Pottawatomie County

The Detention Center

Not found

• Operated byPottawatomie County Sheriff's Office
• Jail capacityNot published on the Kansas Sheriffs' Association profile page for this county
• Sheriff's Office listing (county's own site)The county's own Departments index (https://www.pottcounty.org/131/Departments) lists "Sheriff's Office" as item 16 of 17 departments, with no description, capacity, or jail-specific content attached to the listing.
• What was triedOpened successfully but without jail-relevant content: https://www.pottcounty.org/ (home page) and https://www.pottcounty.org/131/Departments . Repeatedly blocked this session (robots.txt fetch failures): https://www.pottcounty.org/385/Sheriff , https://www.pottcounty.org/148/Board-of-County-Commissioners , https://www.pottcounty.org/269/Contact , https://www.pottcounty.org/AgendaCenter .
• Retry session (2026-09-17)Re-opened https://www.pottcounty.org/ (home page) and https://www.pottcounty.org/131/Departments successfully — the Departments page lists all 17 county departments including "Sheriff's Office" with no further detail. The Sheriff QuickLinks page (/QuickLinks.aspx?CID=42), the Commissioners staff directory (/Directory.aspx?DID=7), the Sheriff page (/385/Sheriff), and the Board of County Commissioners page (/148/Board-of-County-Commissioners) were all retried and all failed again this session with robots.txt fetch errors. No jail name, capacity, budget, roster, PREA, inspection, contract, bond, or fee information was found on the pages that did load.

Source: Kansas Sheriffs' Association — county profile · 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 Pottawatomie 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 Doug Adams

• Title (KSA profile)Pottawatomie County Sheriff
• Runs the jailThe elected sheriff is the statutory jailer under K.S.A. 19-811 and K.S.A. 19-1903.
• Office contact (KSA profile)PO Box 250, Westmoreland, KS 66549; phone 785-457-3353, fax 785-457-2120
• StaffingNot published on the Kansas Sheriffs' Association profile page for this county

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). Pottawatomie County sits in the 2nd Judicial District together with Jackson, Jefferson and Wabaunsee counties (per Wikipedia's Kansas District Courts article). The 2nd 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.

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