Rooks County

The Detention Center

Not distinctly named (operated as the Rooks County Sheriff's Office jail)

• Operated byRooks County Sheriff's Office
• Address803 S. Elm Street, Stockton, KS 67669
• Inmate rosterPublished live on the Sheriff's Office's own site: as of this session it listed 15 inmates, each with name, specific Kansas statute charges, bond amount (ranging from $0 to $750,000), booking date/time, age, sex, race, booking number, arresting agency, and photograph
• VisitationWednesdays 7:00–9:00 p.m. and Sundays 1:00–5:00 p.m.; visits require 24-hour advance scheduling, 20 minutes per inmate, limited to two visitors per week per inmate
• Not published on the pages examinedCapacity/bed count, bond-posting procedure, phone/commissary/visitation fees, PREA policy, inspection records, deaths in custody, out-of-county contracts, budget, or construction date
• What was triedThe State of Kansas county-list portal (portal.kansas.gov) gives rookscounty.net as Rooks County's official site, but that domain is in fact the Rooks County Economic Development site — tourism and business recruitment only, with no Sheriff, jail, or commissioner content — a second instance, beyond the Wallace/Washington and Jackson/Jefferson mix-ups already documented for this portal, of its county-URL list being wrong. The real Rooks County government site, rookscountyks.gov, was located via a general web search and opened successfully (homepage, staff directory, contact page). A separate official Sheriff's Office site, rookscountysheriff.com, was also located via that search and opened successfully, including its dedicated Jail and Jail Roster pages.

Source: Rooks County Sheriff's Office — Jail Roster · checked 2026-09-17

• ✓The jail is named
• ✓Who is in custody
• ✗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 Rooks 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 Gary Knight

• TitleRooks County Sheriff
• Confirmed on the county's own siteGary Knight is listed as Sheriff in the Rooks County government staff directory, alongside Undersheriff Chad Sterling, Lieutenant Collin Hockett, and jail staff Chevy Bouchey, Mary Collins, Nicholas Hawkins, and Donna Speake (Correction Officers) and Neva Byfield (Food Service)
• Office address803 S. Elm Street, Stockton, KS 67669 (per the Sheriff's Office's own site); PO Box 193, Stockton, KS 67669 (per the Kansas Sheriffs' Association profile)
• Office phone(785) 425-6312; fax 785-425-6853
• Runs the jailYes, under K.S.A. 19-811 — confirmed by the Sheriff's Office's own site, which names Correction Officers among its staff and publishes a dedicated jail page and inmate roster

Source: Rooks County, KS — official government staff directory · 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). This county sits in the 23rd Judicial District together with Ellis, Gove, and Trego counties (per Wikipedia's Kansas District Courts article). Which selection method the 23rd District actually uses, and who currently holds the bench, was not established on the county's own site this session. The 23rd 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 →