The Detention Center
The county publishes no formal name for this facility.
- Operated byNot stated on the county site. Hamilton County reports a 24-bed jail to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, a sheriff-run facility by default under Texas law, but the county publishes no jail page.
- County publishes a jail nameNo — the Sheriff page is a name, an address, a phone number, an email address and an estray notice
- Jail addressNot found on the county site
- Jail phoneNot found on the county site
- What was triedhttps://www.co.hamilton.tx.us/ ; /page/hamilton.sheriff ; /page/hamilton.commissioners ; /page/hamilton.jp ; /page/hamilton.budgets — no jail, inmate, bond or commissary page exists
- Beds and population, 2026-080 people held in 24 rated beds
Source: Hamilton 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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds24 rated capacity (TCJS Inmate Population Report, 1 August 2026; 14 held, 58.3% of capacity)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff BRAD BOULTON
- OfficeHamilton County Sheriff
- Address1108 South Rice, Hamilton, Texas 76531
- Phone254-386-8120
- Non-emergency(254) 386-3300
- Emailb.boulton@hamiltoncountytx.org
- NoteThe Sheriffs' Association of Texas directory still lists Tommy Ratliff for Hamilton County; the county's own site names Brad Boulton
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Hamilton County — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
Hamilton County has no County Court at Law and one Justice of the Peace for the whole county. The 220th Judicial District Court is shared with Bosque and Comanche Counties and sits in Meridian; its remote hearings are live-streamed to a public YouTube channel. The Justice of the Peace page publishes youth diversion documents but no bond information.
County Judge
- James Yates
District Court (220th)
- Shaun Carpenter
Justice of the Peace
- Lucas Robinson
- 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 Sheriffs' Association of Texas directory is out of date for Hamilton County: it lists Tommy Ratliff, while the county's own Sheriff page names Brad Boulton. The county site is the source used here.
- The county publishes the 2026-2027 proposed budget, the 2025-2026 adopted budget, tax rate worksheets and notices of elected official salary increases directly on its home page, and notes that the budget notices contained an error and would be republished in the local newspapers.
- No page on the county site mentions the jail, inmates, bond, visitation or commissary.
- Hamilton County does not appear on the Texas Commission on Jail Standards non-compliant jails list checked 22 August 2026 (https://www.tcjs.state.tx.us/non-compliant-jails/).
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Johnny Wagner (Pct. 1), Keith Allen Curry (Pct. 2), David Ogle (Pct. 3), Dickie Clary (Pct. 4). The court meets the 2nd and 4th Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. in the Auxiliary Courtroom, Courthouse Annex.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Hamilton 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