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

The Detention Center

Brown County Jail

Operated byBrown County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameYes - 'Brown County Jail' with its own phone number on the sheriff's page
Jail phone325-641-2481
Published inmate materialInmate Contact Information, Inmate Custody List, Inmate Visitation Schedule
What was triedhttps://www.browncountytx.gov/page/brown.Sheriff and the site sitemap - no bond page, no fee schedule, no PREA page, no inspection reports
Beds and population, 2026-08143 people held in 196 rated beds

Source: Brown County - Sheriff Department · 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 Brown 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
Beds196 rated capacity (TCJS Inmate Population Report, 1 Aug 2026; 143 in custody, including 10 contract inmates from other Texas counties)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Vance Hill

TitleBrown County Sheriff
Office1050 West Commerce, Brownwood, TX 76801
Phone325-646-5510
Jail phone325-641-2481

Still needed

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

Source: Brown County - Sheriff Department · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

The Justice of the Peace page also posts a 'Magistrate Schedule and Viewing Location', which identifies who is on magistrate duty for first appearances.

County Judge

Shane Britton

County Court at Law

Sam C. Moss

District Court (35th Judicial District)

Mike Smith

Justices of the Peace

Mitchell W. Jacobson (Pct. 1)
Harold Hogan (Pct. 2)
Bryan Thompson (Pct. 3)
Ted Perez (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

The county runs its own inmate custody list at inmateroster.browncountytx.org (frameset that resolves to http://inmate.browncountytx.org).
TCJS shows 10 in-state contract inmates held on 1 Aug 2026; the county publishes no contract or per-diem rate for them.
Commissioners Court meetings are posted on the Public Notices calendar under the 'CC Meetings' category rather than on a dedicated agendas-and-minutes page.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

2 people have died in the Brown County jail since 2021.

0 by suicide

2 illness or medical

2 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them1 of 2

Most recent death on the state's record2023-06-25

People held, 2026-08143 in 196 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them76.2%

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 Brown 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