Clay County Correctional Facility Inmate Lookup

Clay County Correctional Facility Overview

Clay County Correctional Facility is the adult county jail for Clay County and is operated by the Clay County Sheriff's Office. It houses adult male and female inmates in minimum, medium, and maximum custody classifications. The population includes pretrial detainees waiting for Clay County District Court hearings, people serving local jail sentences, people held on warrants or lawful detention orders, and approved work release or program release inmates. It is separate from the West Central Regional Juvenile Center and should not be used as a juvenile records source.

The official Clay County facility page describes the jail as a 75,900-square-foot, 220-bed correctional facility licensed by the Minnesota Department of Corrections and operated under Minnesota Rule Chapter 2911. A distinctive local feature is the 18-bed Behavioral Mental Health Unit for individuals identified with criminal and behavioral health issues. Clay County also describes the jail as a behavior-based institution with a positive behavior reward system and incentives tied to programming, conduct, and preparation for return to the community.

The adult jail sits in Moorhead near Clay County's courthouse and law-enforcement campus. The jail lobby address is not the same as the sheriff's administrative office address, so visitors should use the facility address and Door 1 directions when arriving for lobby business, self-reporting, bail, or approved video visitation.

Clay County's correctional facility page shows the adult jail overview, lobby information, capacity, and staff block.

The county page is the source for the adult jail's address, capacity, licensing language, administrators, lobby hours, and Behavioral Mental Health Unit count.

Clay County Correctional Facility Capacity and Population

Clay County publishes strong facility-design facts but does not publish a full adult jail annual statistics report in the official sources reviewed. The sourced local numbers are the jail's rated capacity, facility size, custody levels, and Behavioral Mental Health Unit. Average daily population, annual bookings, demographic breakdowns, and multi-year trend tables were not located in the official Clay County pages reviewed for this build, so those figures should not be estimated from the roster.

How to Look Up an Inmate at Clay County Correctional Facility

For this adult jail, use the official Clay County inmate roster landing page first. That page links to the county-framed JailTracker/Public Safety Cloud roster used for current adult Clay County Correctional Facility custody. The county states that roster information is public data under Minnesota law, but it also warns that the Clay County Sheriff's Office may control or modify content for policy and public-safety reasons and cannot guarantee that the data is current, accurate, or complete.

1. Start at the county roster landing page and read the disclaimer before opening the linked JailTracker roster.
2. Search by last name first, then add first name if the result list is too broad.
3. If a search-type or released-in-last-days option appears, choose the setting that matches current custody or a recent release search.
4. Open the matching record and compare visible booking, charge, bond, hold, image, facility, and status fields against court records when legal accuracy matters.

If a person does not appear, do not assume they are free from custody. The person may have been released, transferred, booked under different identifying data, omitted from online display, moved to Minnesota Department of Corrections custody after sentencing, held federally, or listed in court records rather than on the county jail roster. Use the jail phone or Door 1 lobby for facility questions, the Clay County Data Practices process for public jail records not online, MCRO for court charges, the MNDOC locator for sentenced state prisoners, BOP for federal sentenced prisoners, and ICE for immigration custody.

The county-linked framed roster entry page is the route from Clay County's roster page into the JailTracker inmate-list interface.

That roster frame is useful for adult jail custody, but it is not a court docket, juvenile record system, DOC prison locator, BOP locator, or ICE detainee locator.

Clay County Correctional Facility Address and Contact

Use the facility contact information for adult jail questions, lobby business, self-reporting instructions, bail posting, and approved visiting check-in. The sheriff's administrative office is nearby on the same government campus, but the adult correctional facility's public lobby is specifically Door 1 at the jail address.

Visiting Someone at Clay County Correctional Facility

Clay County adult jail visits are video visits scheduled through Reliance Telephone. Public visits must be scheduled by 10 p.m. the night before and at least 20 hours in advance. Approved visitors report to the Public Lobby at least 10 minutes before the scheduled visit, and check-in closes 10 minutes before the visit. Visits are approximately 20 minutes and end automatically. Correctional staff will not notify the inmate that a visit has been scheduled, so the inmate is responsible for managing the appointment from inside the facility.

