The Detention Center
Downtown Detention Facility and Jail Annex Facility
- Operated byEl Paso County Sheriff's Office, Detention Bureau
- County publishes a jail nameYes - two named facilities: Downtown Detention Facility (DDF) and Jail Annex Facility
- Total capacity2,906 inmates across the two facilities
- Downtown Detention Facility601 E. Overland Ave., El Paso, TX 79901; 310,440 sq ft; capacity 1,010 including 10 medical beds; nine housing floors; also houses two Jail Magistrate Courts and the Bond and Inmate Trust Section
- Jail Annex Facility12501 E. Montana Ave., El Paso, TX 79938; pod-style, four housing units of four pods; 1,872 beds plus 24 ward and isolation beds, total 1,896
- Jail phoneInmate Information (915) 273-3770; Bonding (915) 273-3767
- Beds and population, 2026-082,392 people held in 2,976 rated beds
Source: El Paso 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
- Beds2,906 total - Downtown Detention Facility 1,010 (including 10 medical beds); Jail Annex 1,896 (1,872 housing plus 24 ward and isolation)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Oscar Ugarte
- OfficeEl Paso County Sheriff's Office
- Address3850 Justice Street, El Paso, TX 79938
- Phone915-273-3800
- Detention Bureau headChief Deputy Patrick J. Gailey
- AccreditationCounty page: first Sheriff's Office in Texas to receive CALEA accreditation, in 2001
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: El Paso County, TX - Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
The county's own courts directory lists two judges against the 388th District Court and two against County Court at Law 5; both are recorded as published. Associate judges listed separately include Patrick D. Bramblett and Antonio Rodriguez (383rd) and Dolores Reyes (County Criminal Court at Law 2). Two Jail Magistrate Courts sit inside the Downtown Detention Facility.
County Judge
- Ricardo A. Samaniego
Jail Magistrate
- Humberto Acosta (Presiding Judge)
- Antonio Aun
- Ray Duke
- Sheldon Myers
- Ruben Nunez
County Courts at Law
- Ruth Reyes (No. 1)
- Julie Gonzalez (No. 2)
- Melissa A. Baeza (No. 3)
- Alex Gonzalez (No. 4)
- Jesus Rodriguez (No. 5)
- Karen Pelletier (No. 5)
- M. Sue Kurita (No. 6)
- Ruben Morales (No. 7)
County Criminal Courts at Law
- Linda S. Perez (No. 1)
- Robert S. Anchondo (No. 2)
- Carlos Carrasco (No. 3)
- Jessica Vazquez (No. 4)
District Courts
- William E. Moody (34th)
- Annabell Perez (41st)
- Selina Saenz (65th)
- Ben L. Ivey III (120th)
- Marcos Lizarraga (168th)
- Bonnie Rangel (171st)
- Francisco X. Dominguez (205th)
- Alyssa Perez (210th)
- Selena Solis (243rd)
- Monique Velarde Reyes (327th)
- Patricia C. Baca (346th)
- Lyda Ness Garcia (383rd)
- Patrick M. Garcia (384th)
- Marlene Gonzalez (388th)
- James Lucas (388th)
- Sam Medrano (409th)
- Sergio Enriquez (448th)
- Diane Navarrete (Criminal District Court #1)
Justices of the Peace
- Robert T. Pearson (Precinct 1)
- Brian J. Haggerty (Precinct 2)
- Josh Herrera (Precinct 3)
- Rebeca Bustamante (Precinct 4)
- Lucilla Najera (Precinct 5)
- Ruben Lujan (Precinct 6-1)
- Enedina Nina Serna (Precinct 6-2)
- Humberto Enriquez (Precinct 7)
- 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's Jail Records page (https://www.epcounty.com/579/Jail-Records) links to an online records search at https://portal-txelpaso.tylertech.cloud/PublicAccess/default.aspx; that link is what the roster check is based on.
- Capacity is marked yes on the published bed counts. No daily population figure is published on the county site.
- El Paso County publishes PREA audit reports, but the ones found cover the West Texas Behavioral Health Residential Treatment Center (a community confinement facility under the CSCD) and the Juvenile Probation Department's facilities - not the county jail - so the PREA check is recorded as no.
- The Inmate Telephone Service page (https://www.epcounty.com/1197/Inmate-Telephone-Service) names ViaPath, iCare and The Outside Inside Connection but publishes no rates for calls, video visits or commissary.
- A Bonding phone number is published on the Downtown Detention Facility page, but no written guidance on how to post bond.
- The 2025 EPCSO Annual Report (https://www.epcounty.com/DocumentCenter/View/5215) states an adopted FY26 Sheriff's Office budget of $162,539,852 and a revised FY25 budget of $180,465,609.
- No county-specific TCJS inspection page or report could be found.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Jackie Butler, Precinct 2 David Stout, Precinct 3 Iliana Holguin, Precinct 4 Sergio Coronado; County Judge Ricardo A. Samaniego.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
58 people have died in the El Paso 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 El Paso 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