and another legitimate identifier when similar names are possible. Ask for the actual exit time and public disposition or destination field.
4. Check Minnesota VINE for a county-jail custody change. Treat it as a lead rather than a certified release record.
5. Read the Steele County court disposition or order. Use the case or citation number when a pending-case name search is unavailable.
6. Submit the Sheriff data request form when an oral answer or online source does not document the event.

The full custody-type search sequence and release-record field list appear on the Steele County released inmate search. Use the Minnesota DOC viewer only after a DOC commitment or transfer. Use BOP after federal designation and ICE's locator only for current immigration detention. Each system answers its own part of the custody trail.

Steele County Detention Center Release Times

Steele County provides unusually specific processing guidance. The official detainee release information says sentenced detainees are typically processed from 0600 to 0800. Detainees arraigned on new charges are typically processed from 1430 to 1600. Emergency situations can change both windows.

These are planning bands, not a list of names. A court order can authorize release while checks and paperwork remain unfinished. Another active hold may prevent community release altogether. If the timing matters, call the center and request the actual release entry after processing. Do not substitute the order time, expected window, or roster removal time for the recorded physical exit.

Can a family rely on the afternoon window? It provides a useful estimate for post-arraignment processing. It does not guarantee that one person will leave then or establish a place to wait.

Note: Emergency conditions can change both posted processing bands, so a current facility check remains necessary for an individual release.

Steele County Detention Center Records

The Steele County Sheriff's Records Department handles the local public-data route. Use the official Sheriff Records page and its data request form. Describe an existing record narrowly: full name, approximate booking date, and actual release date and time, disposition or transfer destination, agency hold entry, and booking identifier. Add date of birth, MNDOC ID, or court file number only when needed to distinguish the person.

Sheriff Records uses the same street address. The Sheriff's main number is 507-444-3800. Posted copy terms effective June 29, 2026 are $0.25 per side or page for fewer than 100 pages, including electronic delivery. Larger requests may be charged at actual search, retrieval, and copy cost; disks are $5. Ask for inspection or electronic delivery and a cost estimate. The county promises neither a fixed turnaround nor a specific release-record retention period.

Minnesota law begins with access to public government data, but not every item is public. Active investigative, juvenile, medical, safety, security-sensitive, or sealed information may be withheld. Ask for the cited legal basis for any denial. If the record was destroyed, request identification of the retention schedule that applied.

Steele County Detention Center Release Fields

The county does not publish a complete schema for its release record. Requesting named existing fields is more precise than asking the office to create a new report. The core fields answer who was booked, when the person left, why the local custody event ended, and whether another authority took over.

For a photograph, ask for the existing booking image tied to the identified booking. Minn. Stat. § 13.82, subdivision 26 generally classifies a booking photograph as public data, while allowing temporary withholding if access would adversely affect an active investigation. No photo was verified in the public roster PDF, so that roster should not be described as a photo source.

Steele Detention Center Facts

The official Steele County Detention Center page identifies the facility as part of the Steele County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Lon Thiele and Jail Administrator Anthony Buttera are named by the county. The current center opened in October 2003 and is Steele County's fourth jail. It has a rated capacity of 154 beds and houses male and female pre-sentence and sentenced detainees.

The center also holds people for other counties and state or federal organizations. That function makes Agency and Hold Reasons especially important on the current roster. A federal label may precede a U.S. Marshals transfer and later BOP designation. A DOC hold may lead into Minnesota state custody. The local release record shows departure from Steele's building, while the receiving system shows what happened next.

The county facility source shows the Detention Center identity and public contact information.

The source image helps confirm which Steele County office controls the local detention and physical-release record.

Detention Center Work Release

Steele County describes work release as a court-granted program. A participant may leave for an authorized placement while remaining in a custodial status. That movement must not be labeled final discharge or treated as a completed community release. Contact facility Programs through the main detention-center number for the controlling public information, and pair the program status with the court order.

If a person appears to have left an ordinary jail unit, ask whether the maintained record says work release, community release, or transfer. The distinction changes the correct next source. A work-release record may later shift to another status, while a completed county sentence may begin probation. Minnesota DOC also uses an Assigned to Work Release label for some people under its jurisdiction, which is a separate state context from a Steele County jail program.

Work release

An authorized custodial placement that permits approved activity outside ordinary confinement.

Probation

Court-supervised community status that may follow or replace a custodial term.

Supervised release

The community portion of a Minnesota state-prison sentence while DOC jurisdiction continues.

Final discharge

The end of the controlling agency's sentence jurisdiction, not merely departure from a building.

Steele Detention Center History

The current building's 2003 opening provides the supported local history. Later county packets add a limited renovation timeline. A 2023 packet documented final payment for a jail-pod renovation and approval or advertisement tied to a Sheriff addition and renovation. An August 2024 packet said technology work on the detention expansion was on schedule.

Those documents do not prove that every proposed later addition is now complete. The rated 154-bed figure remains the separately sourced capacity statement. This distinction matters when identifying the right record: the Detention Center and Sheriff's Records Department are the verified local contacts, regardless of the status of a later construction phase. Facility history should not be used to infer release capacity, processing speed, or an online archive.

Note: County construction updates document a limited chronology, not a new release-search system or proof that every proposed expansion opened.