The Detention Center
The county publishes no formal name for this facility.
- Operated byNone — Loving County operates no jail. The Sheriff's Office directs all jail questions to the Winkler County Sheriff's Office, Kermit.
- County publishes a jail nameNo — there is no Loving County jail to name
- Where prisoners goSheriff's Office Jail Information page: "Contact the Winkler County Sheriff's Office for jail information: Winkler County Sheriff's Office, 1300 Bellaire St, Kermit, TX 79745, Phone: 432.586.3461"
- CorroborationLoving County does not appear in the TCJS Inmate Population Report, which lists every operating county jail
- What was triedhttps://www.co.loving.tx.us/page/loving.Sheriff ; http://www.lovingcountytxsheriff.org/ ; http://www.lovingcountytxsheriff.org/jail-information ; https://www.co.loving.tx.us/page/loving.Home
Source: Loving County Sheriff's Office — Jail Information · 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
- BedsNot found — no jail; county absent from the TCJS Inmate Population Report
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff David Landersman
- Published as"Sheriff David Landersman" on the county Sheriff page; "David Landersman" on the Sheriff's Office site
- In office since2025 (as stated on the county Sheriff page)
- OfficeP.O. Box 104 / 114 West Collins St., Mentone, TX 79754
- Phone(432) 377-2411; fax (432) 377-2025
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Loving County — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
Loving County has no County Court at Law. One Justice of the Peace covers all four precincts; the JP office has moved to the Loving County Community Center, 104 West Barstow Ave. JPs are the magistrates who set bond at first appearance in Texas.
County Judge
- Skeet Lee Jones
District Court (143rd Judicial District)
- Michael Swanson (listed as "Acting District Judge")
Justice of the Peace
- Angela Medlin (Precincts 1, 2, 3 & 4, Place 1)
- 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 clearest finding in this county: Loving County runs no jail. Its Sheriff's Office Jail Information page consists solely of a referral to the Winkler County Sheriff's Office in Kermit.
- The adopted budget is machine-readable and carries "Department: 0400 - COUNTY SHERIFF" (FY2026 total $1,996,389.95 column) but no jail or detention department, consistent with the county holding no prisoners of its own.
- The county publishes no roster, no bond guidance, no phone/commissary rates, no death-in-custody notice and no PREA or inspection material.
- TCJS does not publish a per-county inspection page or routine inspection report online; the only county-level TCJS documents found are the statewide Inmate Population Report (https://www.tcjs.state.tx.us/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/PopReportCurrent.xlsx) and the Non-Compliant Jails list (https://www.tcjs.state.tx.us/non-compliant-jails/), which did not list this county as of 22 Aug 2026.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Precinct 1 Harlan Hopper, Precinct 2 Ysidro "Joe" Renteria, Precinct 3 Raymond M. King, Precinct 4 Brad Cook; County Judge Skeet Lee Jones.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Loving 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