Angelina County, Texas — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Angelina County Jail

Operated byAngelina County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameYes — the county uses two names on the same page: "Angelina County Detention Center" and "Angelina County Jail".
Address2311 E. Lufkin Ave., Lufkin, TX 75901
Jail main phone936-634-2724
Book-in936-639-8724
Opened2003 ("Built and opened in 2003")
Maximum inmates279
Phone vendorNCIC Inmate Communications
Beds and population, 2026-08410 people held in 506 rated beds

Source: Angelina County — Jail Information · checked 2026-08-22

Transparency rating

4/10Partial

✓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 — 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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Angelina County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-22. 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 built2003 ("Built and opened in 2003")
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds279 maximum

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Tom Selman

Chief DeputiesMark McLin; James Nowak
CaptainQuintin McClure
Jail WardenZach Taylor
Assistant WardenScott Riddley
Phone936-634-3331
Mailing addressP.O. Box 114, Lufkin, Texas 75902

Still needed

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

Source: Angelina County — Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

The county's JP Precinct 2 and Precinct 4 pages list office hours, staff and clerks but never name the sitting judge; the county phone directory lists the precincts by number only. Those two names could not be sourced from the county.

County Judge

Keith Wright

County Court at Law No. 1

Joe Lee Register

County Court at Law No. 2

Jimmy A. Cassels

District Court — 159th

Todd Kassaw

District Court — 217th

Kristi C. Skillern

Justices of the Peace

Wes Suiter (Pct. 1)
Not found (Pct. 2)
Pat Grimes Grubbs (Pct. 3)
Not found (Pct. 4)

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 2026-08-22

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

Best-documented jail in this group. The Jail Information page publishes a full NCIC rate table: local, intralata, interlata and interstate calls $0.16/min with $0.00 connection fee; Mexico $0.25/min; international $0.35/min; remote video visitation $0.30; secure inmate messaging $0.25 per message plus $0.35 per attachment; mail scanning and law library billed at $0.00 to family.
The published maximum is 279 inmates, but the county's own jail roster read "Total Inmates: 422" when checked on 22 August 2026 — the roster count exceeds the stated maximum, which the county does not explain.
No adopted or proposed county budget document is published on angelinacounty.net; a site search for "budget" returns only meeting notices for the appraisal district, CSCD and Workforce Solutions.
The county runs a Bail Bond Board page listing licensed bond companies, but publishes no instructions on how to post bond, so 'bond_info' is no.
Site searches for "prea", "death in custody" and "inspection" returned nothing.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Pct. 1 Tim Sprinkle, Pct. 2 Kermit Kennedy, Pct. 3 Tom Berry, Pct. 4 Kenneth Jeffrey; County Judge Keith Wright.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

9 people have died in the Angelina County jail since 2016.

0 by suicide

6 illness or medical

9 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them7 of 9

Deaths within the first week of arriving4

Most recent death on the state's record2025-11-06

People held, 2026-08410 in 506 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them83.7%

Deaths: Texas Justice Initiative, the cleaned copy of the Texas Attorney General’s custodial death reports — the state’s own public index carries no cause of death and has not been refreshed since August 2025. Population: Texas Commission on Jail Standards monthly report. Counted, not estimated.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Angelina 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 2026-08-22 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered