The Detention Center
The county publishes no formal name for this facility.
- Operated byNot found - the county website has no jail page and does not say who operates a jail
- County publishes a jail nameNo
- Custody statusThe sheriff's page directs the public to VINELink.com rather than to any county list
- Sheriff's Office addressP.O. Box 59, Dickens, TX 79229 (courthouse at 201 US-82, Dickens)
- What was triedhttps://www.co.dickens.tx.us/ ; https://www.co.dickens.tx.us/page/dickens.Sheriff ; https://www.co.dickens.tx.us/page/dickens.Commissioners.Court
- Beds and population, 2026-080 people held in 8 rated beds
Source: Dickens County, Texas - Sheriff · 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
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 Jay Allen
- OfficeDickens County Sheriff's Office
- Mailing addressP.O. Box 59, Dickens, TX 79229
- Phone(806) 623-5533
- Fax(806) 623-5369
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Dickens County, Texas - Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
No County Court at Law is listed; the constitutional County Court is presided over by the County Judge.
County Judge
- Kevin Brendle
Justice of the Peace
- Stella Carter
110th Judicial District Court
- William P. "Bill" Smith
- 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
- The Dickens County website has no jail page at all - that is the finding. The sheriff's page lists the sheriff and three deputies and points custody questions to VINELink.
- The budget check is marked yes on the strength of the county's Financial Transparency budget page, which posts adopted and proposed county budgets covering all departments.
- No county-specific TCJS inspection page or report could be found.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Dennis Wyatt, Precinct 2 Mike Smith, Precinct 3 Chris Horn, Precinct 4 Greg Arnold; County Judge Kevin Brendle.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Dickens 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