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

The Detention Center

Wayne McCollum Detention Center

Operated byEllis County Sheriff's Office (Detention Division)
County publishes a jail nameYes - 'Wayne McCollum Detention Center', named for a sheriff who served 20 years
Jail address300 S. Jackson Street, Waxahachie, TX 75165
Jail phone972-825-4931 (jail information)
Maximum population856 prisoners
Kitchen sized for1,000 prisoners
Beds and population, 2026-08603 people held in 859 rated beds

Source: Ellis County Sheriff's Office - About WMDC / Inmate Services · 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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Ellis 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 builtPhase 1 opened 1990 (construction started 1989; inmates moved in July 1, 1991); Phase 2 opened 2002; Phase 3 opened 2010
Original costPhase 1 estimated $6 million; 1999-2001 addition estimated $10.5 million
Paid for byNot found - the county's jail history page gives construction cost but not the financing method
Beds856 maximum population (200 at opening; 568 after the 2001 addition)

Since then

1999-2001 addition, ~$10.5 million, raised capacity to 568
Phase 3 opened 2010, raised capacity to 856

The Sheriff

Sheriff Brad Norman

TitleSheriff of Ellis County
In office sinceJanuary 1, 2021
NoteRe-elected unopposed in 2024, per the Sheriff's Office site
Prior servicePeace officer since 1998; former Chief Deputy

Still needed

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

Source: Ellis County Sheriff's Office - Administration · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

The county's Judicial District Courts page text still says Ellis County has three district courts, but four are listed and staffed on the same site (40th, 378th, 443rd, 504th).

County Judge

John Wray

County Courts at Law

Jim Chapman (Court at Law No. 1)
A. Gene Calvert, Jr. (Court at Law No. 2)
Joseph R. Gallo (Court at Law No. 3)

Judicial District Courts

Bob Carroll (40th)
William D. Wallace (378th)
Grace Pandithurai (443rd)
Greg Wilhelm (504th)

Justices of the Peace

Chris Macon (Pct. 1)
Jackie Miller Jr. (Pct. 2)
Dan D. Cox (Pct. 3)
James “Butch” Bryant (Pct. 4)

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

Bed capacity (856) is published but no current daily population figure is; the public inmate search is the only live population view.
Phone page names the vendor (Correct Solutions) but publishes no per-minute or connection rates; video visitation page publishes no rate.
The FY2026 adopted budget book contains a separate department '0015 - Jail' alongside '0010 - Sheriff' (verified in the PDF text).
The county publishes an unusually detailed jail history page covering all five county jails since 1854: https://elliscountysheriff.com/ecso/index.php/about-wmdc-inmate-services/history-of-jails
Audit rules applied uniformly across this group: capacity=yes only if a bed count is published on a county site; fees=yes only if an actual dollar rate for phone, video visit or commissary is published; bond_info=yes only if the county publishes practical guidance for posting bond or an official approved bail-bond company list.
TCJS publishes no county-specific inspection page or report on its public website; only statewide reports and a non-compliant-jails list. This county was not on the non-compliant list checked 2026-08-22.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

3 people have died in the Ellis County jail since 2017.

1 by suicide

2 illness or medical

3 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them2 of 3

Deaths within the first week of arriving2

Most recent death on the state's record2025-11-11

People held, 2026-08603 in 859 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them81.9%

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 Ellis 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