Mower County Jail Mugshots Overview
The official Mower County Jail roster PDF inspected for June 18, 2026 appeared text-only. No booking photographs were visible in the roster excerpt, and no separate official recent-booking mugshot gallery, daily booking-photo feed, or most-wanted mugshot page was found in the official county sources. That matters because a user looking for Mower County booking photos should not assume that the jail roster works like a photo gallery or profile-based inmate search.
Mower County Jail is operated by the Mower County Sheriff's Office at 201 2nd Avenue NE, Suite 4, Austin, MN 55912. The jail phone is 507-437-9562. The roster remains useful because it helps identify the booking event before a photo request is made. It can show the person's name, booking number, current age, CID/MNI number, city of residence, booking date and time, release date and time when applicable, custody status, bail, arresting agency, charges, and status.
Because the official roster sample does not display a photo field, the practical path is to confirm the record through the roster, then direct a public-data request to the Mower County Sheriff's Office or Mower County Jail for the specific booking photograph. The request should identify the person and booking event clearly enough that staff can locate the record without guessing.
Where to Find Mower County Booking Photos
The official custody starting point is the Mower County Jail roster PDF, titled as a custody report for inmates in custody. It is not a searchable web database with photo thumbnails. Users search it by opening the PDF and using the browser or PDF viewer find command for a name, booking number, city, arresting agency, or charge keyword. If the roster is unavailable or appears stale, the jail phone line is the local fallback.
- Open the official Mower County Jail roster PDF from the county jail page.
- Use the PDF find command for the person's last name, full name, booking number, arresting agency, or charge word.
- Record the booking number, booking date and time, arresting agency, charge description, bail field, and custody status.
- If no booking photo appears in the roster, contact Mower County Jail at 507-437-9562 or make a Minnesota Government Data Practices Act request to the Sheriff's Office or jail.
- Ask for the specific public booking photograph and include enough identifiers to connect the request to the correct arrest.
The county jail page at co.mower.mn.us/198/County-Jail is the official local page that links to the roster and jail policy PDFs. The Mower County Sheriff's Office site and sheriff staff directory provide broader agency contact points, including the main sheriff's office and warrant contacts, but booking-photo requests should be phrased as a public-data request for a defined booking photograph.
What a Mower County Booking Record Shows
The public roster sample is a compact custody record, not the full jail management file. It did not show a mugshot field, physical description, date of birth, height, weight, race, sex, eye color, hair color, or housing assignment. The absence of a visible photo field does not mean that a booking photograph was not taken during intake. Minnesota jail intake rules and Mower County inspection material support that photographing and fingerprinting are part of booking, but the public PDF only displays selected public-facing fields.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Booking Photo | No booking photo field was visible in the June 18, 2026 Mower County roster sample. |
| Name | Public display name for the person listed on the roster. |
| Booking Number | Mower jail booking identifier, useful when requesting a photo or clarifying a record. |
| Current Age | Age as displayed in the roster report. |
| CID/MNI Number | Local criminal-history or person-management identifier. |
| City of Residence | City and state listed in the booking record. |
| Booking Date and Time | When the person was booked into Mower County Jail. |
| Release Date and Time | Blank if still held; filled when the person has been released or transferred. |
| Custody Status | Examples include IN CUSTODY or RELEASED. |
| Bail | Published bail amount or a blank field, which must be read with the status label. |
| Arresting Agency | Agency responsible for the arrest or hold, such as Austin Police Department, Mower County Sheriff's Office, or DOC Parole. |
| Charges | Plain-language charge descriptions; multiple lines may appear. |
| Status | Operational or legal label such as Bond Set, Court/Pending, Sentenced, HOLD W/O BOND, ROR, To Other Auth, Book & Release, A&D Hold, or Rule 20 Eval. |
Are Mower County Jail Mugshots Public Record?
Minnesota law generally makes booking photographs public, with a specific active-investigation exception. Minn. Stat. 13.82, subd. 26 defines a booking photograph as a photograph or electronically produced image taken by law enforcement for identification purposes in connection with an arrest. The statute says that, except as otherwise provided, a booking photograph is public data. It also allows a law-enforcement agency to temporarily withhold access if the agency determines that access would adversely affect an active investigation.
