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

The Detention Center

Brazos County Detention Center

Operated byBrazos County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameYes - 'Brazos County Detention Center' has its own county page
Jail address1835 Sandy Point Road, Bryan, TX 77807
Jail phone(979) 361-4800 (24/7)
Name used by TCJS'Brazos County Jail' in the 2020 certificate of compliance the county posts
Beds and population, 2026-08647 people held in 1,089 rated beds

Source: Brazos County - Brazos County Detention Center · checked 2026-08-22

Transparency rating

6/10Partial

✓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
✓Independent inspection
✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
✓How to post bond
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Brazos 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
Beds1,089 rated capacity (TCJS Inmate Population Report, 1 Aug 2026; 647 in custody that day)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Wayne Dicky

TitleSheriff of Brazos County
Office1700 Hwy 21 W., Bryan, TX 77803
Phone(979) 361-4900
Corrections chiefKevin Stuart, Chief Deputy, Corrections

Still needed

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

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

The Judges

Judge names were taken from each court's own page on the county site; the county's staff directory lists the courts but not the judges by name.

County Judge

Duane Peters

County Courts at Law

Amanda Matzke (County Court at Law 1)
Roy Brantley (County Court at Law 2)

District Courts

Kyle Hawthorne (85th)
John Brick (272nd)
David Hilburn (361st)
George Jerrell Wise (472nd)

Justices of the Peace

Kenny Elliott (Pct. 1)
Terrence P. Nunn (Pct. 2)
Rick Hill (Pct. 3)
Celina Vasquez (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

PREA page posts audit reports for 2023, 2020, 2017 and 2014 plus annual reports for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2017 and 2014.
The sheriff's site posts a Texas Commission on Jail Standards compliance letter dated 2 July 2020 (inspection 29 Jun - 1 Jul 2020, inspector Jennifer Shumake).
Phone/commissary page names Smart Communications and smartinmate.com but publishes no rates - fees marked no.
No death-in-custody reporting and no inmate-housing contracts or per-diem rates found on the county site.
Rated capacity is published by TCJS, not by the county, so the capacity check is 'no'.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Regular meetings 1st and 3rd Tuesdays at 10 a.m.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

9 people have died in the Brazos County jail since 2017.

0 by suicide

5 illness or medical

9 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them5 of 9

Deaths within the first week of arriving5

Most recent death on the state's record2025-03-31

People held, 2026-08647 in 1,089 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them65.5%

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 Brazos 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