The Detention Center
Lee County Jail
- Operated byLee County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameYes — 'Lee County Jail' on the Sheriff's Office jail page
- Jail address2122 FM 448, Giddings, TX 78942
- Jail contactLt. Hentschel, hentschel@co.lee.tx.us, (979) 542-2800
- CommissaryPurchases once a week on Monday, delivered Thursday — no prices published
- Video visitationThrough NCIC — no rates published
- Rated capacity107 beds (TCJS inmate population report, 1 Aug 2026)
- Population on 1 Aug 202659 (55.1% of capacity), per TCJS
- Beds and population, 2026-0859 people held in 107 rated beds
Source: Lee County Sheriff's Office — Jail · 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
- Beds107 (TCJS rated capacity, 1 Aug 2026)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Garrett Durrenberger
- Mailing addressP.O. Box 98, Giddings, Texas 78942
- Phone979-542-2800
- Fax979-542-1446
- Emailsheriff@co.lee.tx.us
- Departmental siteleecountysherifftx.org, linked from the county page
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Lee County, Texas — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
The county's Justice of the Peace page lists only Precincts 2, 3 and 4; no Precinct 1 justice is published there.
County Judge
- Frank Malinak III
District Courts (21st and 335th Judicial Districts)
- Carson Campbell (21st)
- John Winkelmann (335th)
Justices of the Peace
- Michael York (Precinct 2)
- Don Milburn (Precinct 3)
- Danita Smith (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
- An inmate roster page exists at https://www.leecountysherifftx.org/inmate-roster/disclaim but it returns 'This module is offline for maintenance', so no current custody list is actually available — roster marked no.
- Commissary, phone-card and NCIC video-visitation procedures are published but no dollar rates are given, so the fees check fails.
- Adopted budgets are published for FY 2015-16 through FY 2025-26; agendas run 2018-2026 (agendas only, no minutes).
- 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 Mark Matthijetz, Precinct 2 Richard Wagner, Precinct 3 Alan Turner, Precinct 4 Steven Knobloch. Court meets the 2nd and 4th Monday.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
No death in the Lee 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 Lee 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