Moore County, Texas — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

The county publishes no formal name for this facility.

Operated byMoore County Sheriff's Office (the adopted budget carries Jail as its own general-fund department; no private contractor found)
County publishes a jail nameNo - the Sheriff page never uses a facility name. It offers only VINELink.com for custody status.
Jail budget department"JAIL" is a named department in the adopted county budget (FY2025 adopted total $2,708,875)
Prisoners held out of countyBudget line "Prisoners' Out of County Holding" $170,000 (FY2025 adopted)
Prisoner medicalBudget line "Prisoners' Medical & Board (net)" $105,000 (FY2025 adopted)
What was triedhttps://www.co.moore.tx.us/page/moore.sheriff ; https://www.co.moore.tx.us/page/moore.County.Judge ; https://www.co.moore.tx.us/page/moore.Commissioners.Court ; https://www.co.moore.tx.us/page/moore.Budgets ; https://www.co.moore.tx.us/upload/page/4491/fy_20242025_budget.pdf
Beds and population, 2026-0837 people held in 62 rated beds

Source: Moore County - Budget FY 2024-2025 (PDF) · 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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Moore County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-22. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

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 published by the county. TCJS rates the Moore County jail at 62 beds (Aug 1, 2026 population report).

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Morgan W. Hightower

Published as"Sheriff Morgan W. Hightower" on the county Sheriff page; listed as "Morgan Hightower" in the Sheriffs' Association of Texas directory
Office address700 S. Bliss Ave., Dumas, TX 79029
Office phone806-935-4145
Dispatch806-935-2151

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Moore County - Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

Two JP precincts, each on its own page: moore.jp1 (Dumas) and moore.jp2 (Sunray). JPs are the magistrates who set bond at first appearance in Texas.

County Judge

Rowdy Rhoades

County Court at Law

Jerod Pingelton

District Court

Kimberly L. (Kim) Allen (69th Judicial District)

Justices of the Peace

Barbara Mulanax (Pct. 1, Dumas)
Britt Marquez (Pct. 2, Sunray)

Still needed

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

Agendas and minutes are published by year, 2018-2026, at https://www.co.moore.tx.us/page/moore.Agenda.Minutes
Adopted budgets FY2007-08 through FY2024-25 are published at https://www.co.moore.tx.us/page/moore.Budgets
TCJS Aug 1, 2026 population report: 37 held against 62 rated beds (60% of capacity).
Moore County is not on the TCJS non-compliant list as of Aug 2026.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Pct. 1 Daniel Garcia, Pct. 2 Miles Mixon, Pct. 3 Dee Vaughan, Pct. 4 Colt Farni; Judge Rowdy Rhoades presides.
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

1 people have died in the Moore County jail since 2021.

1 by suicide

0 illness or medical

1 deaths in all, 2016 onward

Deaths where the person had not been convicted of the charge holding them1 of 1

Deaths within the first week of arriving1

Most recent death on the state's record2021-07-26

People held, 2026-0837 in 62 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them75.7%

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 Moore 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