Barber County

The Detention Center

Not found

• Operated byBarber County Sheriff's Office
• What was triedBarber County's own Sheriff page gives office contact information only, with no jail facility name, capacity, administrator, roster, bond, PREA, or fee information. No separate jail/detention page was found in the county site's navigation (Sheriff, Commissioners, Clerk of the District Court).

Source: Barber County, KS — Sheriff · checked 2026-09-17

• ✗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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Barber County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-17. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

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

The Sheriff

Sheriff Richard Garza

• Runs the jailYes — K.S.A. 19-811 gives the sheriff charge and custody of the county jail and its prisoners
• Office contact124 E. Washington, Medicine Lodge, KS 67104; 620-930-2590 (fax 620-886-3103)

Source: Barber County, KS — Sheriff · checked 2026-09-17

The Judges

Kansas decides judicial selection district by district (Kan. Const. Art. 3 §6; K.S.A. 20-2901): election is the default, and a district's voters may adopt — or later reject — nonpartisan/merit selection by petition and ballot proposition. Barber County sits in the 30th Judicial District together with Harper, Kingman, Pratt, and Sumner counties. Whether this specific district has adopted nonpartisan selection or still elects its district judges was not established: Ballotpedia's district-by-district selection tables did not render through the sources opened, and the Kansas Judicial Branch's own page on becoming a district judge by election (kscourts.gov) returned an HTTP 403 error. In a district that has not adopted nonpartisan selection, K.S.A. 20-336 also has that district's county elect its own district magistrate judge, and in most rural Kansas counties the magistrate — not the district judge — sets bail at first appearance. The 30th Judicial District has adopted the nonpartisan method: a local nominating commission of lawyers and non-lawyers sends the Governor a list of names, the Governor appoints, and the judge then faces retention votes. Kansas districts choose this by ballot under K.S.A. 20-2901; partisan election is the default they opted out of.

Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-17

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 →