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

The Detention Center

The county publishes no formal name for this facility.

Operated byColorado County Sheriff's Office — Jail Division
County publishes a jail nameNo — the Sheriff's site heads the page 'Jail Division' and never names the facility
Jail address2215 Walnut Street, Columbus, TX 78934
Jail phone979.732.2388 x2
Jail commandCaptain Holly Smith; Lieutenant Michelle Nunnley; Sergeant Tracy Lewis (commissary)
What was triedhttps://www.coloradoso.net/jail ; https://www.coloradoso.net/visitation ; https://www.coloradocountytx.gov/
Beds and population, 2026-0870 people held in 99 rated beds

Source: Colorado County Sheriff's Office — Jail · checked 2026-08-22

Transparency rating

1/10Closed

✗The jail is named — not published
✗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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Colorado 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
Beds99 (TCJS inmate population report, Aug. 1, 2026)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Justin Lindemann

OfficeColorado County Sheriff's Office
Address2215 Walnut Street, Columbus, TX 78934
Phone979.732.2388
Chief DeputyKevin Daniel
NoteThe Sheriff's Office runs its own site at coloradoso.net, linked from the county menu

Still needed

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

Source: Colorado County Sheriff's Office — Administration · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

Colorado County has no County Court at Law; the County Judge sits as the constitutional county court. Four Justice of the Peace precincts, each with its own page.

County Judge

Ty Prause

County Court (constitutional)

Ty Prause

Justices of the Peace

Billy Hefner (Precinct 1)
Boe Reeves (Precinct 2)
Donald J. Clark (Precinct 3)
Stan Warfield (Precinct 4)

District Courts

William D. Old III (25th Judicial District)
Jessica R. Crawford (2nd 25th Judicial District)

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

Commissioners: Shannon Owers (Pct 1), Ryan Brandt (Pct 2), Keith Neuendorff (Pct 3), Darrell Gertson (Pct 4).
Financial Transparency page publishes adopted budgets from FY2026 and the FY2027 proposed budget.
The Justice of the Peace page publishes a Sheriff's and Constables' fee schedule effective Jan 1 2026 — civil process fees, not inmate phone or commissary rates.
Commissioners Court minutes from 2019 to present are online.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Court meets the 2nd and 4th Monday at 9:00 a.m. and is streamed on Zoom.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

1 people have died in the Colorado County jail since 2017.

0 by suicide

1 illness or medical

1 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them1 of 1

Most recent death on the state's record2017-11-01

People held, 2026-0870 in 99 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them68.6%

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 Colorado 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