Pottawattamie County IA Jail

Inmates can request to purchase phone cards through the jail for $10.70 or $21.40. They would come through as a regular phone call.

The Pottawattamie County Jail, located at 1400 Big Lake Rd, Council Bluffs, Iowa, opened in 1999 with a bed design capacity of 288. These beds range from maximum security single-cells to minimum security dormitory housing units. The total cost of the facility was approximately $17 million. Two million of that cost was provided through an agreement with the United States Marshal’s Service. The jail and sheriff’s office is an approximately 105,000 square foot facility.

The facility, a direct supervision jail, was developed by utilizing the knowledge and experience of our jail employees, other criminal justice agencies, other users of the jail, and professional consultants. Sheriff Jefferey Danker formed a jail committee, comprised of criminal justice practitioners and community volunteers to guide the process of public education and revenue acquisition.

The jail houses inmates of all security levels, from maximum to minimum including work release inmates. The work release dormitory is connected to, but separate from the main jail. It shares the main jail support systems while preventing minimum security offenders from mixing with a population requiring greater security. The result is a jail that can provide more efficient treatment and control for all inmates. This, and the development of a jail management computer system, allows the Jail Division to operate a facility safely and effectively. The operational scenarios and architectural design resulted in a lower staff-to-inmate ratio while maintaining the safety and security of the facility. This is a cost effective jail in terms of staffing and inmate management.

The Jail Division’s mission contains the objective that the institutional environment minimizes any detrimental effects of confinement and maximizes an inmate’s potential to return to the community as a law abiding citizen. There are a wide range of educational and spiritual programs and services available to inmates. This provides inmates with the opportunity for corrective personal growth. These programs also assist jail staff with the management of the inmate population by keeping the inmates occupied in a positive manner.