The Detention Center
Dickinson County Detention Facility
- Operated byDickinson County Sheriff's Office
- AddressLocated in the Dickinson County Courthouse, first floor, 109 East 1st Street, Abilene, KS 67410 (per the county's own Sheriff's Office page)
- BuiltThe Sheriff's Office page states the facility was "Built in 2020"
- Capacity"Can accommodate 64 Prisoners" (Sheriff's Office page); the 2024 Sheriff's Annual Report confirms a maximum capacity of 64
- 2024 population2024 Sheriff's Annual Report: average daily population 38, highest daily population 50, 785 total bookings in 2024
- Tracking systemGuardian RFID® — an RFID-based system that tracks in-custody inmates in real time; per the county's own page, the tracking devices are "the exclusive property of Dickinson County"
- VisitationEffective July 1, 2026 visitation moves to video-only; on-site kiosk visits at the Sheriff's Office are free, Mon–Fri 8:00–11:30 a.m. and 1:00–4:00 p.m.; remote (from-home) visitation is available daily in three windows
- Phone/commissary feesNot found — the visitation page does not list phone, video-call, or commissary rates
- Also sourced toDickinson County — Jail Visitation — https://www.dkcoks.gov/jail_visitation
- Also sourced toDickinson County — Jail RFID (Guardian RFID) — https://www.dkcoks.gov/jail_rfid
- Also sourced toDickinson County Sheriff's Office — 2024 Annual Report (PDF) — https://www.dkcoks.gov/media/Sheriff's Office/Annual Reports/Dickinson County Sheriff Annual Report 2024.pdf
Source: Dickinson County — Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-17
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓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
- ✗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 built2020 (per the county's own Sheriff's Office page, which states the facility "Built in 2020"; not independently corroborated elsewhere on the site)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds64 (Sheriff's Office page and 2024 Sheriff's Annual Report)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jerry Davis
- 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).
- Office address109 East First, Abilene, KS 67410
- Phone / fax785-263-4081 / 785-263-1512
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Kansas Sheriffs' Association — Dickinson 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). Dickinson County's own District Court page (dkcoks.gov/district-court) names no sitting judges and instead directs visitors to the 8th Judicial District's own site (https://www.8thjd.com/) for jury duty and court information; that site was not opened this session. The 8th 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.
8th Judicial District — District Court
- 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
- RESOLVED this session: the correct domain is dkcoks.gov, not dkcoks.org (the earlier-recorded domain, which was never reachable). www.dkcoks.gov opened normally, and the site was walked from its homepage to Sheriff's Office, Jail Visitation, Jail RFID, Commissioners, Agendas, District Court, and the Sheriff's 2024 Annual Report PDF.
- The Detention Facility is located inside the Dickinson County Courthouse (109 East 1st Street, Abilene) rather than a separate building; the Sheriff's Office page states it was "Built in 2020" and can accommodate 64 prisoners, and the 2024 Annual Report gives an average daily population of 38 (high of 50) and 785 total bookings for the year.
- 'contracts' is marked yes on the strength of the county's own Jail RFID page, which names Guardian RFID® as the vendor supplying the in-custody tracking system.
- 'roster', 'budget', 'deaths', 'prea', 'inspections', 'bond_info', and 'fees' are marked no: the Sheriff's Office, Jail Visitation, Jail RFID, Annual Reports, and Commissioners/Agendas pages were all opened and none of them disclosed an inmate roster, a sheriff/jail budget line item, death-in-custody data, PREA compliance, inspection results, bond guidance, or a phone/commissary/visitation fee schedule (on-site visitation is stated to be free).
- The Staff Directory page for 'Sheriff's Office/Detention Facility' (dkcoks.gov/staff-directory/Sheriff's-Office_Detention-Facility) returned 'No Items!' — no jail administrator or detention-facility-head title is published there, consistent with the sheriff being the statutory jailer.
- District Court page names no judges and points to the 8th Judicial District's own site (8thjd.com), which was not opened this session.
- State-layer finding applies: K.S.A. 75-5228, the 1973 Kansas jail inspection statute, was repealed effective 11 April 1996 (its companion 75-5227 followed 1 July 1996), and nothing replaced it; KDOC runs no county-jail inspection program.
- Board of County Commissioners (K.S.A. 19-201). Current commissioners per the county's own site: Kenny Roelofsen (Chairman, 3rd District), Lynn Peterson (Vice-Chairman, 2nd District), Ron Roller (1st District). The board meets every Thursday (work session 9:30 a.m., regular meeting 11:00 a.m.).
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Dickinson 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