The Detention Center
The county publishes no formal name for this facility.
- Operated byNacogdoches County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameNo - the county site publishes no facility name. The FY2026 budget refers to the "Law Enforcement Center" and to a "New Jail" capital project, not to a named jail.
- What the county does publishDaily Booking Summary Reports, Daily Activity Logs, and dated Inmate Roster / Inmate List PDFs at https://www.nacogdochesco.gov/165/Sheriffs-Daily-Reports
- Population in the posted list"Inmate List - Total: 393" (Inmate Roster dated 2026-07-13)
- New jail projectFY2026 budget: Jail: Purchase Land, Jail: Construction ($700,000), Jail: Generator; plus "New Jail" current-property-tax ARB and mineral allowances totalling $1,168,046
- Website in transitionwww.co.nacogdoches.tx.us redirects to www.nacogdochesco.gov, a CivicPlus site still carrying sample pages and a banner reading "Don't mind our dust - we're moving to a new website."
- What was triedhttps://www.nacogdochesco.gov/ ; https://www.nacogdochesco.gov/165/Sheriffs-Daily-Reports ; https://www.nacogdochesco.gov/167/Public-Notices ; https://www.nacogdochesco.gov/AgendaCenter ; https://www.nacogdochesco.gov/Directory.aspx ; https://www.nacogdochesco.gov/27/Government ; https://www.nac-sheriff.com/
- Beds and population, 2026-08315 people held in 324 rated beds
Source: Nacogdoches County - Sheriffs Daily Reports · checked 2026-08-22
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✗The jail is named — not published
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗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 published by the county. TCJS rates the Nacogdoches County jail at 324 beds (Aug 1, 2026 population report).
Since then
- A new county jail is in progress: the FY2026 adopted budget budgets $700,000 for "Jail: Construction", plus land purchase and generator lines, and sets aside "New Jail" property-tax allowances of $707,000 (ARB) and $461,046 (mineral).
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jason Bridges
- Published as"Jason Bridges" in the county's own adopted FY2026 budget, under County and District Officials
- Address2306 Douglass Hwy, Nacogdoches, TX 75964 (Sheriffs' Association of Texas directory)
- Phone(936) 560-7794 (Sheriffs' Association of Texas directory)
- No sheriff pageThe county's live website has no Sheriff department page - only a "Sheriffs Daily Reports" document list
- Former sheriff sitenac-sheriff.com now redirects to the county site www.nacogdochesco.gov
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Nacogdoches County - Adopted Budget FY 2026 (PDF), County and District Officials · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
The live county website carries no court or judge pages at all. Every name here comes from the county's own adopted FY2026 budget, section "Nacogdoches County - County and District Officials", which is published on the county site.
County Judge
- Greg Sowell
County Court at Law
- John A. Sinz
District Courts
- Jefferson B. Davis (145th Judicial District)
- John M. Bales (420th Judicial District)
Justices of the Peace
- Kerry Williamson (Pct. 1)
- Karen Ballard (Pct. 2)
- LeAnn Goerner (Pct. 3)
- Brian Moreau (Pct. 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 →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Roster is marked "yes" but it is not live: the newest posted list is the Inmate List dated 2026-07-15, published as a PDF, not a searchable current roster.
- Population is published inside the roster PDF (393) but bed capacity is not, so the capacity check fails.
- The county's AgendaCenter is empty; the only Commissioners Court agenda found is a single scanned PDF (8.25.26 Agenda) under Public Notices.
- Budgets published under Public Notices: BUDGET FY 2025, BUDGET FY 2026, Proposed Budget FY2027, and the FY2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.
- The county has posted a "NOTICE OF CYBERSECURITY INCIDENT Update" dated 2026-08-03.
- TCJS Aug 1, 2026 population report: 315 held against 324 rated beds (97% of capacity), with a further 77 Nacogdoches County prisoners housed elsewhere.
- Nacogdoches County is not on the TCJS non-compliant list as of Aug 2026.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Pct. 1 Ronald Finchum (the budget transmittal page prints him as "Keith Finchum"), Pct. 2 Sandy McCorvey, Pct. 3 Robin Dawley, Pct. 4 Mark Harkness; County Judge Greg Sowell. Court Administrator Kristen L. Hightower.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
4 people have died in the Nacogdoches County jail since 2017.
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 Nacogdoches 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