Pope County Custody Overview
Pope County Sheriff's Office is the county law-enforcement agency based in Glenwood. The official sheriff page lists law enforcement, dispatch, warrants, investigations, civil process, courtroom security, prisoner transport, and emergency or hazard coordination. It does not publish a Pope County jail roster, inmate housing page, jail capacity, visitation schedule, jail mail rules, commissary vendor, or public jail population report.
That distinction controls how this facility page should be read. The Pope County Sheriff's Office Holding / Transport Function is not a public roster jail. It is the local arresting and transport contact when a person has just been arrested by Pope County, moved for court, held briefly for law-enforcement processing, or transferred to another facility. For current public jail custody, the located roster path is usually the Douglas County Jail page when the Douglas roster lists Pope County as the arresting agency.
The sheriff page names Sheriff Nathan Brecht as the current Pope County sheriff. The older Pope County Data Practices Policy is still useful for records-request process, but its appendix used an older sheriff contact name. For current office identity, use the live sheriff page. For request procedure, use the policy framework and confirm the correct staff contact with Pope County.
Pope County Sheriff Contact
The sheriff's office is the correct local contact for non-emergency arrest, transport, warrant, dispatch, or public-record routing questions. For emergencies, use 911. For current jail housing at Douglas County Jail, call the jail directly after checking the roster. For a newly arrested person, give booking and transport time before assuming a roster gap means no custody.
Pope County Sheriff's Office
130 E. Minnesota Avenue
Glenwood, MN 56334
(320) 634-5411
Office hours Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; dispatch always open
Douglas County Jail
509 3rd Avenue West
Alexandria, MN 56308
(320) 762-2139
Current jail custody and bond information when housed there
Search Pope County Custody
Because Pope County does not publish an official county jail roster in the research set, the search path is a chain. Start with the Douglas County roster when the person may have been transported to jail. Then call Pope County Sheriff's Office for local arrest or transport context if the roster does not show the person. Next, search Pope County District Court or MCRO for court events, and use state, federal, or immigration locators when the case has moved out of local custody.
- Search the Douglas County inmate roster by name or keyword if the person may be housed in the contract jail.
- Look for "POPE COUNTY" in the arresting-agency field when a roster entry appears.
- If the arrest is recent, wait before calling because booking information may not be releasable until intake is done.
- Call Pope County Sheriff's Office for non-emergency arrest, transport, warrant, or release routing.
- Use MCRO, the Pope County court calendar, MNDOC, BOP, ICE, or VINELink when the person is not in the local roster path.
| Question | Best Starting Point | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Is the person in jail now? | Douglas County inmate roster, then Douglas County Jail phone | That roster showed Pope County arresting-agency entries |
| Was the person arrested or transported by Pope County? | Pope County Sheriff's Office | The sheriff handles local law enforcement and prisoner transport |
| What charge was filed in court? | MCRO and Pope County District Court | Court charges can differ from booking labels |
| Was the person sentenced to prison? | Minnesota DOC public offender locator | MNDOC covers adults committed to the Commissioner of Corrections |
| Is this federal or immigration custody? | BOP locator, U.S. Marshals channels, or ICE ODLS | Those systems are separate from county jail records |
No Pope Public Jail Roster
No official Pope County inmate roster, jail population dashboard, jail visitation schedule, inmate mail rules, commissary vendor, or bed capacity was located on the Pope County sheriff page during research. That absence should not be filled with assumed jail facts. If a person is in a bookable jail bed, the public record path found for Pope County arrestees is Douglas County Jail when that roster lists Pope County as arresting agency.
The sheriff's role is still central. Pope County deputies may arrest, transport, serve warrants, secure court areas, investigate crimes, and coordinate with other agencies. The sheriff's office may also hold or move a person briefly before release, court, hospital, transfer, or booking elsewhere. Those short custody events may not create the same public online fields that a full jail roster creates.
Important: Do not treat the Pope County Sheriff's Office as a walk-in visitation, jail mail, or commissary location unless staff confirms a specific custody process.
Pope County Records Requests
When a roster does not answer the question, Pope County's Data Practices Policy is the public-records fallback. Minnesota's Government Data Practices Act gives public access to public government data unless another law makes the data private or nonpublic. A person can inspect public data for free and can request copies, with allowed charges for copies and actual costs in some cases.
