Chase County

The Detention Center

Not found

• Operated byNot established
• County site's own linkChase County's site lists a "Detention Center" item under Health & Emergency Services that links out to chasejail.com — a separate domain, evidence that some detention operation exists in connection with Chase County, but its name, operator, address, capacity and every other detail were not confirmed.
• What was triedchasejail.com never appeared in a WebSearch result and is a different domain from chasecountyks.com, so WebFetch refused it with PROVENANCE_REQUIRED; the group's WebSearch budget was exhausted before it could be searched directly. No jail facility name, address, capacity, administrator, roster, budget, PREA result, inspection result, contract, bond guidance, or fee schedule was found on chasecountyks.com itself, which was opened (homepage, Sheriff/911 page, Commissioners page).

Source: Chase County Kansas — homepage · 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 Chase 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 Jacob Welsh

• Runs the jailYes — K.S.A. 19-811 gives the sheriff charge and custody of the jail.
• How the office is filledElected countywide for a four-year term (K.S.A. 19-801a); Chase is not one of Kansas's two exceptions.
• OfficeJacob Welsh, Sheriff; Aaron Hoffman, Undersheriff — 301 S. Walnut, Cottonwood Falls, KS 66845; (620) 273-6313. Five full-time law enforcement officers; four full-time and one part-time dispatcher; 24/7 operation; coverage area approximately 778 square miles.

Source: Chase County, Kansas — Sheriff / 911 · 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 Chase 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 →