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

The Detention Center

Fannin County Jail

Operated byFannin County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameYes - 'Fannin County Jail', listed on the Sheriff's Office page
Jail address2389 Silo Road, Bonham, TX 75418
Jail phone903-640-4171
What the county publishes about itAddress and phone only - no page of its own, no beds, population, rules or fees
Beds and population, 2026-08595 people held in 657 rated beds

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

Transparency rating

2/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✗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 Fannin 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 Cody Shook

TitleFannin County Sheriff
Office address2375 Silo Road, Bonham, TX 75418
Phone903-583-2143

Still needed

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

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

The Judges

Three justice of the peace precincts.

County Judge

Newt Cunningham

County Court at Law

Charles Butler

336th Judicial District Court

Christina Tillett

Justices of the Peace

Louise Goodwater (Pct. 1)
Paul Thomas Ivy (Pct. 2)
Kenny Karl (Pct. 3)

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 Sheriff's Office page points custody-status seekers to the statewide VINE service rather than publishing a county roster.
The 'Sheriff's Office Fees' link is a civil process and constable fee schedule (Fannin County Sheriff and Constable Fees 2026), not jail phone or commissary rates.
The 2025-2026 adopted budget is published on the county Budgets page; the PDF could not be downloaded to verify a jail line item.
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

6 people have died in the Fannin County jail since 2018.

0 by suicide

4 illness or medical

6 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them6 of 6

Deaths within the first week of arriving1

Most recent death on the state's record2025-10-05

People held, 2026-08595 in 657 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them15.0%

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 Fannin 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