The Detention Center
Kay County Detention Facility
- Operated byKay County Sheriff's Office; the facility is tied to the Kay County Justice Facilities Authority, a county public trust that holds its own posted meetings
- Name as the county writes it'Kay County Detention Facility' (sheriff's office contact block and county staff directory)
- Detention facility phone580-362-3393
- Address1101 W Dry Road, Newkirk, OK 74647 (shared with the Sheriff's Office)
- OpenedDecember 2010 - county page: 'The Kay County Sheriff's Department / Kay County Detention facility was built and opened for service in December of 2010'
- Public trustKay County Justice Facilities Authority is listed among the county's Boards & Commissions and posts agendas and minutes
- Sheriff's office staffing30 employees; 20 sworn deputies, 2 clerical/records/budget, 6 emergency communications/dispatch, 3 reserve certified deputies
Source: Kay County — official source · checked August 21, 2026
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 built2010 - 'built and opened for service in December of 2010' per the county's Sheriff page
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsNot found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Steve Kelley
- NoteWritten by the county as 'Sheriff Steve Kelley'. The county's own page states 'Sheriff Kelley was elected as the Sheriff of Kay County in 2017' and that he has been with the Kay County Sheriff's Office since April 2003.
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Kay County Sheriff's Office · checked August 21, 2026
The Judges
Oklahoma elects its district judges in nonpartisan elections. District and associate district judges set bond and decide who waits in this jail.
District Court, Judicial District 8
- District Judge Lee Turner (Kay County; serves the whole 8th District)
- Associate District Judge David Bandy (Kay County)
- Special Judge Thomas Griesedieck (Kay County)
- Special Judge David Wilkie (Kay County)
Kay County Courthouse, PO Box 251, Newkirk, OK 74647 (Court Clerk Marilee Thornton, P.O. Box 428, Newkirk, OK 74647)
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked August 21, 2026
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
- PUBLIC TRUST / AUTHORITY: the Kay County Justice Facilities Authority is a county public trust connected to the detention facility. It is listed under the county's Boards & Commissions and has its own agenda and minutes category in the county Agenda Center.
- NAME SPELLED INCONSISTENTLY ACROSS OFFICIAL SOURCES: the county writes 'Kay County Detention Facility' (staff directory and Sheriff's Office contact block) and 'Kay County Detention facility' (Sheriff page prose), while the Oklahoma State Auditor & Inspector titles its investigative report 'Kay Coun…
- State Auditor investigative audit released April 29, 2016 covering Aug. 16, 2010 - Dec. 31, 2015, requested by District 8 District Attorney Brian Hermanson over allegations of missing inmate funds.
- The county names the facility and gives its opening date and phone, but publishes no roster, capacity, budget, death, PREA, inspection, contract, bond or fee information for it.
- OSDH jail inspection reports are published only inside a JavaScript-gated Box folder linked from ; the listing could not be enumerated without a browser.
- OSCN's web court directories are behind a Cloudflare CAPTCHA; court data comes from the Oklahoma Supreme Court's 2026 Judicial Directory PDF on oscn.net.
- Best agenda/minutes coverage in this group.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Kay 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.
- Find your polling place — OK Voter Portal →
- Your county election board →
- Register to vote in Oklahoma →
The county election board runs the polling place in Kay County and prints the ballot the sheriff’s name is on. Links from the Oklahoma State Election Board and vote.gov.
Names verified August 21, 2026 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered