The Rice County Jail is a small local jail facility.  It serves Rice County, Kansas, and is located in Lyons.   It is a small facility, designed to house up to 85 adult inmates.  The jail operates as a local jail facility, holding both pre-trial detainees and post-trial inmates.  Post-trial inmates may be convicted inmates awaiting sentencing, sentenced inmates awaiting transfer, or inmates scheduled to serve their sentences in the Rice County Jail.

Because it is a local jail facility, the Rice County Jail is constantly accepting new inmates and releasing current inmates.  This makes for a population in constant flux.  If you are planning to visit an inmate or believe an inmate may be located at the facility, you want to check for the most up-to-date information before going to visit the inmate.

One of the issues with local jail facilities is that they hold a wide variety of inmates.  That means that inmates come in for a variety of different crimes and in a variety of different risk levels.  The jail may not know what type of inmate they are handling at intake.  Therefore, the jail may have to work at finding the appropriate classification for some incoming inmates.  Due to this, there may be a time delay between an inmate entering the jail and the inmate being placed in housing, having visitation available, getting phone privileges, and getting access to any jail programming.  If an inmate is determined to be violent, an enhanced flight risk, or any type of danger to the jail staff or the other inmates, then the inmate may be placed in some type of administrative segregation unit.

Like many local jail facilities, the Rice County Jail may allow or require inmates to work in the jail while they are detained.  If so, these inmates often provide work to help the jail operate, such as working in the laundry, in the commissary, or as cooks.  Inmates are also generally responsible for handling the cleaning of their own cells.  Inmates may be paid for their labor, but, if they are paid, it is generally a small amount that is much less than minimum wage outside of the jail setting.

The Rice County Jail is operated by the Rice County Sheriff’s Department.  Their administrative office hours are Monday through Friday, from 8:00am to 4:00pm.  If you have any non-emergency concerns about an inmate at the Rice County Jail, you should contact them during office hours.  However, the jail phone is answered 24/7 for questions about inmates.

The Rice County Sheriff is Bryant Evans.  His email is [email protected].  The Rice County Jail Captain is Tim Weaver.  His email is [email protected].

The Rice County Sheriff’s Office and the Rice County Jail provide services for all people located within the county boundaries, including the residents of Alden, Bushton, Chase, Frederick, Geneseo, Little River, and Raymond.

The Rice County Sheriff’s Office is a full-service law enforcement agency, which has nine commissioned personnel who are graduates of the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center and need to maintain 40 hours of approved law enforcement related continuing education.  In addition, there are a number of non-commissioned personnel.

The Detention Division is under the supervision of both the Sheriff and the Jail Captain.  Their job is to handle the effective, economical, safe, and law operation of the jail and management of jail staff.  The facility is a state-of-the-art. It has several different types of holding cells.  These cells include one female housing pod, four general population pods, specific detoxification/holding cells, male and female work release pods, medical/isolation pods, and two maximum security and segregation units.  The jail is staffed by 12 detention officers.  These detention officers are responsible for handling the day to day operations of the jail.  These operations included, but are not limited to: facility security, booking, property tracking, medication, visitation management, transport operation, and release.

Rice County Jail Addresses

Physical Address

Rice County Jail is located at:

Rice County Jail
1442 West Commercial St.
Lyons, KS 67554-3900

Mailing Address

The mailing address for non-inmate mail is:

Rice County Jail
1442 West Commercial St.
Lyons, KS 67554-3900

Inmate Mailing Address

The mailing address inmate mail is:

Inmate’s Full Name

Rice County Jail
1442 West Commercial St.
Lyons, KS 67554-3900

Inmates at the Rice County Jail have jail privileges.  The can send and receive mail through the United States Postal Service.  Unless you get permission from the jail, do not send mail through private mail services like UPS or FedEx.  The Rice County Jail does not publish its jail mail rules, but almost all jails have very similar mail rules.  Failure to follow the rules can result in an inmate not receiving the mail, so it is very important for you to follow jail mail rules.  In addition, if you break the rules by trying to send any contraband into the jail, you can lose all of your jail mail privileges and you may be subject to criminal prosecution.