Visits may be denied if booking is incomplete, the inmate is on discipline, the inmate is in court, the inmate is participating in outside work release, or the tier is locked down and the visit would use a kiosk. Visitors who are 18 or older need valid picture identification. Clay County's rules also limit the number and type of visitors, require appropriate clothing, prohibit food, drinks, phones, tablets, recording equipment, drugs, and alcohol influence, and allow searches. Attorneys, clergy, social services, probation, and similar professional visitors should call Program Staff at 218-299-5170 and avoid scheduled lockdowns, meal service, and emergencies.

Clay County's visitation page lists the Reliance scheduling process, tier rotation, visitor rules, and professional visitor instructions.

The visitation source is especially important because Clay County rotates visit windows by day, floor, and housing area rather than publishing one simple all-day schedule.

Mail, Phone, and Money at Clay County Correctional Facility

Clay County accepts inmate mail only through U.S. mail. Incoming and outgoing mail is searched, incoming mail needs a return address, and certain items are restricted or stored in property rather than delivered. Softcover books must come directly from a known retailer and be approved by program staff. No newspaper or magazine clippings, contraband, Polaroids, inappropriate materials, scented mail, stamps, stickers, or marked envelopes should be sent. The facility is not responsible for mailed cash.

Clay County's inmate contact, funds, visiting, and property page is the source for Reliance phone access, Turnkey deposits, mail limits, property drop-off, and account rules.

Use that page before sending money or property because Clay County separates inmate-account deposits, bail kiosk payments, voice messages, mail, and approved property into different rules.

Booking and Intake at Clay County Correctional Facility

Clay County's official pages do not publish a full step-by-step booking checklist, but they do document several local intake facts. Each inmate receives an initial free telephone call when booked. After arrest or court commitment, intake generally includes identity and warrant or charge verification, search and property inventory, booking photo and fingerprints where required, medical and behavioral-health screening, classification, and housing assignment. A person may be classified into minimum, medium, or maximum custody, or into the Behavioral Mental Health Unit if clinically and operationally appropriate.

Self-reporting inmates are told to report to the front lobby at Door 1, pick up the phone, and notify correctional staff that they are reporting to serve. Correctional staff cannot change the report date or time, and arriving late or under the influence may affect Sentence to Service or Work Release privileges. The facility supplies clothing, bedding, and hygiene items, so self-reporting people should bring as little as possible. Program Release inmates may bring three sets of clothing, while prescription medication must be in the original bottle with the person's name clearly printed on the label.

Bail is handled in the public lobby through the Turnkey kiosk after the person posting bail uses the intercom, identifies the inmate and amount, and waits for correctional staff instructions. Clay County warns that release processing includes multiple steps and may not happen immediately after bail is posted.

About Clay County Correctional Facility

The adult jail is part of a compact Moorhead government area that also includes the Clay County Courthouse and the sheriff and police law-enforcement campus. That geography matters because a court hearing, sheriff records request, jail visit, bail payment, and juvenile facility contact can involve nearby but different doors, phone lines, and agencies. The Clay County Attorney's Office prosecutes felony and gross misdemeanor cases and also contracts with Moorhead, Dilworth, Barnesville, Hawley, and Glyndon for certain city prosecution services, so arrests by local police can still flow into Clay County jail and court processes.

Programs and conditions information should be read with the facility's official sources in mind. Clay County describes the jail as behavior-based, with programming tied to social, mental, spiritual, and physical well-being. The 18-bed Behavioral Mental Health Unit is one of the strongest local facts about the facility. MPR News reported in 2018 that Clay County's newer jail design made mental-health assessment part of intake, but the official county page supplies the current unit count and licensing details. Clay County also maintains an official PREA page for the adult correctional facility.

For public data not shown online, use Clay County's Data Practices process. Public requesters may inspect public data for free, request copies, or do both. Requests can be made by email, postal mail, in person, or online form, and should describe the booking record, jail record, or booking photograph clearly. Copy charges may apply, and some detention data can be private or restricted when it involves medical, psychological, financial, unrelated personal, or safety-sensitive information.