The Detention Center
Caldwell County Detention Center
- Operated byCaldwell County Sheriff's Department
- Address280 West Main Street, Kingston, MO 64650 (mail to P.O. Box 38)
- Phone(816) 586-5245 / (816) 586-JAIL
- Year opened2004, published on the county's own Detention Center page
- Beds / rated capacity178 beds on the Detention Center page. The department's home page instead describes housing 'up to a total of 200 inmates'. Both numbers are the county's own and they do not agree; both are recorded rather than choosing between them
- Average daily populationNot found - no population figure is published
- What the facility is for'a pretrial holding facility and house those serving short-term sentences', male and female
- Who it holdsCaldwell County detainees plus, in the county's own words, 'surrounding Agencies and the United States Marshall Services'. No contract document and no per-diem boarding rate is published, so the contracts check does not pass
- StaffApproximately 45 employees
- Commissary and inmate bankingStellar Services, LLC. Deposits online at www.jailatm.com by debit or credit card, at a 24/7 on-site kiosk taking cash, credit or debit, or by money order mailed to Caldwell County Detention Center, Attn: Administration/Finance Office, PO Box 38, Kingston, MO 64650. Questions to Stellar Services at (870) 627-5476. No deposit fee, commissary price or phone rate is published. The commissary page notes that video calls 'are not available for CCDC detainees/inmates from this source'
- Bond / bail guidanceNot found on any page opened - the department links a Bonds page (https://www.caldwellcosdmo.gov/bonds) but it was refused to this agent and was not opened
- What was triedOpened https://www.caldwellcosdmo.gov/ , /detention-center , /sheriff-department and /commissary . The department also links an Inmate Roster (/inmate-roster), Bonds (/bonds), Electronic Visitation (/electronic-visitation), In-Person Visitation (/in-person-visitation), CCDC Administration (/ccdc-administration), CCDC Staff (/ccdc-staff) and Detainee/Inmate Information (/detainee-inmate-information); every one of those was refused to this agent and none was opened, so nothing from them is claimed. The separate county site at caldwellco.missouri.org returned 404 on both the County Officials and Sheriff's Office pages and appears to be gone.
Source: Caldwell County MO Sheriff's Department - Detention Center · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗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 built2004
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds178 on the Detention Center page; the department's home page says 'up to a total of 200 inmates'
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Mitch Allen
- Runs the jailYes - RSMo 221.020 gives the sheriff custody, rule, keeping and charge of the county jail and of all prisoners in it. The Caldwell County Detention Center is run by the Sheriff's Department. Caldwell County is not one of the three Missouri exceptions
- How the office is filledElected county-wide
- Named onThe Sheriff's Message on the department's own home page
- Office address54 N. Franklin Street, PO Box 158, Kingston, MO 64650
- PhonesMain line (816) 586-2681; Detention Center (816) 586-JAIL / (816) 586-5245; crime tips (816) 586-COPS / (816) 586-2677
- Administrative hoursMonday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
- Divisions publishedBailiff, K-9 Division, Road Patrol and the Detention Center
Still needed
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Caldwell County MO Sheriff's Department - home · checked 2026-09-18
The Judges
At circuit level the 1940 Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan applies in only six jurisdictions - Clay, Greene, Jackson, Platte, St. Louis County and the City of St. Louis. Caldwell County is not one of them, so it elects its circuit and associate circuit judges on a partisan ballot; the associate circuit judge normally sets bail at first appearance. No circuit number and no judge could be sourced from a county or court page opened here. Judges are state judicial officers, not county officials.
Missouri Circuit Court - circuit judge
- Not found
Missouri Circuit Court - associate circuit judge (sets bail at first appearance)
- Not found
Still needed
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-18
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
Notes on the record
- Caldwell County is a small county running a 178-bed jail that opened in 2004 and that, by the county's own account, holds people for surrounding agencies and for the United States Marshals Service as well as its own. That is a county whose jail is partly a revenue operation, and the county publishes no contract and no per-diem rate for any of it, so the contracts check fails. The county's two published capacity numbers, 178 beds and 'up to a total of 200 inmates', do not agree with each other; both are recorded.
- The capacity check passes on the bed count. No average daily population is published, so half of what that check asks for is missing.
- The roster check is marked 'no' because no roster page was opened, not because none exists - the department's home page links an Inmate Roster at /inmate-roster, but that page was refused to this agent. Scored conservatively rather than assumed.
- The fees check fails despite a full commissary page. The county names its vendor, Stellar Services LLC, gives three ways to put money on an account and a phone number for questions, and publishes no price for anything - no deposit fee, no commissary price, no inmate phone rate.
- The sheriff's department runs its own domain, caldwellcosdmo.gov, which is first-party. The separate county-government site at caldwellco.missouri.org returned 404 on every page attempted and appears to be gone, which is why nothing on the commission side could be recorded.
- Missouri has no state jail inspection. No Missouri state agency inspects county jails: the Department of Corrections operates and inspects state prisons under RSMo chapter 217, and that authority does not reach chapter 221 county and city jails. The Missouri Sheriffs' Association publishes non-binding jail guidance and runs jail-administrator training, but it is a private association of sheriffs, not a regulator. The only statutory mechanisms are local and lay - a grand jury visit under RSMo 221.300, and a county board of visitors under RSMo 221.320 to 221.350, which RSMo 221.350 requires to report yearly. No such report was found for Caldwell County.
- Missouri has no death-in-custody reporting law and no public dataset. RSMo 58.451(1)(5) requires notice to the coroner of a death believed to have resulted from an injury or illness while in the custody of the law or while an inmate in a public institution. Nothing on the county's own site reports a death in its custody.
- Open records: RSMo 610.023 requires a Sunshine Law request to be acted on no later than the end of the third business day following receipt, with any delay explained and any denial citing the specific statutory exemption in the same window.
- The jail runs on county money - RSMo 221.080 puts jail expense on the county commission, funded from county property and sales taxes, supplemented here by whatever the county is paid to board other agencies' prisoners. Federal money reaches a Missouri county jail only through per-diem boarding, SCAAP and grants.
- County Commission - the ordinary Missouri form, a presiding commissioner and two associate commissioners, and under RSMo 221.080 the body that carries the expense of the jail. No commissioner could be named: the sheriff's department runs its own domain, caldwellcosdmo.gov, and the separate county-government site at caldwellco.missouri.org returned 404 on both its County Officials page and its Sheriff's Office page, so no county board, agenda, minutes or budget page was reachable. No dedicated jail tax or detention sales-tax levy was found.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Caldwell 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 2026-09-18 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered