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 capacity96 beds (TCJS inmate population report, 1 Aug 2026)
- Population on 1 Aug 202650 (52.1% of capacity), per TCJS
- What was triedhttps://www.co.live-oak.tx.us/ ; https://www.co.live-oak.tx.us/page/liveoak.Sheriff (full link list reviewed) ; https://www.co.live-oak.tx.us/page/liveoak.Public.Notices
- Beds and population, 2026-0850 people held in 96 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
- Beds96 (TCJS rated capacity, 1 Aug 2026)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Larry Busby
- Office address200 Larry R. Busby Drive, George West, Texas 78022
- Phone361-449-2271
- Fax361-449-3035 / 361-449-2014
- 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: Live Oak County, Texas — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
Three district courts sit in Live Oak County and the county court at law is a shared multicounty court.
County Judge
- James Liska
County Court at Law (2nd Multicounty Court at Law)
- Harvey Hardwick
District Court (36th Judicial District)
- Starr Bauer
District Court (156th Judicial District)
- Boyd Bauer
District Court (343rd Judicial District)
- Janna K. Whatley
Justices of the Peace
- Elizabeth Ellis (Precinct 1)
- Geneva Garcia (Precinct 2)
- Donnie Watkins (Precinct 3)
- Robert Baker (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 →
Notes on the record
- No commissioners court agendas or minutes were found on the county site — the Commissioners Court page posts only a printable calendar of court dates, and the Public Notices page carried no agenda or minutes links when checked.
- Adopted budgets are published for FY 2013 through FY 2026, alongside audit reports and tax rate worksheets.
- 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 Richard Lee, Precinct 2 Randy Kopplin, Precinct 3 Mitchell Williams, Precinct 4 Lucio Morin. Meetings twice monthly at 9:00 a.m.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
1 people have died in the Live Oak County jail since 2021.
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 Live Oak 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