Duval 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, addresses, phone and fax numbers only; no jail, roster, bond or fee links
Sheriff's Office address401 E. Collins Ave, San Diego, TX 78384
What was triedhttps://www.co.duval.tx.us/ ; https://www.co.duval.tx.us/page/duval.Sheriff ; https://www.co.duval.tx.us/page/duval.Financial.Transparency
Beds and population, 2026-0830 people held in 33 rated beds

Source: Duval County, Texas - 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 Duval 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 Romeo R. Ramirez

OfficeDuval County Sheriff's Department
Mailing addressPO Box 547, San Diego, TX 78384
Physical address401 E. Collins Ave, San Diego, TX 78384
Phone(361) 279-6209 administration; (361) 279-3351 dispatch

Still needed

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

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

The Judges

The county judge's page labels his office "Court at Law Office"; no separate statutory County Court at Law judge is listed.

County Judge

Arnoldo Cantu

Justices of the Peace

Geraldita Martinez (Precinct 1)
Annabel C. Canales (Precinct 2)
Aida C. Estraca (Precinct 3)
Linda Garza-Moncada (Precinct 4)

229th Judicial District Court

Baldemar Garza

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

Duval County does publish PREA material - a "PREA Statistical Data Report" and a "Final Prison Rape Eliminator Act Report" - but those sit under Juvenile Services and cover the juvenile facility, not the county jail, so the PREA check is recorded as no.
The county's meeting page carries Current Agendas and Agenda Archives; approved minutes were not found as a separate published series.
No county-specific TCJS inspection page or report could be found.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Pete Guerra, Precinct 2 Adalberto (Chaico) Vera, Precinct 3 Marla Garza, Precinct 4 Marty Perez; County Judge Arnoldo Cantu.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

3 people have died in the Duval County jail since 2023.

1 by suicide

1 illness or medical

3 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them3 of 3

Deaths within the first week of arriving2

Most recent death on the state's record2025-10-10

People held, 2026-0830 in 33 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them96.7%

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 Duval 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