The Detention Center
Knox County Jail
- Operated byKnox County Sheriff's Office
- Address206 Main St, Center, NE 68724 (Sheriff's Office address)
- What was triedhttps://knoxcountyne.gov/county-sheriff/ — no capacity, budget, roster, fee, or PREA detail published there
Source: Knox County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-25
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✓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 — 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 builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Don Henery
- Runs the jailYes — the county's own page states "Knox County operates its own jail facility" and the Sheriff has "charge and custody of the jail and its prisoners"
- How the office is filledElected on a partisan ballot to a four-year term (Neb. Rev. Stat. 32-520)
- Department staffingChief Deputy Sheriff, 3 full-time deputies, 2 part-time deputies, 2 bailiffs, and a 911 coordinator, per the county's own page
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Knox County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-25
The Judges
Nebraska judges are state judicial officers, not county officials, chosen by merit selection: the Governor appoints from a judicial nominating commission's list, then the judge faces a retention election. The county court judge sets bail at first appearance. Specific current judges for Knox County's district were not located within the search budget for this group.
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-25
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
- The county's own domain redirects: co.knox.ne.us now forwards to knoxcountyne.gov.
- Board of Supervisors. A county board minutes document is headed "PROCEEDINGS OF THE KNOX COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS," and Knox is on the Nebraska Blue Book's 2008 list of 27 township-organization counties governed by a seven-member Board of Supervisors, consistent with the county's own record. The minutes document located dates to 2016; a more current board document was not located within the search budget.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Knox 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 2026-08-25 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered