The Detention Center
Panola County Detention Center
- Operated byPanola County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameYes — the Sheriff's Office page links a "Detention Center Organization Chart" and a "Panola County Detention Center - Church Application"
- Detention Center address319 W. Wellington, Carthage, TX 75633
- Detention Center phone903-693-0359
- Inmate searchhttps://correctionsrecordssearch.com/panolacountytx , published as "Detention Center Inmate Serach"
- Jail recordshttps://portal-txpanola.tylertech.cloud/PublicAccess/default.aspx
- What was triedhttps://www.co.panola.tx.us/sitemap.xml (53 URLs) ; /1204/Sheriffs-Office ; /1221/Financial-Transparency ; /AgendaCenter ; /DocumentCenter
- Beds and population, 2026-0883 people held in 160 rated beds
Source: Panola County, TX — Sheriff's Office · 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
- Beds160 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 Cutter Clinton
- Published as"Cutter Clinton — Sheriff" in the Contact Us block of the county's Sheriff's Office page
- Sheriff's Office address314 W. Wellington, Carthage, TX 75633
- Sheriff's Office phone903-693-0333
- ChiefDavid Gray
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Panola County, TX — Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
Panola County runs two justice courts covering four precincts: Precincts 1 & 4 (Judge Denise Gray) and Precincts 2 & 3 (Judge Maria Hernandez).
County Judge
- Rodger McLane
County Court at Law
- Rick McPherson
123rd District Court
- LeAnn Rafferty
Justices of the Peace
- Denise Gray (Pcts. 1 & 4)
- Maria Hernandez (Pcts. 2 & 3)
- 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 page is the county's only jail page. There is no visitation, commissary, phone or bond page anywhere in the county sitemap, so bond_info and fees are no.
- The Financial Transparency page carries a Budgets archive (/Archive.aspx?AMID=37) plus CAFRs, investment, treasurer, utility and accounts-payable reports.
- Commissioners Court agendas and minutes are published through the county AgendaCenter, which also carries Budget Workshop, Elections Commission, Juvenile Board and Child Welfare Board records.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Members: Rodger McLane (County Judge), Billy Alexander (Pct. 1), David A. Cole (Pct. 2), Craig M. Lawless (Pct. 3), Dale LaGrone (Pct. 4). Courthouse at 110 Sycamore St, Carthage.
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
No death in the Panola County jail appears on the state's record 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 Panola 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