The Detention Center
Houston County Jail
- Operated byHouston County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameYes — the Sheriff page reads "Click here for a current list of inmates in the Houston County Jail"
- Address700A South 4th Street, Crockett, Texas 75835
- Phone936-544-2862
- Inmate listhttps://www.co.houston.tx.us/page/houston.InmateList — sortable by name, booking number, arrest date and bond amount
- Inmate mail2024 Inmate Mail and Correspondence Procedures PDF published
- What was triedhttps://www.co.houston.tx.us/page/houston.Sheriff ; https://www.co.houston.tx.us/page/houston.InmateList ; https://www.co.houston.tx.us/page/houston.Budgets ; https://www.co.houston.tx.us/page/houston.CountyAuditor
- Beds and population, 2026-08117 people held in 144 rated beds
Source: Houston County — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗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
- BedsNot found
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Zak Benge
- Published as"Zak Benge Sheriff" on the county Sheriff page
- Chief DeputyRyan Martin
- Jail AdministratorDonavan Mahan
- Jail LieutenantDustin Brown
- Address700A South 4th Street, Crockett, Texas 75835
- Phone936-544-2862 (fax 936-544-8061)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Houston County — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
Both JPs publish live video magistration links on the Justice of the Peace page — Judge McCreight and Judge Jordan each have a public Zoom stream. The 349th District Court page is https://www.co.houston.tx.us/page/Houston.349th%20District%20Judge.
County Judge
- Jim L. Lovell
County Court at Law
- Sarah Tunnell Clark
District Courts
- Mark Calhoon (3rd Judicial District — Anderson, Henderson and Houston Counties)
- Pam Foster Fletcher (349th Judicial District — Anderson and Houston Counties)
Justices of the Peace
- Mike McCreight (Pct. 1)
- Ronnie Jordan (Pct. 2)
- 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 page lists the whole roster of jail staff by name — Jail Administrator, Jail Lieutenant, sergeants, jailers and part-time jailers — but publishes nothing about the building: no bed count, no daily population, no inspection result.
- Commissioners court minutes are published back to 2013 and audit reports back to FY2010, but there is no separate jail or detention budget page; the checks credit the adopted budget page only.
- The inmate list shows bond amounts but the county publishes no instructions for how to post bond.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Gary Lovell, Precinct 2 Willie Kitchen, Precinct 3 Gene Stokes, Precinct 4 Jimmy Henderson; County Judge Jim L. Lovell. Court meets the 2nd and 4th Tuesday at 9:00 AM.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
4 people have died in the Houston County jail since 2017.
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 Houston 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