Bourbon County

The Detention Center

Not found

• Operated byBourbon County Sheriff's Office
• Address on file293 E. 20th St., Fort Scott, KS 66701 is the only address published for the Sheriff's Office; no separate jail address is given.
• GED programBourbon County Commission minutes for Oct. 5, 2021 record a proposal from Michael Hoyt for a GED program "within the jail," for participants "incarcerated and held for what appears to be at least 60 days."
• Commission on privatizationAt the Aug. 16, 2022 commission meeting, a member of the public (Anne Dare) asked about "privatizing the jail"; the response recorded in the minutes was "by law, the sheriff has to run the jail."
• What was triedThe Sheriff's Office maintains its own separate site, bourboncountysheriffks.org (linked from the county homepage's "Sheriff's Office" menu item), which would be the most likely place for jail roster, capacity, fee, or inspection content. It sits on a different domain than bourboncountyks.org and never appeared in a WebSearch result this session, so WebFetch refused it with PROVENANCE_REQUIRED once the group's WebSearch budget was spent on locating the seven counties' own domains. Its content was not seen this session.

Source: Bourbon County Commission meeting minutes, Oct. 5, 2021 · 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 Bourbon 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 Bill Martin

• Runs the jailYes — K.S.A. 19-811 gives the sheriff charge and custody of the jail; the county commission itself confirmed this at its Aug. 16, 2022 meeting, telling a member of the public who asked about "privatizing the jail" that "by law, the sheriff has to run the jail."
• How the office is filledElected countywide for a four-year term (K.S.A. 19-801a); Bourbon is not one of Kansas's two exceptions (Riley County has no sheriff; Wyandotte County's sheriff is separately elected within a consolidated government).
• OfficeWilliam "Bill" Martin, Sheriff; Ben Cole, Undersheriff — 293 E. 20th St., Fort Scott, KS 66701; (620) 223-1440.

Source: Bourbon County Kansas — Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-17

The Judges

Kansas decides judicial selection district by district (Kan. Const. Art. 3 §6; K.S.A. 20-2901): partisan election is the default, and a judicial district's voters may adopt — or later reject — nonpartisan/merit selection by petition and ballot proposition. Which of Kansas's 31 judicial districts covers Bourbon County, and whether that district has adopted nonpartisan selection or still elects its district judges, was not established this session: the county's own site does not carry it, and the session's WebSearch budget (8 calls, spent locating county domains and sheriff/jail profiles) was exhausted before a district-specific source could be checked. In a district that has not adopted nonpartisan selection, K.S.A. 20-336 has that district's counties each elect their own district magistrate judge, and in most rural Kansas counties the magistrate — not the district judge — sets bail at first appearance (K.S.A. 20-302b). Which method this county's judicial district uses was not established for this record.

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
• Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →