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

The Detention Center

Bell County Jail

Operated byBell County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameYes — 'BELL COUNTY JAIL' on its own Jail Information page
Front desk(254) 933-5402
Booking / Intake / Classification(254) 933-5450
Inmate mailSmart Communications, PO Box 9146, Seminole, FL 33775-9146 (effective 20 June 2022)
Beds and population, 2026-081,217 people held in 1,955 rated beds

Source: Bell County Jail Information · checked 2026-08-22

Transparency rating

3/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✓Who is in custody
✗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 Bell 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
Beds1,955 rated capacity (TCJS population report, 1 Aug 2026)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Bill Cooke

OfficeBell County Sheriff's Office
Phone254-933-5400
Took office1/02/25 per the county's elected officials table

Still needed

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

Source: Bell County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

District courts are the 27th, 146th, 169th, 264th, 426th and 478th; JP precincts 3 and 4 each have two places.

County Judge

David Blackburn

County Courts at Law

Paul Motz
John Mischtian
Rebecca DePew

District Courts

Debbie Garrett
Mike Russell
Cari L. Starritt-Burnett
Paul L. LePak
Steve Duskie
Wade Faulkner

Justices of the Peace

Theodore R Duffield
Cliff Coleman
Rosanne Fisher
Larry Wilkey
Gregory Johnson
Nicola James

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

Commissioners: Russell Schneider (Pct 1), Bobby Whitson (Pct 2), Greg Reynolds (Pct 3), Louie Minor (Pct 4).
Roster: the jail page links an inmate list 'updated hourly' on the county's own nwweb.bellcounty.texas.gov host.
Budget: the FY2025-2026 approved budget carries departments 'Law Enforcement Center (Jail)' and 'Law Enforcement Center (Sheriff)'.
prea marked no: the county posts a one-page PREA explainer and zero-tolerance statement (county_government/sheriff/docs/PREA.pdf), not an audit result.
bond_info marked no: the county posts a 2026 bail bond company list PDF but no instructions on how to post a bond. fees marked no: deposits route to accesscorrections.com with no rates shown.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

19 people have died in the Bell County jail since 2016.

4 by suicide

7 illness or medical

19 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them16 of 19

Deaths within the first week of arriving7

Most recent death on the state's record2025-12-28

People held, 2026-081,217 in 1,955 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them75.5%

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 Bell 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