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Texas · County seat: Sulphur Springs · Checked 2026-08-22

Hopkins County

The jail, the sheriff who runs it, and the judges who decide who sits inside. Every fact below comes from a named public record. Anything not yet sourced is marked still needed rather than guessed.

The Detention Center

The county publishes no formal name for this facility.

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

Transparency rating

2/10Closed

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Hopkins 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.

Since then

  • Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Lewis Tatum

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

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

The Judges

Individual JP pages are https://www.hopkinscountytx.org/page/hopkins.JPPrecinctI and .JPPrecinctII. The 62nd Judicial District page names Judge Gary D. Young and also carries orders of assignment naming Judge John Marshall to hear cases there from February 2025.

County Judge

  • Robert Newsom

County Court at Law

  • John C. Ginn

District Courts

  • Eddie Northcutt (8th Judicial District)
  • Gary D. Young (62nd Judicial District)

Justices of the Peace

  • B. J. Teer (Pct. 1)
  • Brad Cummings (Pct. 2)
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.

Notes on the record

The record

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

0 by suicide
1 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 arriving3
Most recent death on the state's record2020-06-01
People held, 2026-08190 in 240 beds
Share not convicted of the charge holding them34.7%

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 Hopkins 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