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

The Detention Center

Dallam-Hartley County Jail

Operated byDallam County Sheriff's Office (jail and dispatch operated as one county department)
County publishes a jail nameYes — the county's own Jail-Dispatch department page is headed 'Dallam-Hartley County Jail'
Jail/Dispatch AdministratorDiane Guffy
Staff namedGabriela Bloomer, Chief Dispatcher; Joseph Powers, Transport Officer
Jail phone(806) 244-2541
Emailjail-dispatch@dallam.org
Two-county facilityThe name reflects a joint arrangement with Hartley County; TCJS lists Hartley among counties with closed jails that board inmates elsewhere
Beds and population, 2026-0821 people held in 51 rated beds

Source: Dallam County, Texas - Dallam-Hartley County Jail · 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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Dallam 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
BedsNot found

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Shane Stevenson

TitleDallam County Sheriff
Office501 Denver Avenue, Dalhart, TX 79022
Phone(806) 244-2313
Jail line(806) 244-2541
Emailsheriff@dallam.org

Still needed

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

Source: Dallam County, Texas - County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

The 69th Judicial District covers Dallam, Hartley, Moore and Sherman counties; the judge sits in Dumas.

County Judge

Wes Ritchey

Justice of the Peace

Carol Smith

69th District Court

Kimberly Allen

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

Dallam County is one of only two counties in this group that names its jail on its own website. The other is Dallas.
The FY2026 county budget itemises department '520 COUNTY JAIL' with a 'TOTAL JAIL EXPENSE' line, an 'INMATE TRANSPORT' line and a substantial negative 'JAIL LEASE & REIMBURSEMENT' line — the money flowing back from the joint Dallam-Hartley arrangement. The underlying lease/interlocal agreement itself is not published, and no per-diem rate is given.
Financial transparency page with budgets, general ledgers, financial statements and debt reports: https://www.dallam.org/financials.shtml
Commissioners Court agendas are posted month by month for 2026 at https://www.dallam.org/agenda.shtml ; no signed minutes are posted.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Members: Austin Sage (Pct 1), Corey Crabtree (Pct 2), Levi James (Pct 3), Floyd French (Pct 4).
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

No death in the Dallam County jail appears on the state's record since 2016.

0 by suicide

0 illness or medical

0 deaths in all, 2016 onward

People held, 2026-0821 in 51 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them76.2%

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 Dallam 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