The Detention Center
The county publishes no formal name for this facility.
- Operated byNot found — the county website does not state who operates the jail
- County publishes a jail nameNo — the words jail, inmate and commissary do not appear on the Sheriff page
- Jail addressNot found
- Jail phoneNot found
- Rated capacity53 beds (TCJS inmate population report, 1 Aug 2026)
- Population on 1 Aug 202639 (73.6% of capacity), per TCJS
- What was triedhttps://www.co.leon.tx.us/ ; https://www.co.leon.tx.us/page/leon.Sheriff (full 79-link list reviewed) ; https://www.co.leon.tx.us/page/leon.BailBondBoard
- Beds and population, 2026-0839 people held in 53 rated beds
Source: TCJS Inmate Population Report (PopReportCurrent.xlsx) · checked 2026-08-22
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✗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
- Beds53 (TCJS rated capacity, 1 Aug 2026)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Kevin Ellis
- Office address606 E. St. Mary's Street, P.O. Box 278, Centerville, TX 75833
- Phone903-536-2749
- Fax903-536-4357
- NoteSheriff page links only VINELink; no jail, inmate or commissary content
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Leon County, Texas — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
The county's Justice of the Peace page lists Precincts I, II and IV only; no Precinct III justice is published there.
County Judge
- Byron Ryder
District Court (87th Judicial District)
- Amy Thomas Ward
District Court (278th Judicial District)
- Tracy Sorensen
District Court (369th Judicial District)
- Jonathan Richey
Justices of the Peace
- Jeff Carr (Precinct I)
- Randee Doak (Precinct II)
- Lee Weiler (Precinct IV)
- 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 runs a Bail Bond Board page with local rules and licensing applications, but it gives no guidance to the public on how to post a bond, so bond_info is marked no.
- Adopted budgets are published FY 2010 through FY 2026; the county also posts check registers and audited financial reports.
- Minutes posted online are labelled UNOFFICIAL COPIES; official minutes cost $1 per page through the County Clerk.
- 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 I Joey Sullivan, Precinct II Newman Paul Bing, Precinct III Kyle Workman, Precinct IV Thomas J. Foley.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
1 people have died in the Leon County jail since 2020.
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 Leon 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