The Detention Center
Cherokee County Jail
- Operated byCherokee County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameYes — "Cherokee County Jail" on the sheriff's page and on the JP Precinct 1 page
- Address272 Underwood Street, Rusk, TX 75785
- Jail phone903-683-6365
- NotableThe Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace court is located inside the Cherokee County Jail building
- Commissary vendorsjailatm.com online; Sterling kiosk in the sheriff's office lobby
- Beds and population, 2026-08168 people held in 188 rated beds
Source: Cherokee County — County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗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
- Beds188 rated capacity (Texas Commission on Jail Standards county jail population report, 1 August 2026)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Brent Dickson
- TitleCherokee County Sheriff
- Address272 Underwood St., Rusk, TX 75785
- Phone903-683-2271
- Open recordsrecords@cocherokee.org — fax 903-683-2813
- ComplaintsNotarized citizen complaint form to Capt. Battley, Office of Professional Responsibility
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Cherokee County — County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
The 369th District Court publishes a "Designation to Set Bail Under Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 17.027" document, which is the mechanism by which bail-setting authority is delegated when a district judge is unavailable.
County Judge
- Chris Davis
County Court at Law
- Janice Stone
District Courts
- R. Chris Day — 2nd Judicial District
- Jonathan Richey — 369th District
Justices of the Peace
- Brenda Dominy — Precinct 1
- Amber Hood — Precinct 2
- Phillip Grimes — Precinct 3
- Rodney Wallace — Precinct 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
- The sheriff's page explains inmate trust fund deposits and names the two vendors, but publishes no commissary price list and no phone or video visit rates, so 'fees' is scored 'no'.
- There is no county-published roster; the sheriff's page links only to the state VINELink service.
- Cherokee County was at 89.4 percent of rated capacity on 1 August 2026 and above 94 percent in several 2022 reports.
- Commissioners Court agendas are published as dated PDFs on the county homepage; there is no separate archive index page.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Kelly Traylor (Pct. 1), Steven Norton (Pct. 2), Patrick Reagan (Pct. 3), Billy McCutcheon (Pct. 4). Meetings are streamed on YouTube.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
4 people have died in the Cherokee County jail since 2017.
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 Cherokee 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