Red River County, Texas — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Red River County Jail

Operated byRed River County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameYes — the Sheriff page invites the public to "view the current inmates in Red River County Jail"
Jail address500 N Cedar St., Clarksville, TX 75426
Roster"County Jail Inmate Listing" opens a vendor roster at netweb.netdatacorp.net/REDR/bok/cgibok108todate.html
What was triedhttps://www.co.red-river.tx.us/ ; https://www.co.red-river.tx.us/page/redriver.Sheriff ; https://www.co.red-river.tx.us/page/redriver.Commissioners.Court ; https://www.co.red-river.tx.us/page/redriver.Justice ; https://www.co.red-river.tx.us/page/redriver.District.Court ; https://www.co.red-river.tx.us/page/redriver.Budgets
Beds and population, 2026-0843 people held in 95 rated beds

Source: Red River County, Texas — Sheriff Jimmy Caldwell · 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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Red River 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
Beds95 rated capacity (Texas Commission on Jail Standards Inmate Population Report, 1 August 2026); the county publishes no bed count

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Jimmy Caldwell

Published as"Sheriff Jimmy Caldwell"
Address500 N Cedar St., Clarksville, TX 75426
Phone903-427-3838
Fax903-427-0830
Emailjimmy.caldwell@redrivercountytx.gov

Still needed

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

Source: Red River County, Texas — Sheriff Jimmy Caldwell · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

Red River County publishes one Justice of the Peace and prints no precinct number. The 6th District Court sits at 119 North Main, Paris, Texas, and is shared with Lamar County. There is no County Court at Law.

County Judge

Robert Bridges

6th District Court

R. Wesley Tidwell

Justice of the Peace

Shelley Benton

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 →

Notes on the record

Red River County is the only county in this group currently carried on the Texas Commission on Jail Standards non-compliant list. A special inspection on 19 March 2026 found the Red River County Jail out of compliance with Standard 285.1 (recreation): October 2025 recreation logs showed inmates were not getting the required one hour of supervised exercise at least three days a week.
The county publishes budgets (proposed and approved, FY2016 through FY2027) and audited financial reports back to 2007, but nothing about the jail's own inspection status — the non-compliance notice appears only on the state site, not the county's.
The county publishes no Commissioners Court agenda or minutes archive.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Members: Robert Bridges (County Judge), Donnie Gentry (Pct. 1), David Hutson (Pct. 2), Jeff Moore (Pct. 3), Bruce Emery (Pct. 4).
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

1 people have died in the Red River County jail since 2019.

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

Most recent death on the state's record2019-05-05

People held, 2026-0843 in 95 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them72.1%

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 Red River 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