The Detention Center
Nueces County Jail
- Operated byNueces County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameYes - "Nueces County Jail" is used on the Jail Operations page and on the visitation schedule.
- Address901 Leopard St., Corpus Christi, TX 78401
- Alternative Incarcerations ProgramCreated in the mid-1980s "to help relieve severe jail overcrowding"; inmate labour serves about 168 local nonprofits
- VisitationSaturdays and Sundays, slots assigned by prisoner name range and housing unit; schedule effective June 21, 2025
- Inmate mailScanned and delivered digitally through JailATM.com; no physical mail to the housing units
- Money deposit feesKiosk cash $4.00 flat; kiosk/online card $2.95-$9.95; phone $3.95-$10.95 - deposit fees only, not commissary, phone or video rates
- What was triedhttps://www.nuecesco.com/law-enforcement/sheriff ; https://www.nuecesco.com/law-enforcement/sheriff/jail-operations ; https://www.nuecesco.com/law-enforcement/sheriff/jail-commissary ; https://www.nuecesco.com/law-enforcement/sheriff/coronavirus-jail-visitors ; https://www.nuecesco.com/law-enforcement/sheriff/directory ; https://www.nuecesco.com/law-enforcement/sheriff/annual-reports ; https://www.nuecesco.com/county-services/county-clerk/treasury/bail-bond-information
- Beds and population, 2026-08999 people held in 1,164 rated beds
Source: Nueces County - Jail Operations · checked 2026-08-22
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗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 published by the county. TCJS rates the Nueces County jail at 1,164 beds (Aug 1, 2026 population report).
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff J. C. Hooper
- Published as"J. C. Hooper"; the county page says he was elected November 3, 2020
- Address901 Leopard St., Corpus Christi, TX 78401
- Office phone(361) 887-2222
- Jail Information(361) 887-2300
- Jail Administration(361) 887-2301
- Jail Medical(361) 887-2333
- Commissary office(361) 887-2320
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Nueces County - Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
Nine JP benches across five precincts, several precincts split into two places. The county also lists a Magistrate Court on the District Courts page without naming its judge.
County Judge
- Connie Scott
County Courts at Law
- Todd Robinson (No. 1)
- Lisa Gonzales (No. 2)
- Deeanne Galvan (No. 3)
- Mark H. Woerner (No. 4)
- Timothy J. McCoy (No. 5)
District Courts
- Michael McCauley (28th)
- Bobby Galvan (94th)
- Jack W. Pulcher (105th)
- Susan Barclay (117th)
- David Klein (148th)
- Inna Klein (214th)
- David Stith (319th)
- Missy Medary (347th)
- Harold Christopher Waller (IV-D Court)
Justices of the Peace
- Joe Benavides (Pct. 1-1)
- Henry A. Santana (Pct. 1-2)
- Lucy Rubio (Pct. 1-3)
- Jo Woolsey (Pct. 2-1)
- Thelma L. Rodriguez (Pct. 2-2)
- Larry L. Lawrence (Pct. 3)
- Duncan Neblett Jr. (Pct. 4)
- Robert Gonzalez (Pct. 5-1)
- Hermilo "Milo" Pena, Jr. (Pct. 5-2)
- 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 county publishes no in-custody roster - the Sheriff's pages carry visitation and commissary logistics only.
- Bond: the only bond page found is County Clerk Treasury "Bail Bond Information", which holds licence applications for corporate and individual sureties, not guidance for someone trying to post bond. Marked "no".
- Fees marked "no": the commissary page publishes money-deposit transaction fees but no commissary item prices, phone rates or video-visit rates.
- Sheriff's Office Annual Reports for 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2024-25 are published, but the pages do not state whether they contain population, capacity or death data.
- The Commissioners Court agendas, minutes and video are published through an external destinyhosted.com system.
- TCJS Aug 1, 2026 population report: 999 held against 1,164 rated beds (86% of capacity) - the largest jail in this group by an order of magnitude.
- Nueces County is not on the TCJS non-compliant list as of Aug 2026.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. The county's own pages print surnames only: Pct. 1 Commissioner Pusley, Pct. 2 Commissioner Gonzalez, Pct. 3 Commissioner Marez, Pct. 4 Commissioner Chesney; County Judge Connie Scott.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
28 people have died in the Nueces County jail 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 Nueces 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