The Detention Center
Karnes County Jail
- Operated byKarnes County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameYes, but only in passing on the County Court page: "Defendants will receive a court date when released from the Karnes County Jail." The Sheriff page never mentions a jail.
- No jail pageThere is no jail, roster, visitation, commissary, bond or fee page in the site navigation.
- What was triedhttps://www.co.karnes.tx.us/page/karnes.Sheriff ; https://www.co.karnes.tx.us/page/karnes.County.Court ; https://www.co.karnes.tx.us/page/karnes.Commissioners.CourtNew ; https://www.co.karnes.tx.us/page/karnes.Budgets ; full homepage navigation
- Beds and population, 2026-0827 people held in 50 rated beds (Karnes)
Source: Karnes County — Karnes County Court · 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
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds50 rated capacity (Texas Commission on Jail Standards Inmate Population Report, August 2026 — a state source, not the county's)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Steven Bailey
- Published as"Steven Bailey, KARNES COUNTY SHERIFF"
- Office500 E. Wall Street, Karnes City, TX 78118
- Non-emergency phone(830) 780-3931
- Only other contentEstray notices, a VINELink link and a MissingKids link
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Karnes County — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
The 81st and 218th District Courts are shared with neighbouring counties and are administered from Jourdanton (Atascosa County); the 218th has its own page at https://www.co.karnes.tx.us/page/karnes.218thDC. The four JPs sit in Kenedy, Falls City, Karnes City and Runge. JPs are the magistrates who set bond at first appearance in Texas.
County Judge
- Wade J. Hedtke
District Courts
- Jennifer M. Dillingham (81st Judicial District)
- Russell Wilson (218th Judicial District)
Justices of the Peace
- Rachel V. Garcia (Pct. 1)
- Caroline Korzekwa (Pct. 2)
- Trent Enriquez (Pct. 3)
- David Sotelo (Pct. 4)
- 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
- Agendas and minutes moved to a CivicClerk portal (https://karnescotx.portal.civicclerk.com/); older agenda PDFs remain on the county site.
- Adopted budgets back to FY2022 are posted, e.g. https://www.co.karnes.tx.us/upload/page/1016/FY 26 Approved Budget FINAL.pdf
- TCJS publishes no county-specific inspection report page; Karnes 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 David Wiatrek, Precinct 2 Benny Lyssy, Precinct 3 James Rosales, Precinct 4 Wesley Gisler; County Judge Wade J. Hedtke.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
No death in the Karnes County jail appears on the state's record since 2016.
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 Karnes 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