Ellsworth County

The Detention Center

Ellsworth County Jail

• Operated byEllsworth County Sheriff's Office
• BuiltFinished in 1981 with a bed capacity of 12 plus a detox cell
• Capacity6 metal bunks were later added, bringing total capacity to 19 beds
• Average populationThe Sheriff's Office states the jail averages 14 inmates in custody per day
• What was triedellsworthcounty.org's Sheriff's Office page is the only page on the county's own site with jail content; no roster, PREA policy, bond guidance, fee schedule, budget line, death record, inspection result, or inter-agency housing contract was found there or on the County Commissioners page, whose visible links (minutes, resolutions, budget documents) did not surface a detention line item

Source: Ellsworth County, KS — Sheriff's Office · 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 Ellsworth 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 built1981
• Original costNot found
• Paid for byNot found
• Beds19 (original 12 plus a detox cell, plus 6 later-added metal bunks)

The Sheriff

Sheriff Kenny Bernard

• Runs the jailYes — elected sheriff under K.S.A. 19-811 and 19-1903; Ellsworth is not the Riley County exception
• Office212 N Kansas Ave, Ellsworth, KS 67439; phone 785-472-4416, fax 785-472-5687
• Coverage areaDeputies cover about 720 square miles including I-70, K-156, K-14, K-4 and K-140, plus the state/federal ground around Kanopolis Lake, and assist 4 small communities and the City of Ellsworth Police Department

Source: Ellsworth County, KS — Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-17

The Judges

Kansas decides judicial selection district by district: Kan. Const. Art. 3 §6 makes partisan election of district judges the default, and a judicial district's voters may adopt (or later reject) nonpartisan merit selection under K.S.A. 20-2901; district magistrate judges are elected county by county under K.S.A. 20-336 unless the district uses merit selection, and in most rural counties the magistrate sets bail at first appearance (K.S.A. 20-302b). Ellsworth County's own site names its District Court judges and magistrate but does not give the judicial district number or say which selection method the district uses; that was not independently established this session (kscourts.gov, the authoritative source, is documented elsewhere in this project as returning HTTP 403 to automated fetches, and no search budget remained to try again). 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 →