You can use in, or check for the index and catch the error:
num in a will check if the item num is in the list a.
>>> 1 in [1, 2, 5]
True
>>> 3 in [1, 2, 5]
False
>>> 100 in range(101)
True
try getting the index, and except to catch the IndexError:
def isIn(item, lst):
    try:
        lst.index(item)
        return True
    except ValueError:
        return False
    return False
>>> isIn(5, [1, 2, 5])
True
>>> isIn(5, [1, 2, 3])
False