Iowa DOC 4th District Residential Correctional Facility Overview
The Iowa DOC 4th District Residential Correctional Facility is listed by the Iowa Department of Corrections, 4th Judicial District Department of Correctional Services, at 900 9th Ave. in Council Bluffs. The official facility name in the research is Residential Correctional Facility, and its local phone number is 712-396-2245. Its facility type is community-based corrections or residential correctional facility. It should not be described as Pottawattamie County Jail, and it should not be treated as a public jail booking facility.
This placement serves adult correctional clients assigned through the 4th Judicial District. The research supports work-release, residential correctional placement, probation or parole-related placement, and other community-corrections programming depending on court or DOC assignment. The facility is local to Pottawattamie County, but it operates in the DOC district system rather than the sheriff's booking system. A person with a Pottawattamie County case may pass through the county jail first, then later appear in DOC records or district supervision records after sentencing, supervision placement, or a community-corrections assignment.
The official Iowa DOC 4th Judicial District page is the source for the Council Bluffs residential facility listing.
The district listing is the anchor source for the facility address and phone, while lookup details come from Iowa DOC offender search and direct facility contact.
Facility Capacity and Population
No official capacity figure for the Residential Correctional Facility was located in the research sources. The Iowa DOC 4th District page confirms the facility listing, address, and phone, but the reviewed official material did not publish a bed count, public daily population count, housing-unit roster, gender breakdown, or program census for this specific Council Bluffs residential correctional site. Because the capacity field is not located in official sources, no number should be inferred from county jail capacity, other districts, or nonofficial listings.
| Measure | Published Figure | How to Use It |
|---|---|---|
| Facility capacity | Not located in official sources | Call the facility for current program questions. |
| Current resident count | Not located in official sources | Do not derive a count from the county jail roster. |
| Facility type | Community-based corrections / residential correctional facility | Use DOC and district supervision context. |
| State prison status | Not a state prison | Iowa DOC lists state prisons separately, none in Pottawattamie County. |
The Pottawattamie County Jail capacity of 288 beds belongs to the sheriff-operated jail at 1400 Big Lake Road. It should not be copied to this DOC residential correctional facility. The research also says Iowa DOC does not list a state prison physically in Pottawattamie County, although it lists local 4th District community-corrections facilities in Council Bluffs.
How to Look Up a Person at the Residential Correctional Facility
Start with Iowa DOC offender search for public DOC or supervision data. The Pottawattamie County jail roster is not the lookup source for this residential correctional placement unless the person was separately booked into Pottawattamie County Jail. That limitation is important because a person may have a local court case, a DOC supervision record, or a residential placement without appearing as a current county jail inmate.
- Open the Iowa DOC offender search at doc-search.iowa.gov/Offender/Search.
- Search by first name, middle name, last name, offender number, sex, location, offense, county of commitment, or name search type when those fields are useful.
- Look for DOC location, supervision, prison, district, compact, or county of commitment details that match the person's record.
- Read the profile fields as DOC or supervision data, not as a county jail booking sheet.
- Call the Residential Correctional Facility at 712-396-2245 for facility-specific questions that the public DOC locator does not answer.
- Use the county jail roster only if there is reason to believe the person has been newly arrested or booked into Pottawattamie County Jail.
- Use Iowa VINELink for custody or case notification when ongoing notification is the goal rather than a one-time lookup.
The Iowa DOC offender search is the matching official search source for DOC records and supervision placement context.
The DOC search can show offender number, location, offense, county of commitment, supervision status, dates, and parole-board related fields when those fields apply to a public record.
Iowa DOC 4th District Residential Correctional Facility Address and Contact
Direct facility contact is the safest route for local program questions because the reviewed official page did not publish full visitation hours, local mail format, facility capacity, or a resident census for this RCF. Use the published phone number for facility-specific matters and Iowa DOC offender search for public record lookup.
Iowa DOC 4th District Residential Correctional Facility
900 9th Ave.
Council Bluffs, IA 51501
712-396-2245
Operator: Iowa Department of Corrections, 4th Judicial District Department of Correctional Services
When a caller is trying to determine where someone is held, begin by identifying the custody category. A new arrest or warrant booking points to Pottawattamie County Jail. A sentenced prison, parole, probation, district supervision, compact, or community-corrections placement points to the Iowa DOC search and the district facility. A federal sentenced inmate points to BOP. Immigration custody questions point to ICE ODLS.
