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# McPherson County Jail runs over capacity, sending overflow inmates to Rice and Marion counties
- URL: https://www.citizenjournal.us/mcpherson-county-jail-runs-over-capacity-sending-overflow-inmates-to-rice-and-marion-counties/
- Published: 2026-08-18T12:11:30.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-18T12:11:30.000Z
- Description: Commissioners took no vote on the report and discussed no long-term fix
- Author: Greg Loving
- Tags: mcj, dnn, #news

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The McPherson County Jail was holding 59 inmates in a 54-bed facility as of Monday, Aug. 17, with overflow sent to Rice County at $15,000 a month and to Marion County under a no-cost swap.

Inmates went to Rice County on Friday, Aug. 14\. At that monthly rate, the arrangement would cost about $180,000 a year, a Citizen Journal calculation the county did not present. One inmate was housed at Marion County at the time of the report.

A McPherson County Sheriff's Office staff member reported the figures to commissioners during the public input portion of the meeting, in the sheriff's absence. Of the 59 inmates, 52 were men and seven were women; 56 were held for the district court and three for other agencies; and one was a juvenile.

The staff member cited safety and staffing pressures as reasons for sending inmates out of the county. Citizen Journal reported March 24 that the jail had reached maximum capacity.

*This article was written using our proprietary AI system, Cronkite. The final decision to publish this article was made by a human. For more info, read our* [*AI policy*](https://www.citizenjournal.us/ai-policy/)*.*

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