The Detention Center
Lavaca County Jail
- Operated byLavaca County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameYes — but only as 'County Jail' on the Sheriff's Office page; no formal facility name is published
- Jail addressNot separately published; Sheriff's Office is at 38 FM 318, Hallettsville
- Jail phone361-798-2420
- Inmate searchLinked from the Sheriff page as 'County Jail Inmate Search' (host http://12.190.73.52/dcn/ — link seen on the county page, host itself could not be opened)
- Rated capacity48 beds (TCJS inmate population report, 1 Aug 2026)
- Population on 1 Aug 202634 (70.8% of capacity), per TCJS
- Beds and population, 2026-0834 people held in 48 rated beds
Source: Lavaca County, Texas — Sheriff's Office · 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
- Beds48 (TCJS rated capacity, 1 Aug 2026)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Steven E. Greenwell
- Office address38 FM 318, P.O. Box 373, Hallettsville, TX 77964
- Phone361-798-2121
- Jail phone361-798-2420
- NoteSheriff page links a 'County Jail Inmate Search' and VINELink
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Lavaca County, Texas — Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
The county's Justice of the Peace page states the Precinct 2 office is temporarily closed until further notice, so no Precinct 2 JP is named.
County Judge
- Keith Mudd
District Court (25th Judicial District)
- William D. Old, III
District Court (2nd 25th Judicial District)
- Jessica Richard Crawford
Justices of the Peace
- James Foster (Precinct 1)
- Mark W. Yackel (Precinct 3)
- Hallie Hall (Precinct 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
- The FY 2025-26 adopted budget (opened) carries a County Sheriff department and a 'Jail Inmate Phone System' line, so jail spending is inside the published budget; no separate jail budget document is posted.
- Adopted and proposed budgets run from FY 2008-09 to FY 2026-27 on the Financial Transparency page.
- TCJS publishes only agency-wide reports online; a county-specific inspection report must be requested under the Public Information Act.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Edward Pustka, Precinct 2 Wayne Faircloth, Precinct 3 Kenny Siegel, Precinct 4 Dennis W. Kocian. Court meets the 2nd and 4th Monday at 9:00 a.m.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
No death in the Lavaca 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 Lavaca 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