Visiting the Iowa Medical and Classification Center

Saturday and Sunday, Two Hours at a Time

Day	Hours	Length
Saturday	10:00 AM to 6:00 PM	2 hours
Sunday	10:00 AM to 6:00 PM	2 hours

Iowa’s page for this facility says reservations are made in the Ameelio app only, in capitals.

IMCC does not publish how many people may come at once, which several other Iowa prisons do. Statewide policy allows three adult visitors with children counted against the room’s seating, and that is the figure to work from until somebody here tells you otherwise.

Thursday Video, Unique in Iowa

Day	Hours	Length
Thursday	10:00 AM to 6:00 PM	1 hour
Friday	10:00 AM to 6:00 PM	1 hour

Two things here are unique in the state. No other Iowa prison offers video on a Thursday, and no other Iowa prison gives a full hour, the rest running fifty-minute blocks.

Iowa charges nothing for video visits. For a family that lives nowhere near Johnson County, and for a stay that may only last a few weeks, video is often the only contact that actually happens before the transfer.

The Reception Trap in Iowa’s Own Policy

This is the most important thing on the page, and Iowa publishes the two halves of it in two different places without connecting them.

The department’s advice for families says you may submit a request for visitation as soon as the offender arrives at intake.

Its visiting policy, OP-MTV-04, says an application filed while somebody is in reception status is placed in pending and is not investigated until they move out of reception.

Both are official. Read together, they mean that at the one prison where everybody starts in reception, the application you send on day one sits untouched, and the background check only begins once your person has been classified and, in most cases, shipped to another prison entirely.

Apply Anyway, and Post It Today

The conclusion is not to wait. It is the opposite.

An application in pending is already in the right hands, so the moment reception status ends the clock starts. An application you have not sent yet starts from nothing.

Form OP-MTV-04 F-1, the Iowa Department of Corrections Visitor Application, revised August 13, 2026. Every adult files their own and children go on a parent or guardian’s form. Iowa does not accept it electronically. Print it, sign it and post it:

Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility
Attn: Central Records
1200 E. Washington St.
Mount Pleasant, IA 52641

One Central Visiting Authority handles all nine prisons, which is why an application to visit Coralville travels to the far southeast of the state. The help line is 319-385-9511.

A decision takes up to 30 days, and Iowa notifies the incarcerated person rather than you.

What the Form Digs Into

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 every 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 is blunt: do not leave blanks or provide false information, because that will cause the application to be denied.

Who Iowa Will Approve

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 in advance.

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.

The Special Visit Line, 319-626-4205

IMCC publishes a second phone number that its main listing does not use, and it exists for exactly this situation.

Iowa’s page says that if you cannot use the Ameelio app and you are an approved visitor with the Department of Human Services or an approved attorney, you may contact the prison directly. For anybody who does not meet that description, the route is different: the incarcerated person must have an approved special visit, and the number to arrange one is 319-626-4205, staffed 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM.

Iowa names a specific form for it, OP-MTV-04 F-9, Special Visit Request. If a family is travelling a long way once, or somebody frail cannot manage an app, that is the door.

Registering With Ameelio

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, in a shirt with sleeves and nothing inappropriate behind you.

Booking a slot is not the same as being approved for one. Ameelio schedules and the department decides.

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 provide the device and the connection. Iowa may record video visits and review them afterwards, and a visit ends at once if an unapproved person appears on camera or anybody records it.

The Ion Scan Ladder

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 pick up traces, and traces move from hands, bags and car seats. Wash your hands before you go in.

Where the Hospital Makes a Difference

IMCC runs a hospital alongside the prison, and that raises two questions the facility never answers: whether visits are contact or through glass, and whether the forensic psychiatric hospital has visiting arrangements of its own. Neither is published.

Nor is any of the following:

• A visitor limit per visit at this facility.
• A dress code of its own. Iowa publishes statewide entrance rules, and one prison, Newton, publishes a full clothing list. IMCC publishes neither.
• Locker arrangements at the entrance.
• A late arrival policy.
• Whether visits are contact or through glass, which is a real question at a facility that also runs a hospital.
• Whether the forensic psychiatric hospital has its own visiting arrangements separate from the prison.
• A holiday schedule, or accessibility arrangements for a disabled visitor.

Questions for 319-626-2391

1. Is he still in reception status, and when is that likely to end?
2. Has my application moved out of pending yet?
3. How many visitors are allowed at one visit here?
4. Is there anything I should not wear?
5. Are visits contact or through glass?
6. If he transfers before I am approved, does the application follow him?