The Detention Center
The county publishes no formal name for this facility.
- Operated byBrooks County Sheriff's Office (the county names jail staff but not the facility)
- County publishes a jail nameNo - the sheriff's page lists jail supervisors and a jail lieutenant but never names the facility
- Address of the sheriff's office / jail701 E. Rice St., Falfurrias, TX 78355
- Phone(361) 325-3696
- What was triedhttps://www.co.brooks.tx.us/page/brooks.Sheriff, the county home page menu, https://www.co.brooks.tx.us/page/brooks.Public.Notices.Calendar - no jail page, roster, bond page or fee schedule exists
- Beds and population, 2026-0830 people held in 36 rated beds (Brooks)
Source: Brooks County - Sheriff's Office · 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
- Beds36 rated capacity (TCJS Inmate Population Report, 1 Aug 2026; 30 in custody - 83% of capacity, the fullest jail in this group)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Urbino "Benny" Martinez
- TitleBrooks County Sheriff
- Office701 E. Rice St., P.O. Box 558, Falfurrias, TX 78355
- Phone(361) 325-3696 ext. 503
- Jail staff listedJail Supervisors Lamar Villarreal and Daniel Duarte; a Jail Lieutenant is listed by surname only ('Olivarez')
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Brooks County - Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
Brooks County has no county court at law. The county notes that effective 1 January 2023 justice precincts 3 and 4 were combined into Precinct 1, leaving two JP courts.
County Judge
- Eric Ramos
District Court (79th Judicial District)
- Michael V. Garcia
Justices of the Peace
- Rolando Garza (Pct. 1)
- Oralia "Lali" V. Morales (Pct. 2)
- 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
- Brooks County publishes agendas and minutes together on the Commissioners Court page.
- The budget page is sparse - the most recent items are a 2024-2025 budget and a 2025-26 proposed budget.
- Do not confuse the county jail with the privately run Brooks County Detention Center in Falfurrias, which is a separate immigration detention facility and is not covered by anything on the county's site.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Regular meetings 2nd Thursday of the month at 9 a.m.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
No death in the Brooks County jail appears on the state's record since 2016.
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 Brooks 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