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

The Detention Center

The county publishes no formal name for this facility.

Operated byNot found - the county site has no jail page
County publishes a jail nameNo
Sheriff page contentSheriff name, mailing address and one phone number only; no jail, roster, bond, visitation or fee links
What was triedhttps://www.dimmitcounty.org/government/departments/county_sheriff.php ; https://www.dimmitcounty.org/government/index.php ; https://www.dimmitcounty.org/government/commissioners/index.php
Beds and population, 2026-0881 people held in 95 rated beds

Source: County of Dimmit, TX - County 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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Dimmit 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 Chris Castaneda

OfficeDimmit County Sheriff's Office
Mailing addressP.O. Box 885, Carrizo Springs, TX 78834
Phone(830) 876-3508
Published as"Honorable Chris Castaneda" on the county's County Sheriff page

Still needed

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

Source: County of Dimmit, TX - County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

No County Court at Law is listed on the county site.

County Judge

Martha Alicia Gomez Ponce

Justices of the Peace

Sonia Guerrero-Perez (Precincts 1 & 6)
Alberto Esquivel (Precinct 2)
Leticia Hernandez (Precinct 3)
Alfredo Martinez (Precincts 4, 5 & 7)

293rd District Court

Maribel Flores

365th District Court

Amado Abascal

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

The county publishes a full agenda and minutes document centre for Commissioners Court, but nothing at all about the jail.
Budget check: approved budgets 2017 through 2026 and proposed budgets are posted under the County Auditor's Transparency in Spending page.
No county-specific TCJS inspection page or report could be found.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Jose A. Urenda, Precinct 2 Alonso G. Carmona, Precincts 3 & 6 Valerie Julissa Talamantes, Precincts 4, 5 & 7 Valerie Rubalcaba; County Judge Martha Alicia Gomez Ponce.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

2 people have died in the Dimmit County jail since 2016.

1 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 arriving1

Most recent death on the state's record2019-01-12

People held, 2026-0881 in 95 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them32.1%

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 Dimmit 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