The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byComanche County Sheriff's Office
- What was openedcomanchecoks.org's sheriff.html page gives only the sheriff's office address, phone and fax — no jail name, address, capacity, roster, budget, PREA, inspection, contract, bond, or fee information. It points to a separate Sheriff's-Office-branded site (comanchecountysheriffks.com) for more detail.
- What was tried and blockedcomanchecountysheriffks.com could not be opened this session (no search or link provenance for that domain), so it was not examined.
- Budget pagecomanchecoks.org/budgets.html states only: “For budget information please contact the County Clerk's Office” — no figures are published on the page itself.
Source: Comanche County, KS — Sheriff · checked 2026-09-17
Transparency rating
0/10Closed- ✗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
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
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jacob Bruckner
- Runs the jailYes — K.S.A. 19-811 gives the sheriff charge and custody of the county jail and its prisoners; K.S.A. 19-1903 makes the sheriff responsible for the manner in which it is kept.
- How the office is filledElected countywide for a four-year term (K.S.A. 19-801a); not one of Kansas's two structural exceptions (Riley County has no sheriff; Wyandotte County's sheriff is separately elected within a consolidated government).
- Office contact408 North Central Ave. / PO Box 16, Coldwater, KS 67029; (620) 582-2511
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Kansas Sheriffs' Association — county profile · checked 2026-09-17
The Judges
Kansas decides judicial selection district by district under Kan. Const. Art. 3 §6 and K.S.A. 20-2901. In most rural Kansas counties the district magistrate judge sets bail (K.S.A. 20-302b). The 16th 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.
District Court — 16th Judicial District
- Not found
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
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 →
Notes on the record
- Comanche County's own site (comanchecoks.org) was opened this session (sheriff, budgets, commissioners pages) and publishes none of the ten transparency items for the jail. It directs the public to the County Clerk for budget figures and to a separate Sheriff's-Office site for more detail, but that separate site could not be reached this session.
- K.S.A. 75-5228, the 1973 Kansas jail inspection statute, was repealed effective April 11, 1996 (its companion 75-5227 followed July 1, 1996) and nothing replaced it — no Kansas agency has statutory authority to inspect this or any county jail. (Kansas state-layer finding; K.S.A. 75-5228, https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch75/075_052_0028.html)
- Three-member Board of County Commissioners: Zach Ellis (District I), Saige Gerstner (District II), Joe Moore (District III, Chairman). Meets the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month; no current agenda is posted beyond the recurring schedule.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Comanche County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).
How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?
Your VOTE is POWERFUL.
The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.
Names verified 2026-09-17 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered