Runnels County, Texas — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

The county publishes no formal name for this facility.

Operated byRunnels County Sheriff's Office
County publishes a jail nameNo — the Sheriff page offers a "Jail Roster" link but never names the facility; there is no jail page in the county navigation
Sheriff's Office address612 Strong Avenue, Ballinger, TX 76821
Roster"Click here for the Jail Roster" opens a vendor roster at jailroster.kologik.com/?_TX2000000
Inmate communicationcustomer.cidnet.net/login — account creation only, no rates
What was triedhttps://www.runnelscounty.org/ ; https://www.runnelscounty.org/page/runnels.Sheriff ; https://www.runnelscounty.org/page/runnels.County.Judge ; https://www.runnelscounty.org/page/runnels.Justice ; https://www.runnelscounty.org/page/runnels.District.Court ; https://www.runnelscounty.org/page/runnels.Commissioners.Court ; https://www.runnelscounty.org/page/runnels.Budgets
Beds and population, 2026-0822 people held in 87 rated beds

Source: Runnels County — County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22

Transparency rating

2/10Closed

✗The jail is named — not published
✓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 Runnels 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
Beds87 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 Carl L. Squyres

Published as"Sheriff Carl L. Squyres"
Address612 Strong Avenue, Ballinger, TX 76821
Phone325-365-2121
Fax325-365-5807
Courthouse613 Hutchins Ave, Ballinger, TX 76821, (325) 365-2633

Still needed

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

Source: Runnels County — County Sheriff · checked 2026-08-22

The Judges

Runnels County publishes two Justice of the Peace precincts — Pct. 1 at the courthouse in Ballinger, Pct. 2 in Winters. The 119th Judicial District sits in San Angelo and is shared with Tom Green and Concho Counties. There is no County Court at Law.

County Judge

Julia Miller

119th District Court

Gonzalo Rios

Justices of the Peace

James P. Cummings, Jr. (Pct. 1)
David Sellers (Pct. 2)

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 →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

The county links a live jail roster but never names the jail on its own site — named is no while roster is yes.
Approved budgets are published for FY2017-18 through FY2025-26; agendas and minutes are hosted off-site on TownCloud, linked from the county navigation.
No bond guidance, no fee schedule, no capacity figure, no PREA material, no inspection results and no contract information appear anywhere on runnelscounty.org.
Four commissioners plus the County Judge, who presides. Members: Julia Miller (County Judge), Carl King (Pct. 1, Ballinger), Chris Ocker (Pct. 2, Winters), Brandon Poehls (Pct. 3, Wingate), Juan Ornelas (Pct. 4, Miles).
County seat: Texas State Library and Archives Commission — Counties and County Seats

The record

1 people have died in the Runnels County jail since 2016.

0 by suicide

1 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 record2016-10-10

People held, 2026-0822 in 87 beds

Share not convicted of the charge holding them77.3%

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 Runnels 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