Iowa charges nothing for in-person or video visits, which almost no state can say, and Anamosa books both only through the Ameelio app. Connect with your loved one in minutes.
Connect with your loved one in minutes
Visiting Anamosa happens in two stages, and the first one is slow. You have to be an approved visitor before you can book anything, and Iowa will not take that application electronically. It is a paper form, printed, signed and posted to a single address in Mount Pleasant that serves all nine state prisons, with a decision inside 30 days. Once you are approved, everything else is easy and free: Iowa charges nothing for in-person or video visits, and both are booked in the Ameelio Connect app.
Nothing else happens until this does.
The form is OP-MTV-04 F-1, the Iowa Department of Corrections Visitor Application, last revised August 13, 2026. Every adult visitor files their own. A child is listed on the application of their parent or legal guardian rather than filing one.
Iowa will not accept it electronically. The department’s wording is blunt: electronic applications are not accepted. It has to be printed, signed and posted to:
Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility
Attn: Central Records
1200 E. Washington St.
Mount Pleasant, IA 52641
That is not a mistake. Iowa runs one Central Visiting Authority at Mount Pleasant for all nine prisons, so an application to visit Anamosa goes to a different prison two hundred miles away.
A decision takes up to 30 days from receipt. And here is the part families are not ready for: Iowa tells the incarcerated person, not you. The form says so directly, and adds that you should not attempt to visit until they have told you that you are approved.
The help line for the Central Visiting Authority is 319-385-9511.
More than most. Set aside proper time for it, and expect to look things up.
Alongside the obvious, it asks for your previous last names, your Social Security number, your spouse’s name, your full address with county, and, for any of your children under 18, their name, date of birth, Social Security number, sex and relationship.
Then the history section: pending charges, all arrests including juvenile ones, all misdemeanour convictions, all felony convictions, all deferred judgments, any past incarceration or probation or parole with the ID number and discharge date, whether you have ever been involved in the illegal use of drugs, any work or volunteering for the department, and every visiting list you have ever been on, approved or denied.
The form’s own warning is worth quoting: do not leave blanks or provide false information, because doing so will cause the application to be denied.
Iowa’s policy allows immediate family members, six other individuals or groups who are friends or extended family, and minor children supervised by a parent or legal guardian.
A minor visiting with an approved adult who is not their parent needs a notarized letter of consent from the parent, received by the Central Visiting Authority before the visit.
A visitor can be on only one incarcerated person’s list, unless they are immediate family.
When a child turns 18 they have to apply in their own right, with 30 days to do it before being dropped from the list.
The automatic disqualifiers include: anyone currently on probation, parole or work release, anyone under indictment, anyone involved in an escape or in contraband, anyone who falsified an application, and victims or members of a victim’s household. A convicted felon who is not immediate family will generally be required to show three years of successful community adjustment.
If you are denied, you can appeal, but the clock is short: the appeal must be postmarked within 45 days of the denial letter, on form OP-MTV-04 F-3A, with a second-level appeal to the department’s director within 30 days after that. A denial otherwise means waiting six months to apply again.
Every visit at Anamosa, in person or video, is scheduled in Ameelio Connect. The facility’s page says reservations are in the Ameelio app only.
Anamosa publishes no phone fallback for manual scheduling, which most other Iowa prisons do. If the app is genuinely not an option for you, the statewide guidance is to contact the facility and ask for help scheduling, on 319-462-3504.
Every visitor aged 13 and over needs their own Ameelio account. Setting one up requires three photographs: the front of your ID, the back of your ID, and a picture of you holding the ID with its photo facing the camera, wearing a shirt with sleeves, with nothing inappropriate behind you.
Booking a slot is not the same as being cleared for it. Ameelio does not approve or deny visits. The department does, after you have booked.
In person, Saturday and Sunday, 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, in two-hour blocks.
Video, Monday and Friday, 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, in fifty-minute blocks.
Both are free. Anamosa publishes no cap on how many people may attend a single visit, though Iowa’s statewide policy caps a visiting group at three adults plus as many children as the room can seat.
For a video visit, everyone aged 16 and over has to show valid identification at the start: a state driver’s licence, another state photo ID, a current passport, or a military ID for someone on active service. You supply your own device and internet connection. The department may record video visits and review them later, and a visit ends immediately if an unapproved person appears in frame or anyone tries to record it.
This is the rule most likely to end a visit badly, and Iowa prints the penalties on the back of the application form.
A positive ion scan, or refusing to be scanned, triggers a fixed schedule:
| Occurrence | Consequence |
|---|---|
| First | Suspended for the next two visiting days, and future visits may be restricted to non-contact |
| Second | Seven visiting days |
| Third | Fifteen visiting days |
| Fourth | Thirty visiting days, plus non-contact status for 180 days |
| Refusing the test | Fifteen calendar days, from the time of refusal |
After a fourth positive, Iowa states that visiting privileges may be permanently restricted to non-contact.
Ion scanners detect traces, and traces transfer from hands, bags and car seats. Wash your hands, and treat anything that has been near a substance as a risk to the visit rather than an argument to have at the door.
Worth knowing, because it can happen again. The Iowa Department of Corrections suspended all in-person visitation at Anamosa on April 9, 2026 and reinstated it on Friday, May 8, 2026.
The Ameelio app is where a change like that appears first. If slots vanish from the calendar without explanation, that is what it looks like from the outside.
6 of 8 questions
No. The Iowa Department of Corrections states that it offers both in-person and video visits at no cost to approved friends and family. That is genuinely unusual, since most states charge for video visits, so be wary of anyone asking you to pay for access to one.
VisitationFile form OP-MTV-04 F-1, the Iowa DOC Visitor Application. Iowa does not accept it electronically, so it must be printed, signed and posted to Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility, Attn: Central Records, 1200 E. Washington St., Mount Pleasant, IA 52641. That one address serves all nine Iowa prisons. A decision takes up to 30 days.
VisitationThe incarcerated person will tell you. Iowa's form states that it is their responsibility to notify you, and asks that you do not attempt to visit until they have. If you have heard nothing after a month, the Central Visiting Authority help line is 319-385-9511.
VisitationIn person on Saturday and Sunday from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, in two-hour blocks. Video visits run Monday and Friday, also 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, in fifty-minute blocks. All of it is booked in the Ameelio Connect app, and Anamosa publishes no phone alternative for scheduling.
VisitationYes, listed on the application of their parent or legal guardian rather than filing their own. A minor visiting with an approved adult who is not their parent needs a notarized letter of consent from the parent, received before the visit. Once a child turns 18 they have 30 days to file their own application or they come off the list.
VisitationIowa publishes a fixed schedule on the back of the visitor application. A first positive suspends you for the next two visiting days and may push future visits to non-contact. A second costs seven visiting days, a third fifteen, and a fourth thirty plus 180 days of non-contact status. Refusing the test costs fifteen calendar days.
VisitationYou can appeal, and the deadline is tight: the appeal has to be postmarked within 45 days of the denial letter, using form OP-MTV-04 F-3A, with a further appeal to the department's director available within 30 days after that. Iowa answers each level within 30 working days. Without an appeal, a denial means waiting six months to reapply.
VisitationYes, as of this guide's verification. In-person visitation was suspended on April 9, 2026 and reinstated on Friday, May 8, 2026. Suspensions can recur at short notice, and the Ameelio app is usually where a change appears first, so check available slots before travelling.
VisitationThe offender number the visitor application asks for on line one.
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All information on this page comes directly from official government and facility sources. How we verify information › Last verified September 9, 2026.