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

The Detention Center

The county publishes no formal name for this facility.

Operated byAtascosa County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameNo — the county page refers to "the jail", "Jail Inmate Visitation" and "Jail Records" but never names the facility.
Address1108 Campbell Avenue, Jourdanton, TX 78026 (Sheriff's Office)
Inmate release times8:00am and 10:00pm daily
Visitation1:00-4:00pm and 5:00-7:00pm; female Tuesday and Saturday, male Thursday and Sunday
State bond fee$15 per surety bond, maximum $30, exact cash or money orders only
What was triedhttps://co.atascosa.tx.us/county-sheriff/ ; https://co.atascosa.tx.us/?s=jail ; https://co.atascosa.tx.us/required-postings/ ; https://co.atascosa.tx.us/budgets/
Beds and population, 2026-08143 people held in 250 rated beds

Source: Atascosa County — 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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Atascosa 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 builtNot found
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
BedsNot found

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Jake Guerra

Title as publishedCounty Sheriff
Address1108 Campbell Avenue, Jourdanton, TX 78026
Phone830-769-3434; front office fax 830-769-2721
Jail nurse fax830-767-2045
Jail records extension#2239; booking / inmate information #2231

Still needed

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

Source: Atascosa County — County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

The County Court at Law judge is published with the title "Statutory County Judge". The 81st and 218th District Courts share one office at 1405 Campbell Ave, Jourdanton.

County Judge

Weldon P. Cude

County Court at Law

Bob Brendel

District Courts

Jennifer Dillingham (81st Judicial District)
Russell Wilson (218th Judicial District)

Justices of the Peace

Felix Herrera III (Pct. 1)
Wayne Vaughn (Pct. 2)
Willie Leal, Jr (Pct. 3)
Russell Prasifka (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

Budget check verified: the FY2026 adopted budget PDF (https://co.atascosa.tx.us/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/ATASCOSA-COUNTY-BUDGET-2026.pdf) contains a "Jail" fund and lines including "SHERIFF - PRISONER CARE".
The Sheriff page publishes a $15 state bond fee (max $30) but no guidance on how to post bond, so 'bond_info' is no.
The page explains that commissary and phone kiosks sit in the Sheriff's Office lobby, but publishes no commissary, phone or video rates.
The 'Required Postings' page says agendas are posted and links to a 'Commissioners Court Agendas' page that in fact carries only a single July 2026 public-information meeting agenda. Minutes are recorded against the Required Postings URL for that reason.
A site search for "jail" on co.atascosa.tx.us returned no results.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Pct. 1 Mark Gillespie, Pct. 2 Mark Bowen, Pct. 3 George "Butch" Pawelek, Pct. 4 Joseph B. Eustace (unexpired term); County Judge Weldon P. Cude.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

5 people have died in the Atascosa County jail since 2018.

1 by suicide

2 illness or medical

5 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them4 of 5

Deaths within the first week of arriving5

Most recent death on the state's record2025-09-10

People held, 2026-08143 in 250 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them78.3%

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 Atascosa 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