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

The Detention Center

Bandera County Jail Facility

Operated byBandera County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameYes — but only inside a PDF. The Inmate Mail procedures PDF says the change was made "to keep contraband out of the Bandera County Jail Facility". The Sheriff web page lists only a "Jail" phone number.
Address3360 State Hwy. 173 North, Bandera, Texas 78003
Jail phone830-796-7759
Inmate mailScanned off-site; mail must be sent to PO Box 591, Longview, Texas 75606, max 5 pages, no photos
What was triedhttps://www.banderacounty.gov/page/sheriff ; https://www.banderacounty.gov/upload/page/0077/Mail Procedures for Bandera County 2024.pdf ; https://www.banderacounty.gov/page/open/972/0/SHERIFFS%20FEES%202023-2024.pdf ; https://www.banderacounty.gov/page/auditor.budgets
Beds and population, 2026-0854 people held in 96 rated beds

Source: Bandera County — Inmate Mail procedures (PDF) · checked 2026-08-22

Transparency rating

2/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✗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 Bandera 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 Joshua Teitge

Published asHonorable Joshua Teitge
Address3360 State Hwy. 173 North, P.O. Box 607, Bandera, Texas 78003
Dispatch (24/7)830-796-3771
Administrative office830-796-4323
Jail830-796-7759

Still needed

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

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

The Judges

Bandera County's own site never names its district judge — the District Clerk page identifies the court as the 198th and names only the clerk, Tammy Kneuper. The 198th Judicial District covers Bandera and Kerr counties; the judge's name was taken from Kerr County's official site. Bandera publishes no County Court at Law.

County Judge

Richard Evans

District Court — 198th

M. Patrick Maguire

Justices of the Peace

Mike Towers (Pct. 1)
Gina Grothues (Pct. 2)
Randall J. Boysen (Pct. 3)
Nell Hardin (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 FY 25-26 Adopted Budget PDF contains a "62-Jail/Jstc Debt Svc" fund and multiple Sheriff department lines. The existence of a jail and justice-centre debt service fund indicates borrowing for the facility, but the county publishes no year built, cost or bed count.
The county publishes a Sheriff's Fees schedule (service of process, writs, execution commissions) but no jail phone, video-visit or commissary rates, so 'fees' is no.
Commissioners court agendas and official minutes are published together at cc.agendas back to at least 2023.
The county publishes no in-custody roster; the Sheriff page's only inmate-lookup link goes to the Texas Attorney General's SAVNS/VINE grant page rather than a roster.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Pct. 1 Troy Konvicka, Pct. 2 Robert A. Harris, Pct. 3 Jack Moseley, Pct. 4 Jordan "Jody" Rutherford; County Judge Richard Evans.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

1 people have died in the Bandera County jail since 2018.

0 by suicide

0 illness or medical

1 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them1 of 1

Deaths within the first week of arriving1

Most recent death on the state's record2018-05-09

People held, 2026-0854 in 96 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them74.1%

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 Bandera 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