It is important to properly address all incoming and outgoing mail.  All mail must have complete addresses for both the addressee and the sender, whether the mail is incoming or outgoing.  A full address includes the first and last name (no nicknames) and the full mailing address.  If the inmate was booked under a different name, you want to send the name as it was in the inmate’s booking documents.  You cannot send third-party mail to or from the mail, so the included mail must be from the person listed in the return address on the envelope.

Inmates can generally receive written correspondence and maybe some photographs, but they cannot receive packages.  If you want to send books, magazines, or other published material to the inmate, you cannot send them directly.  However, you can send them through a publisher or authorized book retailer.  There are general rules you have to follow for these books.  They have to follow the same content guidelines as anything else you send to the jail.  In addition, they need to be new and they need to be softcover.

Jail mail is scrutinized in two ways.  First, it is inspected to make sure that you are not including contraband in the mail.  However, it may also be read for content.  Legal mail may be inspected for contraband, though not usually for content.  Legal mail should be inspected in the inmate’s presence.

Jail mail should be plain.  Jails will generally accept mail that is written in blue or black ink on 8.5 x 11-inch white paper.  Usually it is okay for the paper to be lined or plain, but if you write in a different color ink or use pencil, markers, crayons, or paints in your letter, it may be rejected by the jail.  The letter should also be plain; decorations like stickers and stamps can result in the letter being rejected.  You may be able to send drawings, but check with the jail before sending any type of artwork.  Do not put any foreign substances in or on the letter, including thinks like lipstick, perfume, glitter, paint, or any bodily fluids.

Some jails allow inmates to receive greeting cards, but check with the facility prior to sending a greeting card.  If you can send a greeting card, you must send a plain greeting card that does not have plastic, metal, wood, moving parts, electric parts, or musical parts.  The cards should not be plastic or laminated.

Some jails allow inmates to receive photos.  There may be a limit on the number of photos an inmate can receive at a time or on the total number of photos an inmate can have in his or her cell or both.  You may also be limited to sending photos of certain sizes, and photos may need to be professionally processed.  Sending Polaroid and Polaroid-type photos is generally prohibited because of the removable backing on those types of photos.

You cannot send mail with prohibited content to an inmate.  Generally, prohibited content refers to any type of content that could cause a disturbance at the jail facility.  This type of content includes, but is not limited to: violent content, pornographic content, nudity (even children), sexually explicit content, any gang-related material, racist material, material that is prejudiced towards members of a religion, and any type of material that could be used to help plan an escape.

You cannot send contraband to an inmate.  Contraband may be defined by state law, and attempting to send it to an inmate can result in you facing prosecution as well as the termination of your mail privileges.  Items that are generally considered contraband include: weapons and things that can be used to make weapons, cigarettes, tobacco-containing products, e-cigarettes, alcohol, illegal drugs, over-the-counter drugs, prescription drugs, drinks, and food.  Other items that may be contraband include cell phones and other small electronics.

Phone Number

The Rice County Jail’s main phone number is 620-257-7877.  The detention center fax number is 620-257-7886.  The Rice County Sheriff’s Office Admin/ Records number is 620-257-7876.  The Sheriff’s Office fax number is 620-257-2221.  The Rice County Sheriff’s Office number for communications is 620-257-2363.

Rice County Jail Roster

The Rice County Jail does not maintain an online inmate roster, though there may be private services that allow you to search online for inmates in the Rice County Jail.  To find out if someone is incarcerated at the Rice County Jail, you contact the jail at its inmate information line 620-257-7877.

Recent Arrests

Rice County Jail does not have a recent arrests/ booking list.  If you want to find out if someone has been recently arrested, you can contact the Rice County Jail’s information line at 620-257-7877.

Mugshots

There is no mugshot/ booking photo for the Rice County Jail.

