The Detention Center
Washington County Jail
- Operated byWashington County Sheriff's Office
- Address301 B Street, Washington, KS 66968
- VisitationThursday through Sunday, by appointment only, 2–4 pm; inmates get two 30-minute visits or one 1-hour visit weekly; 24 hours advance notice required
- Phone / commissary / video visitationPhone accounts run through the Encartele system; money can be deposited in cash at the jail or by mailed money order; messaging and video visits run through a 'Cidney Kiosk' system — the page names the vendors and systems but does not publish specific rate figures
- PREAThe page states a PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act) audit report is available on the county's website
- Not published on this pageBed capacity, annual budget, staff roster, in-custody deaths, independent inspection results, and contracts to house other agencies' prisoners
Source: Washington County, Kansas — official website, Jail Information · checked 2026-09-17
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗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
- ✗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 Justin Cordry
- TitleWashington County Sheriff
- Office address301 B. St., Washington, KS 66968
- Phone / fax785-325-2293 / 785-325-2924
- Statutory jailerK.S.A. 19-811 makes the elected sheriff charge and custody of the county jail and all prisoners in it; the Kansas Sheriffs' Association profile lists no separate jail administrator for Washington County
- Confirmed on the county's own sitehttps://washingtoncountyks.gov/county-departments/sheriff/ names Justin Cordry as sheriff, consistent with the Kansas Sheriffs' Association profile
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Washington County, Kansas — official website · 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 12th 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.
12th Judicial District — District Court
- Not found
- 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
- Scored against washingtoncountyks.gov, Washington County's own official site, opened this session (Sheriff page, Jail Information page, Board of Commissioners page). The county names its jail and states a PREA audit report is available on its own site; it does not publish bed capacity, budget, roster, deaths, independent inspection results, contract/boarding rates, bail guidance, or specific fee figures on the pages examined.
- The Kansas Sheriffs' Association is a private association, not the county publishing on its own site, so its profile page cannot satisfy a transparency check regardless of what it discloses. portal.kansas.gov is a state directory and likewise cannot satisfy a transparency check.
- State-layer finding: K.S.A. 75-5228, the 1973 Kansas jail inspection statute, was repealed effective April 11, 1996; its companion 75-5227 followed July 1, 1996. Nothing replaced it. The Kansas Department of Corrections runs no county-jail inspection program.
- Scott Zabokrtsky (District 1, 414 South Hanover St, Hanover, KS), Arthur Schottel (District 2, 301 West 5th, Washington, KS), and Raleigh Ordoyne (District 3, 1033 Arrowhead Rd, Clyde, KS). The board meets 8:15 a.m. every Monday (except county holidays) at the Washington County Courthouse, 214 C Street, Washington, KS.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Washington 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