The Detention Center
The county publishes no formal name for this facility.
- Operated byClay County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameNo — the sheriff's page links a "Jail Roster" but never names the facility; TCJS calls it the Clay County Jail
- Sheriff's office address215 W. Gilbert Street, Henrietta, Texas 76365
- Jail rosterhttps://jailroster.kologik.com/?_TX0390000
- Not the jailThe Clay County 1890 Jail Museum and Heritage Center is a historic site, not the operating facility
- Beds and population, 2026-0821 people held in 38 rated beds
Source: Clay County — 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
- Beds38 rated capacity (Texas Commission on Jail Standards county jail population report, 1 August 2026)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Sidney "Kirk" Horton
- TitleClay County Sheriff
- Address215 W. Gilbert Street, Henrietta, Texas 76365
- Phone(940) 538-5611
- Emailkirk.horton@co.clay.tx.us
- Also publishesLESO (1033 program) annual equipment disclosure
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Clay County — County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
Clay County has a single countywide Justice of the Peace and no County Court at Law. The 97th District Court is shared with Archer and Montague counties and runs its own website rather than a page on the county site.
County Judge
- Mike Campbell
Justice of the Peace
- Lanny Evans
District Court
- Trish Coleman Byars — 97th District
- 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
- Clay County was on the Texas Commission on Jail Standards non-compliant jails list on the research date.
- TCJS issued a Notice of Non-Compliance for the Clay County Jail dated 11 August 2026, referencing an inspection report issued 10 August 2026. The standard violated is 37 TAC 273.5(a)(2), intake screening and identification of mentally disabled or potentially suicidal inmates.
- The finding: in a review of 10 inmate medical files, staff failed to notify the magistrate within 12 hours on 5 occasions when warranted by affirmative answers on the suicide and mental impairment screening form and positive CCQ returns. Corrective action was required upon receipt.
- The county does not publish that notice itself — only TCJS does. The 'inspections' check is therefore 'no'.
- The FY 2026 approved budget is machine-readable and carries explicit detention line items, including MEDICAL EXPENSES - JAIL at $100,000, a Jail Administrator post, six Detention 1 jailer posts, two Detention 2 jailer/dispatcher posts and one Detention 3 jailer/transport post.
- The commissioners' minutes archive is served from a bare IP address (209.209.107.10) rather than a county domain.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Ben Pharries (Pct. 1), Jack Pickett (Pct. 2), Retta Collins (Pct. 3), Chase Broussard (Pct. 4). Court meets 9:30 a.m. on the second and fourth Monday in the Clay County Annex, 214 N. Main.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
1 people have died in the Clay 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 Clay 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