Visiting Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility: Two Units, Four Schedules

Four Schedules, and Which One Is Yours

Unit	In person	Video
Main Building	Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM	Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 1:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Minimum Live Out	Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM	Saturday and Sunday, 2:30 PM to 7:30 PM

All four are marked reservations in the Ameelio app only.

The 7:00 PM Main Building close is the latest in-person finish published by any Iowa prison, which matters for a family driving in from a distance on a Saturday.

The Minimum Live Out hours run five hours shorter and finish at 2:00 PM, so a plan built around the Main Building times will fail if your person is in that unit.

Iowa’s offender search does not publish the unit. Ring 319-385-9511 and ask before you book.

Two Visitors, the Tightest Cap in Iowa

Both units are limited to two visitors per visit.

For comparison, the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women allows five, Clarinda and Newton allow three or five depending on status, and several Iowa prisons publish no cap at all. Mount Pleasant’s two is the lowest published figure in the state, and it applies to the Main Building and Minimum Live Out alike.

A family of four cannot come at once. Two visits on the same day, if slots allow, or splitting the visit between two people is the practical answer, and neither is obvious from the schedule alone.

Iowa’s Only Midweek Video

The Main Building runs video on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 1:00 PM to 7:30 PM. No other Iowa prison offers video on those days, and no other Iowa prison runs it that late.

That combination is genuinely useful. A 7:30 PM finish on a Wednesday is reachable after a working day in a way that a Monday morning slot at another prison is not.

The Minimum Live Out unit takes the opposite approach, running video at weekends from 2:30 PM to 7:30 PM, after its own in-person hours have finished at 2:00 PM.

Iowa charges nothing for video visits at any of its prisons.

Booking by Phone, Which Actually Works Here

Most Iowa prisons either publish no alternative to the app or reserve one for attorneys. Mount Pleasant publishes a general one.

Its page says to ring 319-385-9511 between 7:00 AM and 2:00 PM, Monday through Friday, and adds that all visits scheduled through a call are handled on a first come, first served basis.

That last phrase is worth reading carefully. A phone booking is not a reservation held for you while somebody checks. It is a queue, so ringing at 7:00 AM on a Monday for the coming weekend beats ringing at lunchtime on a Friday.

Visits Were Suspended This Year

Mount Pleasant suspended all in-person visitation at the Main Building on March 26, 2026, and reinstated it on May 2, 2026.

Both dates come from the department’s own announcements. The suspension lasted five weeks, and Iowa gave no advance notice of its start.

Nothing suggests another one is coming. It is here because a prison that has suspended visits inside the past six months is a prison worth ringing before you set off, and because a family reading an older page elsewhere may still believe visits are stopped.

The Building That Approves Every Iowa Visitor

Mount Pleasant houses Iowa’s Centralized Visiting Authority, so the application process for every prison in the state runs through this address.

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

The statewide help line is 319-385-9511 and the fax is 319-385-2891.

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

Visiting somebody held here has one small advantage: the office deciding your application is in the same building as the person you are applying to see.

Everything Iowa Wants on the Form

Alongside the basics it wants 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.

Approval, Refusal and the 45-Day Appeal

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.

What Happens at the Door

Iowa’s statewide entrance rules apply here, and Mount Pleasant publishes nothing of its own on top of them.

All visitors are searched. That may include a pat down by a member of staff of the same sex, metal detectors, ion scanners and visual searches, and refusing means entry is denied. Current government-issued photo identification is required.

Where a child is present during your search, you may keep them with you or hand them to staff. Iowa’s policy is blunt about the third option: if a visitor refuses to leave children with staff and does not want them present during the search, the visit is terminated. When a child is searched, a parent or legal guardian is in the room along with two staff members.

Baby items allowed: two diapers, a clear non-glass bottle with milk or formula only, an empty clear sippy cup, one baby blanket, one burp cloth, and one factory-sealed clear plastic container of baby food.

Never allowed: weapons including pocket knives, cell phones, any device with its own internet connection, medications other than genuine necessities such as nitro, tools, cameras, pagers, and tobacco or lighters.

Dress, in Iowa’s Words

Mount Pleasant publishes no clothing list of its own. Iowa’s statewide entrance procedures apply:

• all visitors wear shoes
• no miniskirts, no shorts above the knee, no muscle shirts, no see-through clothing, no halter tops
• nothing with slogans, pictures or words intended to deprecate race, sex or cultural values
• coats, hats, gloves and sunglasses may have to be removed for the visit, and a medical need for sunglasses has to be backed by a prescription

Institutional procedure covers shorts for children under 12, and this facility publishes no version of that procedure, so ask.

If the Ion Scanner Alerts

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

Questions for the Visiting Line

1. Which unit is he in, Main Building or Minimum Live Out?
2. How long does a visit last here?
3. How many visits a week is he allowed?
4. What is the earliest I can ring for a weekend slot?
5. Are visits contact or through glass?
6. Is there anything the children should not wear?