The Detention Center
The county publishes no formal name for this facility.
- Operated byAustin County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameNo. The only 'jail' in the county's navigation is the Austin County Jail Museum, a historic-site page, not the operating jail.
- Sheriff's Office address417 N. Chesley, Bellville, TX 77418
- Phone979-865-3112
- Custody statusCounty directs the public to VINELink.com
- What was triedhttps://www.austincounty.com/page/austin.Sheriff ; https://austincountyso.org/ ; https://www.austincounty.com/page/austin.Museum ; https://www.austincounty.com/page/austin.County.Auditor.Budget
- Beds and population, 2026-0862 people held in 89 rated beds
Source: Austin 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 found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jack Brandes
- Published on the SO site asSheriff Jack W. Brandes
- Address417 N. Chesley, Bellville, TX 77418
- Phone979-865-3112
- Separate SO sitehttps://austincountyso.org/ — carries press releases only, no jail pages
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Austin County — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
The county's district-court page names the judge and gives his chambers at the Fayette County Courthouse in La Grange but does not state the judicial district number. The County Court at Law of Austin County was established 1 January 1986 under Texas Government Code § 25.0101.
County Judge
- Tim Lapham
County Court at Law
- Daniel W. Leedy
- Elaine Burgess (Associate Judge, IV-D Court)
District Court
- Jeff Steinhauser
Justices of the Peace
- Richard (Rick) Yancey (Pct. 1)
- Wesley Peschel (Pct. 2)
- Clyde E. Drake (Pct. 3)
- Bernice Burger (Pct. 4)
- 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 2024-2025 Adopted Budget PDF contains "Dept: 113 - SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT" and "Dept: 114 - COUNTY JAIL MAINT." with JAIL CAPTAIN, JAIL OVERTIME and JAILER line items.
- Austin County publishes commissioners court minutes, agendas, dates and meeting videos as separate pages, all current to 2026 — among the strongest meeting-record publication in this group.
- The Sheriff's own domain, austincountyso.org, contains nothing but four 2024 press releases; there is no jail, roster, visitation or commissary page anywhere on either county domain.
- The county's 'Austin County Jail Museum' page is a heritage attraction and does not describe the operating jail.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Pct. 1 Greg Mikel, Pct. 2 Robert "Bobby" Rinn, Pct. 3 Leroy Cerny, Pct. 4 Chip Reed; County Judge Tim Lapham.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
2 people have died in the Austin County jail since 2023.
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 Austin 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