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Texas · County seat: Kerrville · Checked 2026-08-22

Kerr 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

Kerr County Jail

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

Transparency rating

4/10Partial

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Kerr 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

  • 2016: construction added 17,885 sq. ft., taking the facility from 192 beds to 328 beds, and installed 120 additional cameras for a total of 240 (Kerr County Sheriff's Office jail page)

The Sheriff

Sheriff Larry L. Leitha

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

Source: Kerr County Sheriff's Office — About the KCSO · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

Kerr County runs a dedicated Magistrate Court located inside the Kerr County Jail, where defendants make first appearance within 48 hours and the magistrate "discuss[es] bond amounts and types, any additional bond conditions". The county links its full Court Plan for Prompt Magistration at https://tidc.tamu.edu/IDPlan/ViewPlan.aspx?PlanID=624. Each JP has its own page at /kerr-county-all-departments/justice-of-the-peace-precinct-1 through -4. The Kerr County Courthouse is closed and courts are sitting at alternate locations after flood damage.

County Judge

  • Rob Kelly

County Court at Law

  • The Honorable Susan F. Harris

District Courts

  • The Honorable M. Patrick Maguire (198th Judicial District)
  • The Honorable Albert D. Pattillo, III (216th Judicial District)

Justices of the Peace

  • Honorable Mitzi French (Pct. 1)
  • Honorable J.R. Hoyne (Pct. 2)
  • Honorable Taylor Robertson (Pct. 3)
  • Honorable William "Bill" E. Ragsdale (Pct. 4)

Magistrate Court

  • Ashley Warnix
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

5 people have died in the Kerr County jail since 2021.

2 by suicide
2 illness or medical
5 deaths in all, 2016 onward
Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them3 of 5
Deaths within the first week of arriving2
Most recent death on the state's record2025-12-23
People held, 2026-08148 in 328 beds
Share not convicted of the charge holding them67.6%

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 Kerr 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