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, bond and commissary do not appear on the Sheriff page
- Jail addressNot found
- Jail phoneNot found
- Rated capacity13 beds (TCJS inmate population report, 1 Aug 2026) — the smallest jail in this group
- Population on 1 Aug 20262 (15.4% of capacity), per TCJS
- What was triedhttps://www.co.lipscomb.tx.us/ ; https://www.co.lipscomb.tx.us/page/lipscomb.Sheriff (full 33-link list reviewed — no jail page exists)
- Beds and population, 2026-082 people held in 13 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
- Beds13 (TCJS rated capacity, 1 Aug 2026)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Ben Eggleston
- Courthouse address105 Oak Street, Lipscomb, TX 79056
- Phone806-862-2611
- Fax806-862-2214
- NoteSheriff page links only VINELink and MissingKids; no jail content
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Lipscomb County, Texas — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
The county publishes a single Justice of the Peace and does not state a precinct number for the office.
County Judge
- Dori Roots
District Court (31st Judicial District)
- Steven Emmert
Justice of the Peace
- Nancy Shepherd
- 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
- Proposed and official budgets are published for FY 2018 through FY 2026-27, together with taxpayer impact statements.
- Commissioners court agendas and minutes are posted; minutes cover September 2023 through May 2026.
- 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 Juan Cantu, Precinct 2 Brandon Meier, Precinct 3 Scotty Schilling, Precinct 4 Dan Cockrell.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
No death in the Lipscomb 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 Lipscomb 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