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

The Detention Center

Comal County Jail

Operated byComal County Sheriff's Office — Corrections Division
County publishes a jail nameYes — 'Comal County Jail' on the Corrections page
Jail address3000 IH 35 S, New Braunfels, TX 78130
Jail phone830-620-3450
Other agenciesCounty states the jail 'has agreements in place to hold other county and federal inmates as space is available'; no rates published
Beds and population, 2026-08471 people held in 583 rated beds

Source: Comal County — Corrections · checked 2026-08-22

Transparency rating

3/10Closed

✓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
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Comal 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 built2020 — the current Comal County Jail at 3000 IH 35 South opened in August 2020
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds582 housing beds per the county, with infrastructure for a total buildout of 900 to 1,000; TCJS-rated capacity 583 as of Aug. 1, 2026

Since then

1939-1985: inmates housed in the historic limestone Comal County Courthouse in downtown New Braunfels
1985: Walter Fellers Law Enforcement Center opened at 3005 W San Antonio Street with a jail of 144 beds
1999: jail expanded to 337 beds
August 2020: new jail opened at 3000 IH 35 South with 582 housing beds

The Sheriff

Sheriff Mark Reynolds

OfficeComal County Sheriff's Office
SignatureSigns as 'Mark W Reynolds, Sheriff Comal County'
Jail phone830-620-3450
NotePresiding officer of the Comal County Bail Bond Board

Still needed

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

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

The Judges

Comal runs a separate Magistrate Court, held daily including holidays, where criminal associate judge magistrates set bail; the county does not name those magistrates on the Magistrate Court page. The magistrate docket is posted daily in the lobby of the Sheriff's Bonding Department.

County Judge

Kristen Hoyt

County Courts at Law

Randy Gray (County Court at Law 1)
Charles Stephens (County Court at Law 2)
Deborah Wigington (County Court at Law 3)

District Courts

Bruce Boyer (22nd Judicial District)
Tracie Wright Reneau (207th Judicial District)
Gary Steel (274th Judicial District)
Dib Waldrip (433rd Judicial District)
Stephanie Bascon (466th Judicial District)

Justices of the Peace

Tom Clark (Precinct 1)
James "Rick" Walker (Precinct 2)
Mark Long (Precinct 3)
Ashley Evans (Precinct 4)

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: Doug Leecock (Pct 1), Scott Haag (Pct 2), Kevin Webb (Pct 3), Jen Crownover (Pct 4).
The county's 'Record Search' is a court case record search, not an in-custody roster.
Commissary and phone are handled by outside vendors (Access Corrections, IC Solutions); no rates are published on the county site. The only fee schedule published is the Sheriff's Office Fees PDF for civil process.
The county states the jail holds other counties' and federal inmates but publishes no contracts or per-diem rates.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

3 people have died in the Comal County jail since 2018.

0 by suicide

2 illness or medical

3 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them2 of 3

Most recent death on the state's record2024-02-24

People held, 2026-08471 in 583 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them68.4%

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 Comal 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