Kings County, New York — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

New York City jail system (Department of Correction facilities serving all five boroughs)

Operated byNew York City Department of Correction
Facilities named by the cityEric M. Taylor Center, George R. Vierno Center, Otis Bantum Correctional Center, Robert N. Davoren Center, Rose M. Singer Center and the West Facility, all on Hazen Street, East Elmhurst
Hospital unitsBellevue Hospital Prison Ward and Elmhurst Hospital Prison Ward
Outposted unitsBellevue Hospital Outposted Therapeutic Housing Units, 462 1st Ave, opened 2026
Published capacityRose M. Singer Center described as an 800-bed facility
Who is heldPeople ordered held by the courts awaiting trial, and people sentenced to a year or less
Headquarters75-20 Astoria Boulevard South, Queens, NY 11370

Source: New York City Department of Correction — Facilities · checked 2026-09-20

Transparency rating

5/10Partial

✓The jail is named
✓Who is in custody
✓Beds and daily population
✗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
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Kings County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-20. 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
BedsRose M. Singer Center published as 800 beds; no system-wide figure published on the pages opened

Since then

City borough-based jails plan referenced from the DOC facilities page

The Sheriff

Not found

Runs the jailNo — Kings County (Brooklyn) has no sheriff-run county jail; the New York City Department of Correction runs the jails serving all five boroughs
New York City SheriffNew York City has an elected Sheriff who is a city officer under the Department of Finance and does not run the jails
How the office is filledNot applicable — no county sheriff for the five New York City counties

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: New York City Department of Correction — About · checked 2026-09-20

The Judges

New York's county and supreme court justices are state judicial officers, not county officials; city, town and village justices also set bail for people arrested in their areas.

Kings County Circuit Court

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 2026-09-20

The County Legislature or Board of Supervisors

They pay for the jail. In most counties the sheriff runs it.

What they controlThe jail budget, the building itself, and the agreements that rent its beds to other agencies. Several counties also have an elected County Executive. In Westchester a county Department of Correction runs the jail rather than the sheriff.
What they don'tDay-to-day operations, and state oversight. The sheriff is separately elected and keeps the jail in most counties (NY Correction Law art. 20), while the State Commission of Correction sets the standards, inspects the facility and investigates every death in custody. The five New York City counties have no county sheriff jail at all — the city Department of Correction runs them.
NoteKings County is the New York City borough of Brooklyn; it has no county legislature of its own and is governed through New York City government.
The boardNew York City Council
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

Kings County is the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It has no county sheriff and no sheriff-run county jail; the New York City Department of Correction runs the jails that serve all five boroughs.
As the brief directs, the ten checks were judged on the New York City Department of Correction's own site at nyc.gov/site/doc, which is the first-party publisher for the five New York City counties.
Person-in-custody lookup is published by DOC and gives the current location of a person in custody with basic case information.
PREA: DOC posts 2025 PREA audit final reports for the West Facility and Rose M. Singer Center, plus annual sexual abuse allegations and incidents reports.
Bail: DOC publishes in-person bail posting guidance, naming five payment locations and accepted payment types.
Fees: the send-money page states that money transfer agents charge a fee that varies and that there is no fee at a DOC cashier's window, but no rate is published, so fees is 'no'.
No deaths-in-custody page, inspection report copy, contract or agency budget document was found on the DOC pages opened.
No page opened on the DOC site states a county seat for the borough, so seat_source is left empty.
What was tried: https://www.nyc.gov/site/correction/index.page and https://www.nyc.gov/site/doc/about/reports.page both 404; the live DOC site is nyc.gov/site/doc.
No searches were spent on this county.
State inspection/oversight: New York's State Commission of Correction oversees every local correctional facility in the state, sets the minimum standards they must meet, inspects them, and investigates every death in custody.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Kings 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 legislators who pay for it.

Names verified 2026-09-20 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered