Stearns County Jail Roster and Bookings

Stearns County recent bookings are available through the Stearns County Sheriff's Office in St. Cloud. The online search tool lets you look up current inmates, check past booking records going back seven years, search for outstanding warrants, and view the most wanted list. You can filter results by name, booking date, gender, age, bail amount, or charge level. This page covers how to use each search type, what data you will find in each record, and where to go for more help if the online tool does not give you what you need.

Stearns County Inmate and Warrant Search

The Stearns County Sheriff's Office runs an inmate and warrant search portal at stearnscountymn.gov. It gives you four separate search options from one place. You can check who is in the jail right now, look up past booking records, search for outstanding warrants, or view the most wanted list. Most counties only give you a current roster. The seven-year history option sets Stearns County apart.

The past inmate search is the most useful feature for people trying to verify a booking that already happened. It goes back seven full years. You can narrow the results with several filters: full name, booking date range, gender, age, bail amount, and charge level. If you know someone was booked but they are no longer in custody, this is where you start. The data that comes back includes the person's full name, date of birth, exact booking date and time, charges filed, bond information, and the date of their next court appearance.

The current inmate list shows everyone held at the Stearns County Jail right now. Use this if you are trying to find out whether someone is still in custody. The warrant search is separate. It covers active outstanding warrants in Stearns County. You can search by name. The most wanted list is a smaller set of high-priority cases the sheriff has flagged for public attention.

Under Minn. Stat. § 13.82, arrest and booking data is classified as public data in Minnesota. That is the legal basis for making this information available online. The record includes arrest date and time, the charge, the agency that made the arrest, and booking identifiers. The sheriff is required to make these records accessible to the public.

The Stearns County Sheriff's Office is at 807 Courthouse Square, St. Cloud, MN 56303. The jail phone number is 320-259-3750. The sheriff's main line is 320-259-3700. Fax is 320-259-3786. The jail administrator is Mark Maslonkowski and can be reached at mark.maslonkowski@co.stearns.mn.us.

The portal is updated regularly and reflects current custody status as well as historical booking data.

What Stearns County Booking Records Show

Each booking record in the Stearns County system has a standard set of data fields. The record shows the full name of the person booked, their date of birth, the exact date and time they were booked into the jail, the charges they face, bond or bail information, and when their next court date is scheduled. This data comes directly from the booking process at the jail.

One thing worth knowing is that not every person who spends time at the Stearns County Jail will show up in the booking database. The system only includes booking events that come from an arrest or from a court appearance that results in custody. People serving weekend sentences, sometimes called weekenders, are not included. They report to serve their time on weekends but were not arrested or brought in from court, so their stays do not generate a booking event that appears in the public search. If you are looking for someone serving a weekend sentence and they are not showing up, this is why.

Note: The charge level filter lets you sort by felony, gross misdemeanor, or misdemeanor, which can help narrow large result sets.

About the Stearns County Jail

The Stearns County Jail is located at 807 Courthouse Square in St. Cloud. It serves several functions. It holds people who are waiting for trial and cannot post bail. It houses people who have been sentenced to terms of one year or less. It also holds people on parole violation holds and accepts warrant holds from other jurisdictions outside Stearns County. When a person from another county or state has a warrant and is picked up in Stearns County, the jail can hold them until that other jurisdiction comes to get them.

St. Cloud is a regional city that spreads across three counties: Stearns, Benton, and Sherburne. If you are trying to locate someone from St. Cloud, the right jail to check depends on where in the city the arrest took place. Most of St. Cloud sits in Stearns County, but parts of the city fall into Benton County and Sherburne County. If you do not find a booking in the Stearns County system, try checking the neighboring counties as well. Links to both are at the bottom of this page.

The sheriff's page also links directly to the jail division and the inmate search tool.

Other Ways to Find Stearns County Booking Records

The county search tool covers current and historical Stearns County bookings going back seven years. For records older than that, or for criminal history that spans multiple counties, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension runs a statewide background check system. You can search the BCA database at cdechportal.dps.mn.gov. Each search costs $8. The BCA also has general information about criminal records at dps.mn.gov/divisions/bca. This is a good resource if you need a broader view beyond what the Stearns County jail search provides.

Minnesota's Department of Corrections runs an offender locator that shows people serving state prison sentences. If someone was sentenced to more than one year, they go to a state facility, not the county jail. You can search the DOC locator at coms.doc.state.mn.us/PublicViewer. VINELink at vinelink.com lets victims and others track custody status and get alerts if a person's status changes. These are separate systems from the Stearns County jail database.

Under Minn. Stat. § 13.03, the public has a right to request government data, and government entities must respond within specific time frames. If you need records that are not available through the online portal, you can make a formal data request to the Stearns County Sheriff's Office. Written requests tend to be the clearest way to do this. The Minnesota Courts system at mncourts.gov is a separate resource for court filings and case dockets tied to Stearns County bookings.

The Predatory Offender Registry is a different database. It is maintained by the Department of Corrections and covers people required to register due to sex offenses. You can search it at por.doc.state.mn.us. It is not the same as the jail booking system, but it is a related public safety resource. The Minnesota statutes covering jail operations include Minn. Stat. § 641.08 and Minn. Stat. § 641.12, which address county jail standards, and Minn. Stat. § 641.05, which covers the sheriff's responsibility to maintain the jail.

Legal help is available if you need it. LawHelpMN at lawhelpmn.org has self-help guides on criminal procedure and related topics. The Minnesota State Bar Association lawyer referral service at mnbar.org can connect you with a local attorney if needed.

Note: Records expungement under Minn. Stat. § 609A may limit what shows up in a booking search if a court has ordered records sealed.

Cities in Stearns County

St. Cloud is the county seat and the largest city in Stearns County. It spreads across Stearns, Benton, and Sherburne counties. All Stearns County arrests and bookings go through the jail at 807 Courthouse Square.

Other communities in Stearns County include Waite Park, Sartell, Sauk Rapids, Cold Spring, and St. Joseph. None of these have separate booking systems. All arrests in Stearns County run through the county jail.

Nearby Counties

These counties border Stearns County. If a booking does not appear in the Stearns County system, check whether the address falls in one of these neighboring counties instead.