The Detention Center
Not found
- Operated byMorris County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address501 W. Main Street, Council Grove, KS 66846 (Sheriff's Office)
- Jail visitationTuesdays & Thursdays, 1:00–3:00 p.m.
- Roster not publishedThe Sheriff's Office 'Agency Data' page asks the public to call the office for jail roster inquiries rather than publishing one online
- Staffing noteThe Sheriff's Office lists a Communications Director/Assistant Jail Administrator and a Dispatch/Jail Supervisor among its positions, alongside a Sheriff, Undersheriff, 7 full-time and 2 part-time deputies
- What was triedhttps://www.morriscountyks.org/sheriffs-office/pages/about (opened); https://www.morriscountyks.org/sheriffs-office/pages/agency-data (opened); https://www.morriscountyks.org/ (opened — found commission and budget-hearing information)
Source: Morris County, KS — Sheriff's Office · 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 Scott Coover
- TitleMorris County Sheriff
- Office address501 West Main St., Council Grove, KS 66846
- Phone620-767-6310
- Fax620-767-5615
- County's own siteMorris County's Sheriff's Office 'About' page does not name the current sheriff; it directs the public to call the office directly
- Statutory jail dutyK.S.A. 19-811 makes the elected sheriff the charge and custody officer of the county jail and all prisoners in it
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Kansas Sheriffs' Association — Morris 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 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.
- 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
- Morris County's own site refers to 'the jail' generically and does not give it a distinct published name; it explicitly tells the public to call the Sheriff's Office for roster inquiries rather than publishing one. No capacity, detention budget, death, PREA, inspection, contract, bond, or fee information appears on the pages examined.
- K.S.A. 75-5228, the 1973 jail inspection statute, was repealed effective 11 April 1996; the companion statute, K.S.A. 75-5227, was repealed effective 1 July 1996. Nothing replaced them, and the Kansas Department of Corrections runs no county-jail inspection program.
- Board of County Commissioners; care and management of county property and business. A 2027 Budget and Revenue Neutral Rate hearing was scheduled for September 8, 2026. Agendas and minutes are posted under a 'Minutes & Agendas' section (PDF archive by date).
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Morris 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