Jail Visitation

Inmates at the Rice County Jail are permitted visitors.  Inmates are allowed two visits per day.  Visits are non-contact, but they are in-person visits, not video visits.  These visits are conducted through a glass partition; you are not in the same room as the inmate.  You will be unable to touch the inmate and you cannot give anything to the inmate or receive anything from the inmate at your visitation.  You may be able to arrange video visitation for distance visits.  To find out if video visitation is available for your inmate, you can contact the jail’s information line at 620-257-7877.  You can also contact them to find out if they have added weekend visitation hours, as they had no weekend visitation hours at the time of posting.

The visitation hours at the Rice County Jail are on Monday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm; on Tuesday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm; on Wednesday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm; on Thursday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm; and on Friday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm.  Currently, there are no visitation hours listed for either Saturday or Sunday, but that is subject to change, so contact the jail if you want to find out if you can now schedule weekend visitation.

When you come for visitation, be prepared to follow the rules established by the Rice County Jail for visitors.  Visitors are usually restricted in the items that they can bring to visitation; expect electronic devices to be banned, as well as food and drinks.  The jail may make exceptions for baby formula/ baby food, so contact the jail before visitation to find out whether any special rules will apply to your visit.

Children can visit inmates at the Rice County Jail, but they must be accompanied by adults who have a right to bring them to visitation.  Acceptable adults include parents, guardians, and designees.  You may be required to show paperwork to establish that you have a right to bring minor visitors to visitation. Children must be monitored at all times and cannot be left unsupervised in the jail lobby or the parking lot.  Children who become unruly may be cause for terminating a visit.

Visitors need to wear respectful, modest clothing when visiting the jail facility.  While Rice County Jail does not publish an online visitation dress code, the following items are generally prohibited when visiting a jail facility: low-cut/ cleavage revealing shirts, spaghetti straps, tank tops, tube tops, short-shorts, mini-skirts, sheer or see-through clothing, mesh clothing, gang-affiliated clothing, clothing with lewd or violent imagery, clothing with profanity, and midriff-baring clothing.  In addition, all visitors must wear shirts, appropriate undergarments, and shoes.

Inmate Phone Privileges

Jail inmates cannot receive incoming phone calls, but can place outgoing phone calls.  All of those phone calls are collect calls, unless the inmate has established a telephone calling account.  The Rice County Jail uses Securus Technologies to provide phone services for inmates.

You can visit them online at https://securustech.net/, call them at 800-844-6591, or download their mobile app at the Apple Store or Google Play store to put money into an inmate’s phone account.

If you have an emergency message, you can contact the jail and relay it to the jailer on duty.  The jailer may choose, at his or her discretion, to relay the message to the inmate and ask the inmate to call you.  However, you may be asked to provide proof of an emergency.

Inmate Trust Accounts / Commissary

Rice County Jail does not use a third party service provider for its commissary/ canteen services.  To inquire about how to put money on an inmate’s trust account, we advise contacting the facility at 620-257-7877.

Bail Information

The Rice County Jail is located in the Rice County Law Enforcement Center, a complex that also contains the Rice County Courthouse.  You can make arrangements to pay bail at the jail or at the court that sets the bail, depending on whether you are paying bail during normal office hours.  In Kansas, there are two main types of bail.  The first is a cash bond.  When you pay bail via a cash bond, you pay the full amount of the bail and the entire amount is refundable to you, as long as the defendant satisfies all of the conditions of his or her release, such as attending all hearings and complying with all terms of release.  However, if you cannot or do not want to pay the full amount of cash bond, you can also secure the services of a surety.  A surety does not pay the full amount of the bond, but, instead, promises the court that a defendant will appear at all scheduled pre-trial hearings and comply with all terms of bail.  If the defendant fails to do so, the surety then owes the entire amount of the bond to the court.  Sureties charge a fee for their services; usually the fee is a percentage of the bond.  This fee represents a private transaction between you and the surety and is non-refundable.

Conclusion

The Rice County Jail in Lyons, Kansas is a small local jail facility that primarily holds pre-trial male and female detainees in Rice County.  As a small jail, it does not have many of its services online, so you may need to call the jail at 620-257-7877 to inquire about inmates, visitation, and placing money on an inmate’s commissary account.