Hennepin County Inmate Lookup

Official Hennepin County Jail Roster

The Hennepin County Sheriff jail roster is the official source. The landing page sends users to the live search app at jailroster.hennepin.us. The roster is updated hourly. It shows people currently in custody and anyone released in the last seven days. Records are kept for today and the prior 90 days. The roster operates under Minn. Stat. § 641.05, the Minnesota jail register statute.

The roster app accepts partial names. Search terms run as sequential matches anywhere in the full name. A search for "John" can return "John Doe" and "Doe Johnson." A person in intake may not appear on the roster until a booking number is assigned, so a fresh arrest can take time to show up.

Hennepin County Jail Roster Search Fields

The roster search form has a small set of fields. They all act as filters; you do not need to fill every field. Sort By and Direction control how the results list is ordered.

Result columns include Booking Number, Full Name, Age, Custody Status, Arrested By, Received Date, and Released Date. A Released Date that is blank means the person is still in custody. A blank Custody Status with no released date can mean intake is still in progress.

How to Use the Hennepin Jail Roster

The jail roster is one of the simplest public tools in Hennepin County, but a few habits speed the search and avoid false negatives.

1. Open jailroster.hennepin.us and start with a name search.
2. Try last name only first. Add first name only if the result set is large.
3. Use Custody Status to limit to In Custody or Released from Custody when you know what you need.
4. For a fresh arrest, wait an hour and refresh. The intake-to-booking step can hide a person from the roster.
5. Open the booking row to read the detail page, including bail options and the next court date.
6. Copy the MNCIS case number into MCRO Case Search for the court file.
7. Call jail information at 612-348-5112 if the roster is unclear or if a person may still be in intake.
8. For sentenced state prisoners, switch to the Minnesota DOC locator.

The roster does not require an account. The terms of use appear at the top of the page. The roster is a public jail-register publication, not an identity verification tool, and should not be used as a substitute for the official criminal history search.

Sample Hennepin County Inmate Profile Fields

The roster detail page is built from the public-services API. A single booking can hold several cases under one Incarceration ID. The table below mirrors the field set on a public detail page.

The screenshot above captures a public Minnesota DOC offender profile, which shares many of the same field categories as a Hennepin jail roster detail page. Both include name, date of birth, status, sentence data, and case file numbers.

The Next Court Appearance category code maps to physical buildings. Category 1 is DOWNTOWN at the Government Center or Public Safety Facility. Category 2 is RIDGEDALE. Category 3 is BROOKDALE. A null next court date means no future hearing is currently scheduled in that case block.

Hennepin County Jail Locations

The Hennepin County jail has two locations across the street from each other in downtown Minneapolis. Both sit just north of Government Plaza light rail station and are served by METRO Blue Line and Green Line. Cash bail or bond is posted at the Public Safety Facility in-custody records window, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Bring the case or warrant number and exact cash if posting cash bail. The jail cannot accept checks, debit cards, or credit cards for cash bail. It does not have a cash machine on site, and it cannot give change. Bonding agencies handle bond paperwork outside the jail.

Hennepin Jail Visitation Schedule

On-site video visits are free and run seven days a week at the Public Safety Facility, 2nd floor, room 235. All visits are 20 minutes. Detainees can have visitors once a day and up to three times a week. Visitors must create a Securus Friends & Family profile and request access before the visit. Accepted ID includes an unexpired driver's license, state ID, passport, Permanent Resident Card, Employment Authorization Card, military ID, or another government photo ID.

Clergy visits require pre-approval through Chaplain John Cherico at 612-596-8184 during normal business hours. Attorney and other official visits follow a separate process and are not the same as social visits. The jail page also notes a release scam warning: the Sheriff's Office will never call demanding payment from families of people in custody or recently released. Hang up and call 612-348-5112 if unsure.

Minnesota DOC Inmate Locator

Sentenced state prisoners do not show up on the Hennepin jail roster after they are transferred to a state facility. Use the Minnesota DOC Offender Locator to find someone under DOC jurisdiction, including prison and supervised release.

The DOC locator supports a Name tab or an MNDOC Offender ID tab. The ID search requires all six digits; a partial ID will not return results. The Name tab uses prefix matching and searches all names associated with convictions, including AKA names. The locator includes links to the public registrant search and active DOC fugitives.

Minnesota Public Registrant Search

The Minnesota DOC Public Registrant Search shows people who are subject to public notification under Minn. Stat. § 244.052. It is not the full predatory offender registry; the full POR is not public.

The search supports four methods: City, County, Name, and Zip Code. The County dropdown lists Hennepin and other counties with public-notification registrants. Cities with public-notification registrants include Minneapolis, Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park, Bloomington, and St. Louis Park.

Federal Inmate Lookup for Hennepin County

People in federal custody are not in the Hennepin jail roster or the Minnesota DOC locator. Use the U.S. Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator. The BOP search supports a Find By Number method, with a Type of Number field for BOP Register Number, DCDC, FBI, or INS, and a Find By Name method where first and last name are required. Race, age, and sex are optional filters.

Federal cases tied to Hennepin County are heard in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota at the Diana E. Murphy United States Courthouse. Search federal case records through PACER. The U.S. Marshals Service handles federal detainee transport and fugitive matters.

Hennepin County Booking Process

An arrest does not put a person on the roster right away. The Hennepin Sheriff's intake-to-booking workflow takes time, and a fresh arrest can sit in intake for hours before a booking number is assigned. The roster only publishes records once the booking number is in the system. Knowing the steps helps explain a missing entry.

1. Arrest and transport: the arresting agency books the person into the Hennepin County jail. Transport time varies by location of arrest.
2. Intake: identification, medical screening, property inventory, and initial classification.
3. Booking number assignment: once intake completes, the system issues a booking number and the record reaches the public roster within the hourly update cycle.
4. Charging review: the prosecutor reviews the arrest and files a complaint or declines to charge. The Clear Reason field updates to FORMALLY CHARGED if a charging document is filed.
5. Bail or release setting: a judge sets bail at first appearance. Bail options appear on the roster detail page.
6. Release: by bail, bond, court order, sentence completion, transfer to state or federal custody, or hold resolution.

A booking that ends in release within seven days will keep showing on the roster with a Released Date until the seven-day window expires. After that, the record drops from the landing-page view but stays in the 90-day search window. Searches before that 90-day boundary should still surface the record.

How to Read a Hennepin County Jail Roster Result

A few rules help read the roster correctly. The Released Date column being blank means the person is still in custody. The Custody Status reads "Currently in Jail/Custody" in that case. The booking number is the clickable identifier that opens the detail modal. One booking does not equal one charge. The sample inspected during research showed three separate case blocks under one Incarceration ID: an eight-hour probation hold and two HENNEPIN WARRANT blocks. Each case block had its own bail options, clear reason, charges, and next court date.

Bail options should be read per case, not per booking. A person can have two cases with different bail amounts. Release usually requires satisfying every hold that keeps the person in custody. The "BAIL/BOND W/ CR" and "BAIL/BOND W/O CR" labels indicate whether conditions of release apply. The Hold Without Bail flag, when true, blocks an ordinary bail release for that case.

Booking photos appear when the photo service is active. A profile may render without a photo. The text fields still describe the booking, even if no image loads. Booking photos should not be used as identity verification because they are arrest-stage records, not driver-license or state-ID photos.

Related Hennepin County Searches

For people released in the last seven days, see Hennepin County released inmates. For an active warrant, see warrant records. For total jail population data, see jail population. For the court file linked to a booking, see court records.