The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byLee County Sheriff's Office
- Jail phone published319-376-2355, on the county's sheriff page
- Sheriff's Office and jail location2530 255th Street, Montrose, IA 52639 (the address the county publishes for the Sheriff's Office)
- What was triedhttps://www.leecounty.org/sheriff/ was opened and names no jail; https://www.leecounty.org/pview.aspx?id=20889&catid=25 (the county's 'Jail PREA Policy' page) was attempted twice and refused; https://www.leecounty.org/Offices/sheriff/index.htm was returned by search but not opened
- Jail CaptainThe Board's January 2, 2026 agenda carried item 15, 'Discussion and Possible Action on Jail Captain for the Lee County Sheriff's Office'; no name is given in the agenda
Source: Lee County Sheriff · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
0/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✗How to post bond — not published
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Elliott Vandenberg
- Runs the jailYes - Iowa Code 356.2 gives the sheriff charge and custody of the prisoners in the county jail
- How the office is filledElected county office, four-year term (Iowa Code 331.651)
- Office address2530 255th Street, Montrose, IA 52639
- Sheriff's Office phone319-372-1152; jail 319-376-2355; non-emergency dispatch 319-372-1310
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Lee County Sheriff · checked 2026-09-18
The Judges
Iowa district judges are merit-selected: a district judicial nominating commission (Iowa Code ch. 46) sends the governor two nominees, the governor appoints one, and the judge then faces a yes/no retention election and six-year terms. There are no contested judicial elections. Bail at first appearance is set by a magistrate under Iowa Code 804.22, and Iowa magistrates are appointed, not elected - Iowa Code 602.6501 puts a magistrate appointing commission in each county (one district judge, three members appointed by the county board of supervisors, and two attorneys elected by the county's attorneys), and Iowa Code 602.6403 has that commission appoint the county's magistrates to four-year terms. The three supervisor appointees are the only voter-accountable link in how the official who sets bail got the job. Judges are state judicial officers, not county officials.
Iowa District Court
- Not found
Magistrate (sets bail at first appearance under Iowa Code 804.22)
- Not found
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-18
The County Commissioners
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
- The boardBoard of County Commissioners
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Lee County is unusual among Iowa counties in having two county seats, Fort Madison and Keokuk. The January 2, 2026 Board agenda opened for this record places the Board's meeting at 933 Ave H, Fort Madison; Keokuk as the second seat was not confirmed from any Lee County page that could be opened, and is recorded here without a first-party citation.
- The city of Keokuk is in Lee County. Keokuk COUNTY is a separate county whose seat is Sigourney; the two are not conflated in this record.
- The county's sheriff page publishes a jail telephone number but does not name the jail on any page that could be opened, so the named check is recorded 'no'.
- The sheriff page links a 'Jail PREA Policy' page at https://www.leecounty.org/pview.aspx?id=20889&catid=25; two attempts to open it were refused, so nothing about its contents is asserted and the prea check is recorded 'no'.
- The Board's April 14, 2026 minutes record approval of an 'Addendum to Consolidated Correctional Foodservice agreement for the Lee County Sheriff's Office' - a food service contract, not a contract to hold another agency's prisoners.
- What was tried and refused: https://www.leecounty.org/pview.aspx?id=20889&catid=25 (twice).
- Iowa inspects every jail at least annually - the chief jail inspector 'shall visit and inspect each jail within this state at least annually' under Iowa Admin. Code 201-50.3, and Iowa Code 356.43 requires periodic inspections - but Iowa Code 356.43(4) sends the report only to the Iowa Department of Corrections director, the sheriff, the local governing body and the county attorney. Nothing requires anyone to post it, the state does not publish it, and this county does not publish it either. The inspection is therefore happening; the disclosure is not.
- Iowa publishes no statewide dataset of deaths in county jail custody. Two duties exist and neither produces a public number: Iowa Admin. Code 201-50.22(14) requires the state jail inspection unit to be notified within 24 hours of any death, attempted suicide, fire, escape, injury to staff or prisoners from assaults, or use of force and prisoner self-injuries; and Iowa Code 127.3(1) requires an autopsy for a death in a jail or under police custody where no natural disease process accounts for it. The deaths check passes only if this county itself publishes a death in its custody on its own site, and it does not.
- Open records run under Iowa Code chapter 22; the right is at 22.2, 'Every person shall have the right to examine and copy a public record.' There is no blanket response deadline - the only clock is 22.8(4), which caps a delay taken to screen a record for confidentiality at twenty calendar days and says it 'ordinarily should not exceed ten business days.'
- The jail is a county facility funded through county revenues; it is not federally funded.
- Five-member Board of Supervisors. The county's own April 14, 2026 minutes, opened for this record, show Ginger Knisley (Chair), Garry Seyb, Denise Fraise, Chuck Holmes and Tim Wondra. The Board meets at 933 Ave H, Fort Madison, IA 52627 per its January 2, 2026 agenda.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Lee County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).
How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?
Your VOTE is POWERFUL.
The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.
Names verified 2026-09-18 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered