Barton County

The Detention Center

Barton County Detention Facility

• Operated byBarton County Sheriff's Office, Detention Division
• Address1408 Kansas Ave, Great Bend, KS 67530
• Capacity108 beds
• VisitationPublic visitation held Wednesdays 7:00 p.m. to completion; check-in 6:15-6:45 p.m.; inmates designate visitors weekly
• Inmate servicesCanteen, email, and mail services are offered; a 'Just Released' document covers kiosk access and communication options
• PREA / roster / bond / fees / budget / deathsNot found on the county's own site

Source: Barton County, KS — Sheriff / Detention Division · checked 2026-09-17

• ✓The jail is named
• ✗Who is in custody — not published
• ✓Beds and daily population
• ✗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 Barton 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
• Beds108

The Sheriff

Sheriff Brian Bellendir

• Runs the jailYes — K.S.A. 19-811 gives the sheriff charge and custody of the county jail and its prisoners; the county's own site organizes the jail as the Sheriff's Office 'Detention Division'
• Office contact1400 Kansas Ave, Great Bend, KS 67530 (Kansas Sheriffs' Assoc.) / 1400 Main Street, Suite 108, Great Bend, KS 67530 (county site); 620-793-1876 / 620-793-1800

Source: Kansas Sheriffs' Association — Member Directory (sorted by county) · 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. Barton County sits in the 20th Judicial District together with Ellsworth, Rice, Russell, and Stafford counties, served by Chief Judge Carey L. Hipp and District Judge Lisa Beran per the county's own site. Whether the 20th District elects its judges or has adopted nonpartisan selection was not established: Ballotpedia's district-selection tables did not render through the sources opened, and the Kansas Judicial Branch's page on district-judge election (kscourts.gov) returned an HTTP 403 error. No district magistrate judge was named on the county's own site. The 20th Judicial District elects its district judges on a partisan ballot - the default under Kan. Const. Art. 3 sec. 6. Its voters have not adopted the nonpartisan nominating-commission method available under K.S.A. 20-2901.

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 →