If the Ameelio app will not work for you, Clarinda is the one Iowa prison that lets any family ring up and book through a counselor instead. Connect with your loved one in minutes.
Connect with your loved one in minutes
Clarinda schedules its visiting day more precisely than any other prison in Iowa, and it is easier to plan around because of it. Four two-hour blocks on Saturday and Sunday, with the thirty-minute intermissions between them published rather than left for you to guess at, and video on four separate days of the week. It is also the only Iowa prison that gives a family without a smartphone a real way in: ring the prison, ask for your person’s counselor, and arrange the visit that way. Everywhere else in the state, that route is reserved for lawyers.
Most Iowa prisons give you an opening and a closing time and leave the middle to chance. Clarinda publishes the structure.
| Block | Saturday and Sunday |
|---|---|
| Block 1 | 8:15 AM to 10:15 AM |
| Intermission | 30 minutes |
| Block 2 | 10:45 AM to 12:45 PM |
| Intermission | 30 minutes |
| Block 3 | 1:15 PM to 3:15 PM |
| Intermission | 30 minutes |
| Block 4 | 3:45 PM to 5:45 PM |
Each visit is two hours, and each visit is capped at three visitors.
Two things follow. A block is a fixed window rather than a rolling two hours from when you arrive, so arriving late costs you the difference. And the intermissions are when the room is cleared and reset, which is why turning up during one does not get you in early.
Clarinda offers more video days than any other Iowa prison.
| Day | Hours |
|---|---|
| Saturday | 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM |
| Sunday | 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM |
| Monday | 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM |
| Friday | 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM |
Video runs in fifty-minute blocks, and Iowa charges nothing for it. For a family in Des Moines or Council Bluffs, that is four chances a week without the drive to Page County.
This is the most useful thing on the page.
Iowa books every visit through the Ameelio Connect app. Most of its prisons publish no alternative at all, and the two or three that do restrict it to approved attorneys and social workers.
Clarinda opens it to everyone. Its page says that if you do not have access to use the Ameelio app, you may contact the prison directly to discuss manually scheduling an in-person visit, on 712-695-7140, asking to speak to the incarcerated person’s counselor.
If you do not have a smartphone, cannot get the app to work, or are helping an elderly relative who will never use it, that number is the answer at this prison and almost nowhere else in Iowa.
None of the above is available until you are on the approved visiting list.
Form OP-MTV-04 F-1, the Iowa Department of Corrections Visitor Application, revised August 13, 2026. Every adult files their own; children go on a parent or guardian’s form. Iowa does not accept it electronically, so it must be printed, signed and posted:
Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility
Attn: Central Records
1200 E. Washington St.
Mount Pleasant, IA 52641
One Central Visiting Authority serves all nine prisons, which is why an application to visit Clarinda travels to the opposite corner of the state. The help line is 319-385-9511.
A decision takes up to 30 days, and Iowa tells the incarcerated person rather than you. Do not travel until they have confirmed it.
More than most people expect. Alongside the basics it asks for previous last names, your Social Security number, your spouse’s name, your address with county, and for each child under 18 their name, date of birth, Social Security number, sex and relationship.
Then the history: pending charges, all arrests including juvenile ones, every misdemeanour and felony conviction, deferred judgments, any past supervision with its ID number and discharge date, whether you have been involved in the illegal use of drugs, any work or volunteering for the department, and every visiting list you have ever been on.
Iowa’s instruction on the form: do not leave blanks or provide false information, because that will cause the application to be denied.
Iowa’s policy allows immediate family, 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, received by the Central Visiting Authority beforehand.
Outside immediate family, a visitor may be on only one incarcerated person’s list. A child turning 18 has 30 days to file their own application.
Disqualified: anyone under correctional supervision, under indictment, involved in escape or contraband, anyone who falsified an application, and victims and their households. A convicted felon who is not immediate family generally needs three years of successful community adjustment.
A denial means six months before reapplying, unless you appeal, and an appeal must be postmarked within 45 days of the denial letter on form OP-MTV-04 F-3A.
Everyone aged 13 and over needs their own account.
Registration takes three photographs: the front of your ID, the back of it, and you holding the ID with its photo facing the camera, wearing a shirt with sleeves and nothing inappropriate behind you.
Booking a slot is not the same as being cleared for it. Ameelio schedules; the department approves.
For video visits, everyone aged 16 and over shows valid identification at the start: a state driver’s licence, another state photo ID, a current passport, or a military ID for active service. You supply the device and the connection. Iowa may record video visits and review them later, and a visit ends immediately if an unapproved person appears on camera or anyone records it.
Applied statewide, and printed on the back of the visitor application.
| Occurrence | Consequence |
|---|---|
| First | Next two visiting days, and future visits may be non-contact |
| Second | Seven visiting days |
| Third | Fifteen visiting days |
| Fourth | Thirty visiting days, plus 180 days non-contact |
| Refusing the scan | Fifteen calendar days |
Ion scanners detect traces, and traces transfer from hands, bags and car seats. Wash your hands before you go in.
6 of 8 questions
Four two-hour blocks on Saturday and Sunday: 8:15 to 10:15, 10:45 to 12:45, 1:15 to 3:15, and 3:45 to 5:45, with a thirty-minute intermission between each. Clarinda is the only Iowa prison publishing its day in this detail, and each block is capped at three visitors.
VisitationAt Clarinda, yes. Its page states that if you do not have access to use the Ameelio app you may contact the prison directly to discuss manually scheduling an in-person visit, on 712-695-7140, speaking to the incarcerated person's counselor. That route is reserved for attorneys and social workers at most other Iowa prisons, or not published at all.
VisitationClarinda offers video on four days, more than any other Iowa prison: Saturday and Sunday 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Monday 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, and Friday 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, all in fifty-minute blocks. Iowa charges nothing for video visits, so the only limit is availability and your person's own allowance.
VisitationThree per visit. Clarinda publishes the cap on its own page, which several Iowa prisons do not, and it matches Iowa's statewide policy of three adult visitors with children counted against the room's seating capacity.
VisitationFile form OP-MTV-04 F-1, the Iowa DOC Visitor Application. Iowa does not accept it electronically, so print it, sign it and post it to Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility, Attn: Central Records, 1200 E. Washington St., Mount Pleasant, IA 52641. One office handles all nine prisons and a decision takes up to 30 days.
VisitationThe incarcerated person is notified, not you, and Iowa's form asks that you do not attempt to visit until they have told you. If a month has passed with no word, the Central Visiting Authority help line is 319-385-9511. That matters at Clarinda, which is in the far southwest corner of the state and a long drive for most Iowans.
VisitationIowa applies a fixed schedule printed on the back of the visitor application. A first positive costs the next two visiting days and may move later 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.
VisitationNone specific to Clarinda is published, which is worth asking about rather than assuming. Iowa publishes statewide visiting entrance procedures, and one facility, Newton, publishes a detailed clothing list of its own. Clarinda publishes neither, so ask the counselor when you ring 712-695-7140.
VisitationThe offender number the visitor application asks for first.
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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.