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

The Detention Center

Howard County Jail

Operated byHoward County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameYes — "Howard County Jail Facility" and "Howard County Jail" on the Sheriff page; the staff directory lists the department as "Howard County Detention Center"
Jail address (legal/medical mail)3611 W. Hwy 80, Big Spring, TX 79720
Inmate mail addressInmate name and Jail ID, Howard County Jail, P.O. Box 591, Longview, TX 75606 — all mail is scanned and the paper destroyed
Detention Center phone432-264-6051
Inmate messaging vendorNCIC — $0.25 per message, $0.35 per picture or document
What was triedhttps://www.co.howard.tx.us/1220/Sheriff ; https://www.co.howard.tx.us/1222/Judicial-Jail-Record-Search ; https://www.co.howard.tx.us/directory.aspx ; https://www.co.howard.tx.us/1195/Budgets ; https://portal-txhoward.tylertech.cloud/PublicAccess/default.aspx
Beds and population, 2026-0884 people held in 102 rated beds

Source: Howard County — Sheriff · 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 Howard 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 Stan Parker

Published as"Stan Parker — Sheriff" in the county staff directory
Sheriff's Office phone432-264-2231
Detention Center phone432-264-6051
Not on the Sheriff pageThe Sheriff department page carries jail-mail rules but does not name the Sheriff; the name is only in the directory
Confirmed bySheriffs' Association of Texas directory (H–K)

Still needed

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

Source: Howard County — Directory · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

Howard County publishes a dedicated Magistrate Court page: four associate judges, serving under the District and County Judges, hold hearings 365 days a year, and the page states that a magistrate "establishes bail, establishes bond conditions". Hearings are live-streamed but not archived. Howard County has no County Court at Law.

County Judge

Randy Johnson

District Court

R. Shane Seaton

Justices of the Peace

Angela Griffin (Pct. 1 Place 1)
Mike Averette (Pct. 1 Place 2)
Kandi Campbell (Pct. 2)

Magistrate Court

Angela Griffin (Magistrate Judge / Justice of the Peace)
Mike Averette (Magistrate Judge / Justice of the Peace)
Kandi Campbell (Magistrate Judge / Justice of the Peace)
Mandy Haynes (Magistrate Judge / Municipal Judge)

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 county links a "Judicial & Jail Record Search" (https://www.co.howard.tx.us/1222/Judicial-Jail-Record-Search) that goes to a Tyler Technologies public-access portal. The county page itself is empty and the portal did not render a custody list when checked, so roster is marked no.
The only published prices are NCIC inmate-messaging rates ($0.25 per message, $0.35 per picture or document). No phone call, video visit or commissary prices are published, so fees is marked no.
The Sheriff department page names the jail but does not name the Sheriff; his name appears only in the staff directory.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Eddilisa Ray, Precinct 2 Cash Berry, Precinct 3 Jimmie Long, Precinct 4 Doug Wagner; County Judge Randy Johnson.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

4 people have died in the Howard County jail since 2021.

0 by suicide

2 illness or medical

4 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them2 of 4

Deaths within the first week of arriving2

Most recent death on the state's record2024-08-27

People held, 2026-0884 in 102 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them61.9%

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 Howard 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