The Detention Center
Denton County Jail
- Operated byDenton County Sheriff's Office, Detention Bureau
- County publishes a jail nameYes - "Denton County Jail" is used on the Detention Bureau page and in the jail mission statement
- Beds1,788 (county's Detention Bureau page)
- StructureA linear-style jail, a direct-supervision pod jail and a pre-trial facility
- Jail address127 N Woodrow Lane, Denton, TX 76205
- Jail phone940-349-1600 (Sheriff's Office main)
- Beds and population, 2026-081,309 people held in 1,788 rated beds
Source: Denton County, TX - Detention Bureau · checked 2026-08-22
Transparency rating
4/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓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
- Beds1,788
Since then
- A $30 million jail expansion adding 384 beds - replacing 192 beds in 1992 temporary wooden barracks and adding 192 new beds - was reported as funded by a 2008 bond election plus tax notes, capital replacement contingency funds and property sale proceeds (North Texas Daily, https://www.ntdaily.com/news/denton-county-jail-expansion-still-underway/article_a9b780eb-5d61-5125-8ce3-2360e33de4c5.html). The same report says the Pre-Trial building was built in 2000. Not confirmed on a county page.
The Sheriff
Sheriff Tracy Murphree
- OfficeDenton County Sheriff's Office
- Address127 N Woodrow Lane, Denton, TX 76205
- Phone940-349-1600
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Denton County, TX - Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
Denton County also lists an Associate Judge for the Child Support (IV-D) Court, Cherami Jenkins.
County Judge
- Andy Eads
County Courts at Law
- Kimberly McCary (County Court at Law 1)
- Robert Ramirez (County Court at Law 2)
County Criminal Courts
- Lauri Ragland (No. 1)
- Susan Piel (No. 2)
- Forrest Beadle (No. 3)
- Chance Oliver (No. 4)
- Coby Waddill (No. 5)
Magistrate Court
- Robin A. Ramsay (Associate Criminal Judge)
District Courts
- Sherry Shipman (16th)
- Steve Burgess (158th)
- Brody Shanklin (211th)
- Bruce McFarling (362nd)
- Brent Hill (367th)
- Karen Alexander (393rd)
- Jim Johnson (431st)
- Tiffany Haertling (442nd)
- Lee Ann Breading (462nd)
- Derbha Jones (467th)
- Michael Dickens (477th)
- Crystal Levonius (481st)
Justices of the Peace
- Alan Wheeler (Precinct 1)
- James R. DePiazza (Precinct 2)
- James Kerbow (Precinct 3)
- Harris Hughey (Precinct 4)
- Mike Oglesby (Precinct 5)
- Blanca Oliver (Precinct 6)
- 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
- Capacity is marked yes because the county publishes a bed count (1,788). It does not publish a daily population figure.
- The county's PREA page (https://www.dentoncounty.gov/1423/PREA-Compliance) covers the Juvenile Detention Center and Juvenile Probation Department, not the county jail, so the PREA check is recorded as no.
- The county publishes a Bail Bond Board page and a Licensed Bonding Companies list (https://www.dentoncounty.gov/160/Bail-Bond-Board, https://www.dentoncounty.gov/161/Licensed-Bonding-Companies) but no public instructions for how to post a bond, so bond_info is recorded as no.
- The Inmate Services & Visitation page (https://www.dentoncounty.gov/855/Inmate-Services-Visitation) names the phone, mail and commissary vendors (Smart Communications, CorrectPay, HomeWav) but publishes no rates.
- No county-specific TCJS inspection page or report could be found.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Ryan Williams, Precinct 2 Kevin Falconer, Precinct 3 Bobbie J. Mitchell, Precinct 4 Dianne Edmondson; County Judge Andy Eads. Meets 9 a.m. Tuesdays.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
16 people have died in the Denton County jail 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 Denton 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