Visiting Someone at the Residential Correctional Facility
The research did not locate a fixed public visitor schedule for the Residential Correctional Facility. General Iowa DOC family-services material supports the idea that DOC visitation uses approval and scheduling procedures and may use Ameelio in DOC contexts, but community-based corrections facilities can have local program rules. Do not import Pottawattamie County Jail visitation rules, CIDNET video visitation rules, or jail visitor procedures onto this DOC residential correctional facility unless the district facility itself confirms them.
| Visit Question | Published Schedule | Best Confirmation Channel |
|---|---|---|
| Public family visits | No fixed schedule located in official sources | Call 712-396-2245 before planning a visit. |
| DOC approval or scheduling | Use DOC family-services guidance where applicable | Confirm with facility or DOC 4th District staff. |
| Professional or program contact | No public local schedule located | Coordinate directly with facility staff. |
| Holiday, emergency, or rule change | Not published in reviewed source | Confirm with the facility before travel. |
The Iowa DOC visitation guidance is available through the DOC family-services pages and was captured in the research as a statewide source.
Because the facility is community corrections, the statewide DOC page is background and not a substitute for the local Residential Correctional Facility's current instructions.
Mail, Phone, and Money at the Residential Correctional Facility
General Iowa DOC family-services pages cover mail, o-mail, phone, money, and victim services for DOC populations. The research notes DOC central mail processing for non-legal mail, CorrLinks o-mail, no incoming offender calls, approved calling lists, lower-48 calls listed at $0.07, and money vendors including Access Corrections, JPay, and Western Union/Send2Corrections. It also notes that community-based corrections facilities may have local program rules. For this Council Bluffs RCF, the official 4th District page did not publish a detailed mail format, local phone vendor, resident account procedure, facility-specific fee list, or money limit table.
| Service | General DOC Detail | Facility-Specific Caution |
|---|---|---|
| DOC non-legal mail can use central processing with name, offender ID, facility name, facility ID, and PO Box 96777, Las Vegas, NV 89193. | Confirm whether this community-corrections facility uses that format. | |
| O-mail | CorrLinks, with DOC-researched $0.25 o-mail and length limits. | Confirm resident eligibility and local rules. |
| Phone | No incoming calls; approved calling list; lower-48 calls listed at $0.07 in DOC material. | Do not assume every RCF communication rule mirrors prison settings. |
| Money | DOC vendors include Access Corrections, JPay, and Western Union/Send2Corrections. | Confirm whether deposits are accepted and how they apply to this placement. |
County jail vendors do not carry over here. CIDNET and Stellar Services are documented for the Pottawattamie County Jail research, not for the Residential Correctional Facility. Likewise, cash-only jail bond belongs to the sheriff's jail bond process, not this DOC community-corrections placement.
Intake and Placement at the Residential Correctional Facility
This facility is not where ordinary street arrests are booked. A person arrested in Pottawattamie County is booked at the county jail if held locally. Court proceedings, sentencing, probation, parole, work-release approval, treatment needs, or DOC/district placement decisions can later move a person into a community-corrections setting such as the Residential Correctional Facility. The public record trail may therefore begin with the jail roster and Iowa Courts Online, then continue through Iowa DOC offender search after placement or supervision begins.
Admission to a residential correctional facility is closer to correctional placement than jail booking. The research supports adult correctional clients assigned by the 4th Judicial District, including work-release or residential correctional programming depending on court or DOC assignment. Specific intake checklist items, resident handbooks, search procedures, program phases, employment rules, and length-of-stay expectations were not located in the official public sources reviewed. Those details should be obtained from the facility or DOC 4th District staff.
County Jail, DOC, Court, and Notification Boundaries
Readers often search the wrong system because Pottawattamie County has a county jail and DOC district facilities in the same city. The Pottawattamie County Jail roster covers current sheriff jail custody. Iowa DOC offender search covers prison, supervision, parole, probation, compact, district, or other DOC records where public data exists. Iowa Courts Online covers filed court cases, not day-to-day housing. VINELink supports notification, and IowaVINE phone access is listed at 1-888-742-8463 in the research.
If a person was recently arrested, call the Pottawattamie County Jail booking line or check the jail roster. If a person is known to be in residential correctional placement, call the RCF and search Iowa DOC. If a person is missing from DOC search, that absence does not prove they are not under local program supervision, because DOC records are updated weekly according to the DOC disclaimer and public search data can change quickly. When accuracy matters, verify through the facility, DOC, court, or originating agency.
About the 4th Judicial District Community-Corrections Setting
Iowa DOC lists Pottawattamie County within the 4th Judicial District, and the district page identifies Council Bluffs residential correctional and treatment facilities. The state prison list is separate and includes Anamosa, Clarinda, Fort Dodge, Iowa Correctional Institution for Women, Iowa Medical and Classification Center, Iowa State Penitentiary, Mount Pleasant, Newton, and North Central. None of those state prisons is physically in Pottawattamie County according to the research.
This local district structure means a person can have a Pottawattamie County court or arrest history but not be in the sheriff's jail. They may be under DOC supervision, in a residential correctional facility, in residential treatment, in a state prison outside the county, or no longer in custody. Preserving that distinction matters because using a jail roster for every correctional question creates false negatives and confusion about who controls the record.
Note: Confirm placement, visitor approval, mail rules, and money options with the facility or Iowa DOC before travel or payment.