The Detention Center
Palo Pinto County Law Enforcement Center
- Operated byPalo Pinto County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameYes — the Inmate Commissary page names the "Palo Pinto County Law Enforcement Center" and "the Palo Pinto County Jail"
- Jail address420 Cedar St., Palo Pinto, TX 76484 (mail: P.O. Box 506)
- Inmate rosterhttps://www.interopweb.com/palopintosotx/ , linked from the Sheriff's Office page as "Jail Inmate Listing"
- VisitationIn-person visits must be scheduled at icsolutions.com at least 24 hours and up to two weeks in advance (effective 1 November 2022)
- What was triedhttps://www.co.palo-pinto.tx.us/page/Sheriff.Home ; /page/Sheriff.Jail.Commissary ; /page/Sheriff.Jail.Correspondence ; /page/Sheriff.Jail.Visitation ; /page/Sheriff.SuretyForms ; /page/Budgets ; /page/FinancialReports ; /page/Commissioners.Court.Meetings ; http://www.palopintocountysheriff.com/ ("Coming Soon")
- Beds and population, 2026-0867 people held in 142 rated beds
Source: Palo Pinto County Sheriff — Inmate Commissary · checked 2026-08-22
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✓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
- Beds142 rated capacity (Texas Commission on Jail Standards Inmate Population Report, 1 August 2026); the county's own site publishes no bed count
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff J.R. Patterson
- Published as"J.R. Patterson" in the county's List of Elected Officials (County Sheriff, term ends 2028); "Sheriff J.R. Patterson" in the Sheriff's Office site banner
- Law Enforcement Center address420 Cedar St., Palo Pinto, TX 76484
- Mailing addressP.O. Box 506, Palo Pinto, TX 76484
- Sheriff fee schedulehttps://www.co.palo-pinto.tx.us/upload/template/0026/docs/SHERIFFS FEES 2026.pdf
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Palo Pinto County — Elected Officials and Terms · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
Palo Pinto County publishes no County Court at Law; its List of Elected Officials shows a County Judge, one District Judge and five Justices of the Peace. The district court is identified as the 29th Judicial District on the county's District Court page.
County Judge
- Shane Long
29th District Court
- Mike Moore
Justices of the Peace
- Todd Baker (Pct. 1)
- Jason Sheehy (Pct. 2)
- Shawn Humphries (Pct. 3)
- Coppy Hodgkins (Pct. 4)
- Tisha Lemley Bien (Pct. 5)
- 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 Sheriff's Office menu lists "Jail", "Jail Administration", "Jail FAQ" and "Sex Offender" as headings, but the page HTML carries links only for Sheriff.Jail.Commissary, Sheriff.Jail.Correspondence and Sheriff.Jail.Visitation; the other headings resolve to nothing. The Visitation page itself was empty when read.
- bond_info is marked no. The only bond material on the county site is https://www.co.palo-pinto.tx.us/page/Sheriff.SuretyForms, which is headed "Forms below are for Surety/Agent use only. These forms are not to be used by the public".
- The roster is hosted by a vendor (interopweb.com) and is linked from the county's Sheriff's Office page as "Jail Inmate Listing"; the Commissary page links a second inmate search at netweb.netdatacorp.net.
- fees is marked no — the Commissary page gives deposit methods (money order, cashier's check, jailatm.com) but no commissary, phone or video-visit prices.
- The county's separate sheriff domain, http://www.palopintocountysheriff.com/, is a "Coming Soon" placeholder.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Members: Shane Long (County Judge), Richard Ralls (Pct. 1), Mike Reed (Pct. 2), Jim Pollock (Pct. 3), Jeff Fryer (Pct. 4). Courthouse at 520 Oak Street, Palo Pinto.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
3 people have died in the Palo Pinto County jail since 2018.
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 Palo Pinto 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