Key Statutes:
Minn. Stat. 13.82 - Law-enforcement data rule that treats booking photographs as public data unless a temporary active-investigation withholding applies or another law controls.
Minn. Stat. 13.03 - General public-data access rule, including public inspection and permitted copy-cost principles.
Minn. Stat. 13.85 - Corrections and detention data rule that classifies many records created because of confinement in jails and prisons.
The practical result is a limited yes. A booking photo can be public under Minnesota law, but that does not require Mower County to publish it in an online gallery. It also does not make the full jail file public. Medical records, financial data, jail incident reports, telephone or electronic communications, visitor records, and other detention records may be private or confidential under Minnesota law and the Sheriff's Office not-public-data inventory.
How Long a Mugshot Stays on the Roster
No official Mower County policy was located stating that booking photos stay online for a fixed number of hours or days. The roster itself can include current and recently released entries, but the inspected report appeared text-only. Because no official photo gallery was found, there is no supported Mower County online mugshot retention window to quote.
What is and isn't public: The roster can show selected custody fields, but the June 18, 2026 PDF sample did not show a public photo field. A booking photograph may be public under Minn. Stat. 13.82, while parts of the jail file may be withheld under active-investigation, detention-data, medical, security, privacy, or court-order limits.
If a booking photo is needed after the roster changes, request the public booking photograph from the office that created or maintains the record. Include identifiers from the roster rather than relying only on a name, especially where common names or multiple bookings may exist.
How to Request a Mower County Booking Photo
A booking-photo request should be directed to the Mower County Sheriff's Office or Mower County Jail under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. The request does not need dramatic wording. It should ask for the public booking photograph connected with a particular booking and provide enough details to locate the correct record.
- Confirm the booking on the Mower County Jail roster or by calling Mower County Jail at 507-437-9562.
- Copy the full name, booking number if shown, date and time of booking, arresting agency, and charge description.
- Ask for the "public booking photograph" or "booking photograph under Minn. Stat. 13.82, subd. 26."
- Send the request to the Sheriff's Office or jail contact channel and ask how public inspection or copies are handled under Minn. Stat. 13.03.
- Expect a denial, delay, or redaction explanation if the agency determines release would adversely affect an active investigation or another classification applies.
The main jail contact block is Mower County Jail, 201 2nd Avenue NE, Suite 4, Austin, MN 55912, phone 507-437-9562. The Sheriff's Office is listed at 201 1st Street NE, Suite 3, Austin, MN 55912. No fixed fee schedule or guaranteed turnaround time for Mower County booking-photo copies was located, so copy cost and timing should be confirmed when the request is made.
Mugshot Removal and Sealed Records
Removal is not the same as public access. Minnesota expungement law creates paths for eligible criminal records to be sealed from public view, including automatic expungement under Minn. Stat. 609A.015 and petition-based expungement under Minn. Stat. 609A.03. The Minnesota Attorney General explains expungement as sealing a record from public view, not erasing or vacating the event itself. No Mower County policy promising booking-photo removal after dismissal, acquittal, or expungement was located.
For a court-record remedy, use the court process discussed in sealing and expunging an arrest record. For a jail-record question, make a data request or correction inquiry to the Mower County Sheriff's Office or Mower County Jail. A private website's reposting practices are not an official county record process, and commercial mugshot sites are not a reliable source for Mower County custody status or official removal rights.
Federal and State Booking Photos
County jail booking photos are different from state-prison and federal-custody records. Mower County Jail is the local adult detention facility for pretrial and local sentenced custody. Sentenced felony prisoners transferred to the Minnesota Department of Corrections should be checked through the MNDOC locator, which is a statewide prison locator and may show public offender information, offense information, court file numbers, and links to court or BCA resources. It is not a Mower County booking-photo gallery.
Federal custody uses separate systems. The Bureau of Prisons inmate locator covers federal inmates incarcerated from 1982 to the present and focuses on federal custody location and release information. Federal pretrial detainees are generally in U.S. Marshals Service custody until release, acquittal, or BOP designation. BOP and the U.S. Marshals Service do not operate a county-style public mugshot gallery for Mower County arrests. Immigration detention is searched through ICE's Online Detainee Locator System, not through the county jail roster, and no ICE detention facility was located in Mower County in official sources.