The Detention Center
The county publishes no formal name for this facility.
- Operated byNone — Armstrong County operates no jail
- County publishes a jail nameNo — because there is no county jail. The Sheriff page states: "All Armstrong County inmates are currently housed in the Carson County Jail".
- Where Armstrong prisoners are heldCarson County Jail
- Contact for inmate information(806) 537-3511 (Carson County)
- Custody statusCounty directs the public to VINELink.com
- What was triedhttps://www.co.armstrong.tx.us/page/armstrong.Sheriff ; https://www.co.armstrong.tx.us/ ; https://www.co.armstrong.tx.us/page/armstrong.Budgets
Source: Armstrong County — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗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 builtNot applicable — no county jail
- Original costNot applicable — no county jail
- Paid for byNot applicable — no county jail
- BedsNot applicable — no county jail
Since then
- Not applicable — no county jail
The Sheriff
Sheriff Melissa Anderson
- Title as publishedArmstrong County Sheriff
- Office locationArmstrong County Courthouse, 2nd Floor
- Mailing addressP.O. Box 531, Claude, TX 79019
- Phone(806) 553-6933; fax (806) 553-2998
- Emailsheriffanderson@co.armstrong.tx.us
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Armstrong County — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
One county-wide Justice of the Peace. No County Court at Law. The 47th District Court sits in Amarillo (Potter County) and covers Armstrong.
County Judge
- Adam Ensey
District Court — 47th
- Dee Johnson
Justice of the Peace
- Jana Lemons
- 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
- Armstrong County has no jail of its own. Its prisoners are held in the Carson County Jail, which the county states plainly on the Sheriff page. Nine of the ten checks are therefore 'no' for the structural reason that there is no facility, not because the county is hiding one.
- The county publishes the fact of the Carson County arrangement but no contract and no per-diem rate, so 'contracts' is no.
- Adopted budgets are published back to FY2019 on the Budgets page, including a separate FY26 order adopting SB 8 Sheriff Immigration Law Enforcement Grant funds.
- The Commissioners Court page carries agendas, minutes and department reports month by month, so board and minutes are the same URL.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Pct. 1 Tim Bagwell, Pct. 2 Clint Cornell, Pct. 3 Ned Dorsey, Pct. 4 Joe Neely; County Judge Adam Ensey. The county publishes term end dates alongside each name.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Armstrong 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