The Detention Center
Jefferson County Correctional Facility
- Operated byJefferson County Sheriff's Office (Corrections Division)
- County publishes a jail nameYes — "Jefferson County Correctional Facility" (also written "Jefferson County Corrections Facility") on the Sheriff's Office Corrections page and in the inmate-mail memo.
- Correctional Facility address5030 Hwy 69 S., Beaumont, TX 77705
- Correctional Facility phone(409) 726-2500; Visitation (409) 726-2565
- Second facilityA downtown "Beaumont Jail" is listed separately in the county phone directory: (409) 835-8422, visitation (409) 835-8633
- Population as published"a daily average inmate population of over 800 inmates" (Corrections page); no bed count published by the county
- Certification"The facility is certified by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards" (Corrections page)
- Inmate mailScanned by Smart Communications MailGuard; personal mail to JCSO-SCH, 9490 FM 1960 Bypass W #355, Humble, TX 77338
- What was triedhttps://www.sheriff.jeffersoncountytx.gov/corrections ; https://www.sheriff.jeffersoncountytx.gov/visitation ; https://www.sheriff.jeffersoncountytx.gov/sendMoneyToAnInmate ; https://jeffersoncountytx.gov/phonedir.htm ; https://jeffersoncountytx.gov/auditing/main.htm
- Beds and population, 2026-081,074 people held in 1,268 rated beds (Jefferson)
Source: Jefferson County Sheriff's Office — Corrections · 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 — not published
- ✗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
- ✗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
- Beds1,268 rated capacity (Texas Commission on Jail Standards Inmate Population Report, August 2026 — a state source; the county publishes no bed count)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Zena Stephens
- Published as"Zena Stephens" on the Sheriff's Bio page
- TermRe-elected Sheriff of Jefferson County for a third term on November 5, 2024
- Published detailFirst African American and first female Sheriff in Jefferson County's history
- Office1001 Pearl St #103, Beaumont, TX 77701
- Phone(409) 835-8411
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Jefferson County Sheriff's Office — Sheriff's Bio · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
Jefferson County runs a dedicated Magistrate Court that sits every day including holidays; its judge, not the JPs, handles first appearance and bail setting for both misdemeanors and felonies. Each district court has its own page under https://jeffersoncountytx.gov/distcrts/ and each JP under https://jeffersoncountytx.gov/JP/. The county's JP precincts are numbered 1 (two places), 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8.
County Judge
- Jeff Branick
County Courts at Law
- Gerald W. Eddins (No. 1)
- Terrence L. Holmes (No. 2)
- Clint Woods (No. 3)
District Courts
- W. Kent Walston (58th)
- Justin Sanderson (60th)
- Baylor Wortham (136th)
- Mitch Templeton (172nd)
- Raquel West (252nd Criminal)
- Randy Shelton (279th)
- Gordon Friesz (317th)
- John Stevens (Criminal District Court)
Magistrate Court
- Marc DeRouen
Justices of the Peace
- Naomi Doyle (Pct. 1, Place 1)
- Benjamin Collins, Sr. (Pct. 1, Place 2)
- Joseph L. Guillory II (Pct. 2)
- Justin Chesson (Pct. 4)
- Ransom "Duce" Jones (Pct. 6)
- Brad Burnett (Pct. 7)
- Kalan Gardner, Sr. (Pct. 8)
- 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 publishes two live inmate documents: a full custody roster (CURRENTINMATES.PDF, timestamped, headed "Jefferson County Corrections Inmate Roster") and a daily arrest log (CURRENTARRESTS.PDF), plus a name-search tool at https://www.sheriff.jeffersoncountytx.gov/inmateSearch.
- The Magistrate Court page is unusually explicit about bail: probable cause, bond amount, personal bond, conditions of release, and the Damon Allen Act Public Safety Report System. Counted as bond guidance.
- The Auditor's page posts Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports back to 2006 (https://jeffersoncountytx.gov/auditing/main.htm) but no adopted budget document was found on the county site; /budget.htm, /Budget/, /auditing/budget.htm and /comm_crt/budget.htm all return 404. Budget marked no.
- A Bail Bond Board page exists (https://jeffersoncountytx.gov/bbb) but it licenses and regulates bondsmen rather than telling a family how to post bond.
- Phone and messaging run through Smart Communications (smartinmate.com) and commissary through AccessSecurePak; no rates are published by the county.
- TCJS publishes no county-specific inspection report page; Jefferson County does not appear on the TCJS Non-Compliant Jails list as of this check.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Eddie Arnold, Precinct 2 Cary Erickson, Precinct 3 Michael Sinegal, Precinct 4 Everette "Bo" Alfred; County Judge Jeff Branick.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
17 people have died in the Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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