Phillips County

The Detention Center

Not found

• Operated byPhillips County Sheriff's Office
• Jail / corrections listingThe county's own department directory explicitly has no separate Jail or Corrections department listing.
• Capacity / budget / roster / fees / PREA / inspections / contracts / bond infoNot published on the county's own Sheriff's Department, Commissioners, Minutes, or Directory pages reviewed this session
• What was triedOpened: https://www.phillipscountyks.org/departments/countysheriffsdepartment , https://www.phillipscountyks.org/directory , https://www.phillipscountyks.org/departments/CountyComissioners , https://www.phillipscountyks.org/departments/CountyComissioners/minutes . The department's stated separate site, phillipscosheriff.com, was not searched or fetched this session.

Source: Phillips County government website — Directory · 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 Phillips 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 Kyle Pinkerton

• Title (county's own site)Sheriff, Phillips County Sheriff's Department
• Runs the jailThe elected sheriff is the statutory jailer under K.S.A. 19-811 and K.S.A. 19-1903.
• Office address (county's own site)301 State St. Suite G, Phillipsburg, KS 67661; phone 785-543-6885, fax 785-543-2289, email phillipscosheriff@gmail.com; hours Monday–Friday 8:00am–5:00pm
• Separate department websiteThe county's own page notes the Sheriff's Department "maintains a separate website at phillipscosheriff.com" — that domain was not opened this session (outside this session's authorized-domain search).

Source: Phillips County government website — County Sheriff's Department page · 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). Phillips County sits in the 17th Judicial District together with Decatur, Graham, Norton, Osborne and Smith counties (per Wikipedia's Kansas District Courts article); the county's own Directory page names Paula Hofaker as Magistrate Judge (Clerk: Lauren Schmidt; 301 State Street Suite E, Phillipsburg, KS 67661; phone 785-543-6830). The 17th 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.

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 →