The Detention Center
The county publishes no formal name for this facility.
- Operated byCallahan County Sheriff's Office (facility not named on the county site)
- County publishes a jail nameNo - the sheriff's page links to an inmate account service and an arrest roster but never names a jail
- Sheriff's office address432 Market Street, Baird, TX 79504
- Inmate fundswww.jailatm.com for phone cards and commissary deposits
- What was triedhttps://www.callahancounty.org/page/callahan.Sheriff and the full county menu - there is no jail page, capacity figure, bond page, PREA page or fee schedule
- Beds and population, 2026-084 people held in 10 rated beds
Source: Callahan County - Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✓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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds10 rated capacity (TCJS Inmate Population Report, 1 Aug 2026; 4 in custody) - the smallest jail in this group
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Eric Pechacek
- TitleCallahan County Sheriff
- Office432 Market Street, Baird, TX 79504
- Phone325.854.1444 (24-hour non-emergency)
- NoteThe sheriff's page carries a standing warning about scam calls demanding warrant payments
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Callahan County - Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
The county's Justice of the Peace page lists Precincts 1, 3 and 4 only; no Precinct 2 justice is published. The Callahan District Court page names Judge Arimy Beasley and gives an Abilene address (300 Oak Street) but does not state the district number; the 42nd Judicial District (Taylor and Callahan Counties) is confirmed at https://www.taylorcounty.texas.gov/208/42nd-District-Court. Callahan County has no county court at law.
County Judge
- Nicki Harle
District Court (42nd Judicial District)
- Arimy Beasley
Justices of the Peace
- Paige Savell (Pct. 1)
- Stephen Odom (Pct. 3)
- Andi Holland (Pct. 4)
- 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
- Roster: the sheriff's page publishes a 'Local Arrest Report' link to a Kologik jail roster for agency _TX0300000.
- The county's 2020 Bond Proposal covers courthouse restoration and the Calvo and historic 1877 jail buildings, and notes that dispatch and 911 currently sit in an office inside the current jail. It is not a jail construction project, and it names the officials of 2020 (County Judge G. Scott Kniffen, Sheriff Terry Joy), not the present ones.
- Commissioners' Court meetings are posted on the Public Calendar under 'CCMeetings'; there is no separate minutes archive.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Commissioners' Court meets the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
1 people have died in the Callahan County jail since 2019.
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 Callahan 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