The policy says responsible authorities are assigned by department. For sheriff and emergency management records, the policy appendix gives the sheriff's office location, phone, fax, and records contact framework. Because the live sheriff page names Nathan Brecht as current sheriff, use the live page for current office leadership and the policy for request process. Ask Pope County which office maintains the arrest, incident, transport, warrant, or dispatch record before sending a broad request.
| Record Need | Likely Custodian | Request Note |
|---|---|---|
| Pope County arrest or incident data | Pope County Sheriff's Office | Use the Data Practices Policy and identify the event, date, and person |
| Douglas County Jail booking data | Douglas County Sheriff's Office records | Use Douglas records channels if Douglas created or holds the jail file |
| Formal charges and hearings | Pope County District Court or MCRO | Use case number, citation number, or calendar details for pending cases |
| Sentenced state custody | Minnesota Department of Corrections | Use DOC ID or name search after state commitment |
Pope County's policy lists 25 cents per one-sided black-and-white letter or legal copy for 100 or fewer paper copies, and 50 cents for two-sided copies. Other copy types can be charged at actual cost, including search and retrieval time, staff time, materials, electronic transmission, and mailing. Requests over $10 may require prepayment. Summary-data requests must be written and prepaid, and the county responds within ten business days with the data or timing and cost information.
Pope County Court Custody
Pope County District Court is the formal record path after arrest. The court is in Glenwood and is part of Minnesota's Eighth Judicial District. The court handles criminal and traffic cases filed in Pope County, and the county attorney decides which state or local charges to file after law enforcement submits reports. A jail booking charge is not always the same as the formal court charge.
Use Minnesota Court Records Online for public case records and Pope County District Court for court contact details. MCRO has an important pending-case limit: a pending criminal case may not return by defendant-name search before conviction. Case number, citation number, attorney name, or attorney bar number may be needed. The Pope County daily calendar can also show party name, hearing type, judicial officer, hearing location, connection type, and case number.
- Booking charge
- The label used at jail intake or arrest, which may change after review.
- Filed charge
- The charge placed in district court by the prosecutor.
- First appearance
- An early court event where release conditions, bail, or next hearings may be addressed.
- Remand custody
- A court order that keeps the person in custody.
Pope County Warrants Transport
The sheriff page lists arrest warrants, civil process, special court orders, courtroom security, and prisoner or committed-patient transportation among its duties. No official Pope County online active-warrant search was located in the research. For non-emergency warrant questions, call Pope County Sheriff's Office. For a case-specific warrant or hearing question, court administration or MCRO may have the formal case record, but court staff cannot provide legal advice.
Warrant and transport records can split across offices. A deputy may make the arrest, the court may issue the warrant, Douglas County may book the person, and another agency may place a hold. That is why one phone call or one roster search may not show the whole status. Ask whether the person was released, transported to Douglas County Jail, taken to court, held for another jurisdiction, or moved to a hospital or state facility.
Pope County Locator Fallbacks
State, federal, immigration, and notification tools fill gaps that the Pope County sheriff page and Douglas jail roster do not cover. The Minnesota DOC public offender locator covers adults committed to the Commissioner of Corrections and may take several business days for newly sentenced people to appear. Minnesota VINELink can provide custody and release notifications, but it is not a complete public roster or court record.
Federal custody is separate. Use the BOP inmate locator for Bureau of Prisons custody. Federal pretrial defendants may involve the U.S. Marshals Service District of Minnesota, often through contract jail housing. Use ICE Online Detainee Locator System for immigration custody. None of these tools should be treated as a Pope County jail roster.
Note: Search local jail custody first for a new arrest, then widen to court, DOC, BOP, ICE, and notification tools when the local path fails.
Pope County Sheriff Context
Pope County's sheriff page has local duties that go beyond ordinary patrol. It lists water safety, boating enforcement, drowning investigations, special-event permits, mutual aid, emergency management, public safety announcements, child safety programs, senior citizen rights, narcotics and substance trafficking investigations, welfare fraud, and joint child abuse or neglect investigations with Pope County Family Services. Those functions matter in a lake-area county where seasonal visitors and local events can shape law-enforcement contacts.
The public search problem is unusually cross-jurisdictional. A person may be arrested in Pope County, appear in Douglas County Jail custody, have formal charges in Pope County District Court, later move to Minnesota DOC custody, or become subject to a federal or immigration hold. Treat the sheriff's office as the local custody and records hub, not as a full public jail page. That keeps capacity, visitation, mail, and commissary facts tied to the facility that actually publishes them.