The Detention Center
Cochran County Jail
- Operated byCochran County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameYes — the sheriff's page links a "Cochran County Jail Report"
- Jail report / rosterhttps://www.interopweb.com/cochransotxjailpop
- Sheriff's office locationRoom B-7, Cochran County Courthouse, 100 North Main Street, Morton, TX 79346
- Smallest jail in this group13 rated beds per TCJS
- Beds and population, 2026-085 people held in 13 rated beds
Source: Cochran County — County Sheriff · 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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds13 rated capacity (Texas Commission on Jail Standards county jail population report, 1 August 2026)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Joseph Guerra
- TitleCochran County Sheriff
- AddressRoom B-7 Courthouse, 100 North Main Street, Morton, Texas 79346
- Phone806-266-5211
- Fax806-266-8888
- Emailjguerra@co.cochran.tx.us
- Open recordsSheriff@co.cochran.tx.us
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Cochran County — County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
Cochran County has one countywide Justice of the Peace and no County Court at Law. The 286th District Court is shared with Hockley County; its coordinator works from Levelland.
County Judge
- Pat Sabala Henry
Justice of the Peace
- Erica Soliz — countywide
District Court
- Anna Hord — 286th 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
- For a county of its size Cochran is the most transparent jail publisher in this group. Its "Cochran County Jail Report" is a live custody roster giving each person's name, booking status, arrest date, days in jail, every charge with statute cite, and the bond amount per charge plus a total. Addresses are redacted.
- The roster made visible on the research date that one man had been held 278 days pretrial on a $324,000 total bond and another 262 days on $188,000 — in a 13-bed jail.
- The "Fees List" linked from the sheriff's page is a scanned 2017 sheriff and constable civil process fee schedule, not phone, video visit or commissary rates, so 'fees' is scored 'no'.
- Budgets published include the 2026 Adopted Budget and the 2027 Proposed Budget with addendum.
- Commissioners Court minutes and agendas are both published, along with adopted rules of decorum.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Richard Williams (Pct. 1), Matt Evans (Pct. 2), Kris Brown (Pct. 3), Reynaldo Morin (Pct. 4).
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
No death in the Cochran 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 Cochran 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