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

The Detention Center

DeWitt County Jail

Operated byDeWitt County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameYes — the Sheriff's Office site repeatedly names the 'Dewitt County Jail' on its Detention Center Information page
Jail address208 E. Live Oak St., Cuero, TX 77954
Jail phone(361) 275-0034
Custody searchSouthern Software public search, AgencyID DewittCoTX
DepositsKiosk in the visitation lobby; Access Secure / inmatedeposits.com; 866-345-1884
NoteThe county's own co.dewitt.tx.us Sheriff page names no facility; the naming is on the Sheriff's Office site
Beds and population, 2026-0896 people held in 161 rated beds

Source: DeWitt County Sheriff's Office - Detention Center Information · 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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what DeWitt 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 Carl Bowen

TitleDeWitt County Sheriff
Office208 East Live Oak Street, Cuero, TX 77954
Phone361-275-5734 (dispatch 24/7)
Administrative(361) 275-0899
Jail(361) 275-0034
Fax361-275-0936
Separate agency sitedewittsheriff.org

Still needed

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

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

The Judges

Three district courts serve DeWitt County, all with chambers in Victoria. JP Precinct 2 sits in Yorktown.

County Judge

Daryl L. Fowler

Justices of the Peace

Lindsay Ruppert (Pct 1)
Blanca S. McBride (Pct 2)

District Courts (24th, 135th, 267th)

Lisa Harvey-Moore (24th)
Kemper Stephen Williams (135th)
Julie Bauknight (267th)

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

DeWitt is the only county in this group besides Dallas with a live custody search reachable from an official site. The search is hosted by Southern Software and returns charges and bond amounts.
bond_info marked no: the Detention Center Information page explains how to look up someone's bond amount and how to put money on an inmate's account, but gives no guidance on how to post a bond — no bond desk hours, accepted payment types or procedure.
fees marked no: a 'Fees For Dewitt County Sheriff's Office' PDF (http://dewittsheriff.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Fees-for-DeWitt-County.pdf) and an FY2024 Sheriff and Constable fee schedule on the county site cover civil process fees, not phone, video-visit or commissary rates. Phone calls are described as collect or prepaid card, with no rate.
The county publishes a Commissioners Court Meeting Minutes page and a Commissioners Court Calendar — the only county in this group with a dedicated minutes page.
The county also publishes an Indigent Defense section including a court-appointed attorney fee schedule and an in-jail attorney request affidavit.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Court meets the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month at 9:00 a.m. Members: Ryan Varela (Pct 1), James B. Pilchiek, Sr. (Pct 2), James Kaiser (Pct 3), Brian Carson (Pct 4).
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

2 people have died in the DeWitt County jail since 2019.

0 by suicide

1 illness or medical

2 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them2 of 2

Deaths within the first week of arriving2

Most recent death on the state's record2024-04-14

People held, 2026-0896 in 161 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them63.5%

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 DeWitt 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