The Detention Center
Refugio County Jail
- Operated byRefugio County Sheriff's Office
- County publishes a jail nameYes — "Refugio County Jail" has its own page on the county site
- Jail address405 Mesquite St., Refugio, TX 78377 (mail: P.O. Box 1025)
- Jail phone361-526-1698 x1 for booking information
- Jail AdministratorCapt. Jason Andrade; Lt. Megan Grasham, Assistant Jail Administrator
- What was triedhttps://www.co.refugio.tx.us/ ; https://www.co.refugio.tx.us/page/refugio.sheriff ; https://www.co.refugio.tx.us/page/refugio.CountyJail ; https://www.co.refugio.tx.us/page/refugio.Budgets ; https://www.co.refugio.tx.us/page/refugio.Commissioners.Court ; https://www.co.refugio.tx.us/page/Commissioners%20Court%20Agendas
- Beds and population, 2026-0840 people held in 60 rated beds
Source: Refugio County Texas — County Jail · 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
- Beds60 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 Matthew Tuttle
- Published asSheriff Matthew Tuttle
- AddressP.O. Box 1022, Refugio, TX 78377
- Phone361-526-2352
- Fax361-526-1668
- Dispatch361-526-2351
- Jail phone361-526-1698
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Refugio County Texas — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22
The Judges
Refugio County publishes two Justice of the Peace precincts, both at the courthouse at 808 Commerce Street. Three district courts — the 24th, 135th and 267th — each maintain a page on the county site; all are multi-county districts. There is no County Court at Law; the County Judge sits as the county court and publishes county court dockets.
County Judge
- Jhiela "Gigi" Poynter
24th District Court
- Lisa Harvey-Moore
135th District Court
- Kemper Stephen Williams
267th District Court
- Julie C. Bauknight
Justices of the Peace
- Roberta Shipp Fagan (Pct. 1)
- Emi Riemenschneider (Pct. 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 Jail page carries a QR code labelled for cash bonds but no written instructions on how to post bond, no bond schedule and no fee amounts, so bond_info is marked no.
- The county publishes approved and proposed budgets from 2011 through 2027 on refugio.Budgets.
- Commissioners Court agendas are published (2026 regular and special meetings) but no approved minutes archive was found.
- Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Members: Jhiela "Gigi" Poynter (County Judge), Roy Payne (Pct. 1), Stanley Tuttle (Pct. 2), Gary Lee Wright (Pct. 3), Blaine Wolfshohl (Pct. 4).
- County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats
The record
No death in the Refugio 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 Refugio 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